The American Sector (2020)

In the years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, sections of its 3.5-metre high edifice have been transplanted to the USA and re-purposed as public monuments in sites across the country. Courtney Stephens’ and Pacho Velez’s sharply crafted filmic travel essay catalogues over sixty of these concrete monoliths in their unlikely new locations, documenting each in elegant tableaux. Standing beside the relics, owners, custodians and passers-by are invited to consider what these scattered fragments of history may have come to represent in this strange new context—prompting reflections on ideas of freedom, borders, and the enduring ideological legacy of the Cold War.

Read a commissioned essay on the film by Jesse Cumming here.

After you have watched the film, please tell us about your experience by filling in our Audience Feedback Form.

Please note, this film is only available to view in the UK