2020 Directed by Pacho Velez, Courtney Stephens
A documentary about the concrete sections of the Berlin Wall that have been acquired by institutions or individuals since 1989 and are now scattered across the USA. Cherished or abandoned, they have become silent witnesses to recent history.
A slight documentary that excels when it's a road trip film, covering the areas of America where the Berlin wall is dispersed, mostly for attraction. When the movie loses itself is with the unfocused back and forth between Wikipedia-level information on the wall and with testimonies from regular everyday people on what the wall means to them. But most of those testimonies just show that people will take anything and mold it into their political beliefs, as opposed to a meaningful response to the wall. As shown by one racist chick who blubbers on about countries are fighting the good fight of nationalism against evil and God has a wall too in heaven, so walls aren't bad. Can someone tell…
"As might be surmised from this opening volley and the title, the documentary concerns itself solely with depicting over sixty segments of the Berlin Wall that are currently in the United States, covering the breadth of the contiguous 48 states and capturing nearly every segment, though some were shot and not used. What is used comes from a motley assortment of locations, to say the least: presidential libraries, subway stations, private neighborhoods, museums, and so on. In a manner similar to one of Velez’s previous films, the masterful Manakamana (2013, co-directed with Stephanie Spray), this concept is never explicitly mentioned, aside from a few off-hand comments by Stephens during interviews. The effect, especially over the short 70-minute runtime, is first…
Highly recommend seeking this out. A road trip documentary from Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez, the film takes the viewer through different cities across America that display pieces of the Berlin Wall. The journey is entertaining yes, but at different times brought out different emotions; including sadness, joy, hope, ignorance, elation and pessimism. I can say, for me, it packed a punch that took me off guard and found myself more emotionally involved than expected. Streaming now on MUBI.
From the ridiculous to the sublime, this surprising site study examines where an assortment of segments from the Berlin Wall ended up in the United States. Early on, it seems as if the film will peddle in ironies, showcasing how slabs have been converted into tchotchkes (e.g. there’s one behind the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal Studios, FL). As it proceeds, however, empty cynicism frequently gives way to moments that show that these historical objects still resonate with some Americans (an African immigrant food truck operator’s eloquent explanation of their meaning, for example). The sum of a film that frequently oscillates between these two responses (sometimes within the same scene, such as when a Virginia student explains that she’s “not…
FIRST THOUGHTS:
Such an astonishing work of nonfiction filmmaking, such a patient and well-observed portrait of American society - just using fragments of the Berlin Wall as our window into our country’s soul. The film gives us space to make connections between the divided Germany of the Cold War years and our own deeply divided nation, and it’s hard to not think about our own borders and the ways we so fiercely attempt to keep out our neighbors to the south. Then there are the strange ways we attempt to either present or possess history - all in full display here. Without making any grand statements or giving us a thesis in bulletins, this may end up being one of the most profound cinematic portraits of the American psyche to come out in recent years. It’s absolutely incredible filmmaking.
Loved this. An experiment in communal understanding and remembrance and empathy. Asks what history means to everyone and what it is allowed to mean, as well.
Fascinating, both on a practical level - it was so interesting to see how some sections of the wall are behind glass in museums and others are just there, in the middle of a street or a park - and an emotional one. It really lays bare how the same object can have entirely different meanings to different people. And the directors interview such a thoughtful, curious bunch, it made me feel better about humanity for a little while.
A document of the dismembered phalanges of the Berlin Wall that made their way to America as monuments, paired with anecdotes and stories from the passersby/people in the surrounding area 👍👍👍
I remember first learning about the wall segments scattered throughout the states during my stay at UVA. I had no concrete relationship to the wall before. I mean it's impossible not to be confronted with its history (and its sheer length) while I was living in Berlin but I also made friends who grew up in the GDR and there's simply no comparison. I arrived shortly after the march on Charlottesville and I remember how angry it made me to see it standing there, but honestly everything made me angry back then. I think mostly I just wanted to touch it and found it absurd that it was sealed behind this glass sarcophagus as if to protect its integrity. (One…
Q: How did you select and contact the interviewees for the respective panels, considering they range from children to European immigrants and wealthy Californians?
A: The thoughts people shared with us, some of which made it into the film, would have been extraneous to an official Cold War history, but gave nuance to a story that is ultimately about the complexities and contradictions of American society. The Wall was a catalyst for talking about the concerns of Americans today: the Southern border, monuments, economics.
- Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez interviewed by Lalo Ortega
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