In the mid-1970s — amidst the disastrous end to the Vietnam War, the political crimes of Watergate, the disillusionment of the idealism of the 1960s, and a disintegrating industrial economy — America confronted the past.
It was well past  time to reckon with imperialism and inequality. But, as historian Rick Perlstein notes, the US “is a nation that has ever so adored its own innocence, and so dearly wishes to see itself as an exception to history.” So rather than face the darkness, the US instead turned towards hysterical spectacle. There were tall ships in NYC, parades, fireworks, television specials, and endless sponcon memorabilia and commercial grift. There were also anti-corporate protests, right-wing evangelical Christian fear mongering, and ultimately, when the dust had settled, a Congressional Investigation into purported attempts to “steal the Bicentennial.”
Told through a dizzying array of archival footage and objects that reflect the shifting POV of the film, from propaganda to resistance, the film is an archival excavation of the dark pageantry of America’s 200th birthday party and a portrait of the libidinal economy of the United States—the desires, drives, and delusions that define a society.

Archives: TThe archival footage will be drawn from a wide range of archives, both public and private, carefully edited to reflect the shifting POV  of the film, from propaganda to resistance. Every state – and most cities – in the United States held Bicentennial celebrations, and the  film will use footage from state and university archives across the country, as well as the National Archives and the Richard Nixon  Library.  One key character is activist Jeremy Rifkin, who, with his People’s Bicentennial Commission, rejected the official festivities as a  corporate spectacle and called for a reckoning with economic inequality and unchecked corporate power. The archives of Rifkin’s  organization are held partially at the University of Michigan Libraries and partially by private individuals. Shell Oil is another  “character,” sponsoring the nightly Bicentennial Minute on CBS, 60-second vignettes that epitomized the era’s contradictions: an oil  corporation using patriotism as marketing while American society was gripped by stagflation and unprecedented gas prices. This  “spon-con” will largely be fair-used due to the new status of CBS News and the limitations placed on access to their archives. The  archives for other threads of the film – Richard Pryor records a blistering comedy album confronting America’s racism juxtaposed to  the celebration’s official platitudes; evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell, facing financial troubles, sells “Bicentennial Bibles” while  railing against secular drift – will be pulled from Richard Pryor Collection at Yale University and the Liberty University archives,  respectively.  The film layers in its own take on Bicentennial Minute—archival snapshots capturing the strange texture and unease of 1976. A New  Jersey man’s voyage across the Atlantic in a hot air balloon called The Spirit of ’76 ends with shark attacks and a Soviet rescue.  Baltimore’s 35-ton birthday cake collapses into farce when a thunderstorm washes it away and rats swarm the ruins. These will be  pulled from the archives of local news networks, including collections held at universities like the Texas Archive of the Moving Image  at UT Austin, and the Wolfson Archives at Miami Dade College.

Sierra Pettengill

Sierra Pettengill is a filmmaker from Brooklyn whose heavily archival-focused work focuses on the warped narratives of American history. Her films have screened at MoMA, Lincoln Center, Sundance and Locarno Film Festivals, on the Criterion Channel, and in festivals and venues around the world. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and a board member of cinema nonprofit Screen Slate. Her most recent film was Riotsville USA, nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. She is in post-production on Argonauts at the End of History.