partners with local institutions to create film and discussion programs for general audiences. The programs address urgent issues related to, and take place in, outdoor space. Rooted in conviviality, the programs are free-of-charge.
Passing Through Projects has been made possible with support from family and friends, including The Ida and Robert Gordon Family Foundation.
Kazembe Balagun presenting at
Parks, Pools and The People, 2019
Photo by Jennifer Blackman
THE PROJECTS
Parks, Pools & The People
New York City, 2019
Food for Thought: Facts & (Science) Fictions
Sacramento, California, 2023
Passing Through Projects is free-of-charge film and discussion programming for general audiences that takes place in outdoor settings across North America.
The projects present films that are accessible, engaging and narrative-based, including Hollywood, foreign, and independently-made feature films.
The projects revitalize a shared cultural commons by engendering convivial atmospheres and plain-spoken critical discussion in publicly-accessible places like city parks.
To that end, the projects are dedicated to debunking still-prevalent myths regarding the
American landscape, or “The Great Outdoors,” and by extension, outdoor space generally — as inherently belonging to any particular group of people. The projects specifically aims at sharpening awareness of how race, class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity are shaped by, and themselves shape, outdoor space.
Passing Through Projects explicates how ideas about ownership in relation to land are often destructive and that, in fact, the very notion of owning land is fundamentally as fictional as the “Westerns” many of us grew up watching.