The American Sector

Universal Studios in Florida, a Hilton Hotel in Dallas, Museum of World Treasures in Kansas, and private homes in the Hollywood Hills are just some of the places that slabs of the Berlin wall have ended up on display. From the interstates of middle America to museums to public parks, filmmakers Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez document the present remnants of the wall’s architecture while evoking the past with home video footage, creating a disjointed view on history, what we ascribe to it, and how easily it is scattered.

“Public art and political divisions, the sway of history, and the impulse toward freedom are inseparable elements in the doc’s richly nuanced palette … What might seem at first an inquiry into another nation’s story builds into a provocative illumination of all our histories, and of the here and now. Another wall — one that’s still more concept than reality and on many Americans’ minds — is alluded to and left to the viewer’s contemplation.” –Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter