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SF URBAN FILM FEST

Buchanan Mall

Directed by Sophie Constantinou

SFUFF 2016, Shorts / USA / 2016 / 11 mins / English / Color / Video

Description

Buchanan Mall is five consecutive blocks of underutilized public parkland in the Western Addition neighborhood from Grove to Eddy Street. The 7,000 low-income, predominantly African-American residents who live adjacent to Buchanan Mall, face acute challenges: recent, rapid gentrification, longstanding patterns of discrimination and turf conflict, an exodus of employed adults, and decades-long cycles of displacement, unemployment, and mass incarceration. Buchanan Mall, at the center of this neighborhood, has become a nexus of violence and a place pervaded by fear.

Against this backdrop, a remarkable new story has unfolded over the past two years. This community has come together to re-imagine and reclaim Buchanan Mall as connective tissue, repairing the neighborhood’s fractured social fabric, and rebuilding unity and hope.