Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez's THE AMERICAN SECTOR (2020)

7th House, T.A.P.E., and Los Angeles Filmforum proudly co-present THE AMERICAN SECTOR (2020), Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez’s fascinating cross-country search for the scattered remains of one of the twentieth century’s most potent symbols. Decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, fragments of the once-formidable barrier have found improbable homes across the United States—installed in museums, office parks, universities, casinos, and military bases, where they linger as curious relics of a vanished geopolitical divide. Stephens (Invention, John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office) and Velez (Manakamana, The Reagan Show) chart the various ways these fragments have become sources of nationalistic pride, personal curiosity, historical record, and, for some, signifiers of political liberation. Through interviews with the unusual characters who own, maintain, and interact with pieces of the wall, the filmmakers offer a window into American culture and the construction of cultural identity.

Through the film, these Cold War relics become a catalyst for exploring how the stories people tell about the imported monoliths become history, at times bonding the past and the present, and other times, for institutions, writing new histories. Just outside of Universal Studios Resort theme park, a young couple is both bemused and excited about the fragment lodged just in front of a Hard Rock Cafe. Elsewhere, at Microsoft Headquarters, a fragment is a reminder of the “free” market’s ability to overcome borders. The documentary complicates the notion that history resides in records, artifacts, and objects, suggesting instead that institutional power often dictates the logic by which fact, fantasy, and history are determined. The fragments signal not only how institutions mythologize American cultural history in order to set nationalism in stone, but also how they become canvases on which viewers project aspirations, curiosities, or dreams.

Intercut between interviews and footage of the pieces of the wall, the American countryside is captured from the passenger seat of a car traveling its highways, all cast in the warm saturation of 16mm celluloid. The wide-open landscape reveals, if anything, the arbitrary logic that constructs and imposes borders of any kind. The fragments of the wall are links to a political history that inspires a more measured consideration of how borders are imposed on the land and its peoples. The film's contemporary resonances encourage audiences to consider how the Berlin Wall has been transformed and the ways in which recent history is inscribed in the national imagination.

Director Courtney Stephens will join us in person for a Q&A after the film, moderated by Kellen Lowe of T.A.P.E. and Alex McDonald of 7th House.

Dirs. Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez, 2020, 69 mins, United States, English, Unrated, Digital.

Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.

Courtney Stephens is a writer/director. Her non-fiction feature, Terra Femme, composed of amateur travel footage shot by women in the early 20th century, was a New York Times critic’s pick and has toured widely as a live performance. The American Sector (co-directed with Pacho Velez) explores the legacy of the Cold War on American self-understanding, following dozens of fragments of the Berlin Wall installed around the US. Invention, a hybrid fiction feature, premiered at Locarno in 2024, where it received a Pardo for Best Performance. Her films have been exhibited at MoMA, The National Gallery of Art, The Barbican, Istanbul Modern, Walker Art Center, Thailand Biennale, and film festivals including the Berlinale, Viennale, Thessaloniki, IDFA, SXSW, Hong Kong, and NYFF. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and grants from California Humanities, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Art.

In addition to co-curating the miniature cinema Veggie Cloud since 2014, she has organized film screenings for The Getty, Flaherty NYC, Human Resources, and Museum of the Moving Image. Her writing has appeared in BOMB, Film Comment, Cabinet, Filmmaker, and The New Inquiry.

Kellen Lowe is a film programmer with T.A.P.E. and an audio-visual archivist working with UCLA’s Film and Television Archive and American Cinematheque. As a historiographic researcher he focuses on film archives, documentaries, and home movies.

T.A.P.E. is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to facilitating support for analog media through free digitizing, education, hands-on-training, equipment rentals & volunteer opportunities.

Los Angeles Filmforum is the city’s longest-running organization dedicated to weekly screenings of experimental film, documentaries, video art, and experimental animation. In 2025 they celebrated their 50th year. www.lafilmforum.org

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