Crossing the Net tennis documentary

Crossing the Net original documentary now available online
 

Fourteen years after its debut at the Sie Film Center on Colfax, Crossing the Net: Denver City Park & The Black Tennis Experience is now available to stream online. The original documentary short was produced in 2011 as a part of USTA Colorado's Breaking the Barriers exhibit, which featured a historical timeline of African Americans in tennis, dating from the 1800s to Arthur Ashe's historic Wimbledon win in 1975.

Breaking the Barriers: An Exhibition in Courage, was the first of four exhibits from USTA Colorado and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Bear Gutierrez, whose innovate portraits showcased Colorado’s African-American tennis pioneers, including players, coaches and officials.

The exhibit was enhanced through several ancillary programs, including school outreach with guided tours, an oral history lecture series, a portrait series of local tennis pioneers, and the Crossing the Net documentary. It was prominently displayed at the Blair Caldwell African American Research Library, which is located in Denver’s historical Five Points neighborhood. Blair-Caldwell is one of only five such libraries across the country, serving the Denver community as a branch of the Denver Public Library system. Blair-Caldwell is committed to bringing unique and memorable exhibits focusing on the history of African-Americans in Denver and the American West.