The American Sector

THE AMERICAN SECTOR explores the presence of the Berlin Wall in the United States: as an object, artifact, and supposed symbol of national values. For 18 months Pacho Velez and Courtney Stephens traveled the US to document sections of the wall that are on display in over 75 locations, ranging from the serious (Fort Benning) to the bizarre (Main Street Station Casino in Las Vegas) and even the campus of nearby Capital University. Along the way, interviews with unusual characters who own, maintain, and interact with pieces of the wall offer a window into American culture, and through the film these Cold War relics become a catalyst for exploring today’s timely issues.

“Public art and political divisions, the sway of history, and the impulse toward freedom are inseparable elements in the doc’s richly nuanced palette. 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

“Detached and incisive, wry and deceptively whimsical, THE AMERICAN SECTOR is a brisk lesson in how we often fail to learn from history because even the most concrete testimony is open to interpretation.” – The Boston Globe