The Reagan Show

Date: Monday, September 11, 2017

Time: 7pm

Location: Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA

Director(s): Sierra Pettengill, Pacho Velez

Film Details: 75 minutes, 2017, USA, color, DCP

Film Website | Trailer | Tickets | Facebook Event

World Premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Official Selection of the 2017 Locarno Film Festival.

Filmmaker Sierra Pettengill will attend in person for discussion.

About the Film:

The Reagan Show is an all-archival documentary about the original performer-president’s role of a lifetime.

Teasing apart the spectacle at the heart of finger-on-the-button global diplomacy, the film follows Ronald Reagan’s rivalry with charismatic Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, tracing how the Communicator-in-Chief uses his public relations chops to overcome Soviet mistrust, the objections of a skeptical press corps and the looming threat of WW III.

Chock full of wit and political irony, and told solely through 1980s network news and videotapes created by the Reagan administration itself, the film explores Reagan’s made-for-TV approach to politics as he faced down the United States’ greatest rival.

“Phenomenal… The most fascinating moments of The Reagan Show are when the line between politics and public relations is shattered.” – Hyperallergic

About the Filmmaker(s):

Sierra Pettengill produced the award-winning, Cutie and the Boxer, and has worked on Jim Jarmusch’s Gimme Danger, Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women, and Matt Wolf’s Teenage, amongst other films.

Pacho Velez’s last film, Manakamana, won a Golden Leopard from the Locarno Film Festival. His earlier work has shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

Screens with: