The American Sector

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Sharon Vanorny/courtesy MMoCA

A Rooftop Cinema screening at MMoCA.

A past Rooftop Cinema screening (of "Desolation Center").

Enjoy a quartet of independent documentary films on the MMoCA rooftop on upcoming Thursdays. Rooftop Cinema kicks off Aug. 4 with The American Sector, exploring what artifacts from the Cold War can tell us about politics today. It's followed on Aug. 11 by Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, in which director/screenwriter Celeste Bell (daughter of the X-Ray Spex frontwoman) pieces together her mother's past; on Aug. 25 by The Village Detective: A Song Cycle, which builds a story around reels of film from 1969 found in the ocean by Icelandic fishing nets in 2016; and on Sept. 1 by North By Current, a personal documentary from filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax about truths discovered on returning to his hometown following the death of his niece. Ticket sales begin at 7:30 p.m. in the lobby.

press release: Bring a friend, bring a blanket or camp chairs, and prepare yourself for an evening of independent films and videos under the stars. Rooftop Cinema returns to the Museum’s Rooftop Sculpture Garden each Thursday this August for its seventeenth season. Films begin at sundown, approximately 8 PM.

About The American Sector

Courtney Stephens, Pacho Velez | USA | 2020 | 69 minutes

Acclaimed documentarians Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez (Manakamana, The Reagan Show) explore how the preservation and display of relics from the Cold War era can inform us about current American culture and politics. Stephens and Velez visit sections of the Berlin Wall on display in over 75 locations across the United States, ranging from the serious (Fort Benning, Georgia) to the bizarre (a casino in Las Vegas).

“An exemplary work of cinema as political action. A film that powerfully evokes the active presence of history in daily civic life—and reveals the politics that inhere in its commemoration. Yields extraordinary results through audacious methods.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Learn more about this film on the distributor’s website.

• Rooftop Cinema is $7 per screening, or free for MMoCA members and anyone age 18 and younger.
• Ticket sales begin at 7:30 PM in the Museum Lobby.
• Screenings relocate to the lecture hall if rain is predicted.