A newly restored 1980 documentary about how New Yorkers use their public spaces will return to the big screen on Sept. 26.

William H. Whyte’s cult classic “ The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces ,” long passed around on bootleg copies and shown on classroom projectors, features lovingly edited footage of people doing things city planners often overlooked: sitting, talking, people-watching and shaping their environment in real time.

Filmmaker John Wilson, of HBO’s “How To With John Wilson” docuseries, is among those who helped bring the film back to life after he screened a low-quality transfer at downtown arthouse Anthology Film Archives in 2023. The interest those screenings generated led the team at Anthology to spearhead the film’s restoration, Wilson said.

“People were coming up

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