Fifty years before Colin Kaepernick, in 1968, there was Arthur Ashe, an athlete who parlayed his fame as the first black man to win the US Open tennis championship into a lifetime devoted to fighting injustice.

In Partnership with the International Tennis Hall if Fame, the Ashe '68 VR experience weaves together 360° video re-creations filmed at Forest Hills, the site of the 1968 US Open, archival material from the period, and evocative, never-before-seen 360° and animation to tell the story.

From the internal pressures he felt during the tumultuous cultural shift of '68 to walking down the halls of the all-white West Side Tennis Club, to his historic pre-match press conference and his winning match point, the viewer is right there, immersed in Arthur’s historic, transformative day. You are with Arthur Ashe as he becomes a tennis champion and a champion for social justice on the world stage.

Production Stills

Production Team & Partners

Directors: Brad Lichtenstein, Jeff Fitzsimmons, Rex Miller; Producers: Beth Hubbard, Madeline Power, Brad Lichtenstein, Jeff Fitzsimmons, Rex Miller; Consulting Producers: Renee Frigo, Les Ottolenghi; Sand Animators: Ruah Edelstein, Masha Vasilkovsky, Darius Orlovas; Composer: Vernon Reid; Sound Designer: Josh Evert; Musicians: V Jeffrey Smith, Hieronymus Abayudaya; Sound Consultant: Drew Cady; VR supervisors: Matthew Kemper, Mike Hopkinson; Associate VR Producer: Natalie Tejada; VR Artists: Jeffrey Au, Jake Jones, Quan Jiang; Editor: Aaron Elias; VP Production: Crys Forsyth-Smith; Chief Creative Officer: Richard Baker; Director of Photography: Eve M. Cohen; Camera Operator: Andrew Gish; DIT: Ben Schwartz; Offline Editor: Daniela Cortes; Contributing Director: Janicza Bravo; Archival Producer: Hannah Shepard; Choreographer: Gabri Christa; Unit Production Manager: Madeline Power; Assistant Director: Kesho DeSouza; 2nd Assistant Director: Courtney Battles; Production Assistants: Tessa Barlow-Ochshorn, Emily Kuester, Candece Munroe, Mahyn Qureshi