The American Sector (Pacho Velez & Courtney Stephens, 2020) (Patreon)

I seem to be in a distinct minority on this one, since most reviews I've read are fairly glowing. I wasn't all that impressed by The American Sector, since it struck me as an inferior iteration of a kind of film I very much admire. The experimental documentaries of James Benning and Nikolaus Geyrhalter have gotten a reasonable amount of attention, but nothing compared with the critical fascination with Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab. Despite the fact that the SEL's output has been uneven at best, the group has become a brand name that immediately commands notice. 

The American Sector is a combination of the Geyrhalter / Benning style -- a collection of shots of a pertinent object in a series of different landscapes -- with a conceit that you'd probably find in a Life Magazine pictorial, if not an upscale listicle. The film catalogues most of the sections of the Berlin Wall that have made their way to the United States, most of them on display in museums, government buildings, or universities. Occasionally a segment of the Wall has found its way into private hands -- a restaurateur here, a gated community there -- which of course raises certain questions about history, memory, and ownership. 

The most absurd display, actually, is at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, where a length of crumbled wall is being trampled on by four gaudy metal horse sculptures, to signify the bursting through of freedom, or something. And of course, Velez and Stephens are denied access to the segment held at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA. Truthfully, this is a film that, by its very topic, cannot help but be somewhat interesting. But in terms of creative exploration, or even just surprising commentary, The American Sector is sorely lacking.