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The Great Experiment

Play trailer Poster for The Great Experiment In Theaters Oct 16 1h 40m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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The Great Experiment is an epic poem in documentary form -- a mirror held to an American nation at war with its own reflection, asking not who is right, but whether the experiment itself can survive. Filmed in striking black and white across the US from 2017 to 2021, the film engages the recent past with the critical distance of archival footage, considering the results of what George Washington called "our last great experiment" in democracy. Its approach is spatial and observational, less interested in the ideological binary of left and right than in the vast, complicated country that lies between. Much as Robert Frank traveled the U.S. in the mid-1950s, bearing witness to the seen and unseen in his landmark photobook The Americans, the film weaves these lives together not to resolve their contradictions, but to hold them in the same frame long enough for something surprising to come into focus.
Coming Soon In Theaters Oct 16 Buy Tickets

Cast & Crew

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Stephen Maing

Director

Eric Daniel Metzgar

Director

Stephen Maing

Producer

Eric Daniel Metzgar

Producer

Farihah Zaman

Producer

Anne Marie Stein

Executive Producer

Critics Reviews

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Avi Offer NYC Movie Guru 3 hrs ago
A mesmerizing, provocative, fair and balanced documentary. The Great Experiment is like a Frederick Wisemen movie with shades of Godfrey Reggio or Ron Fricke. Go to Full Review Read all reviews
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The Great Experiment

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Movie Info

Synopsis The Great Experiment is an epic poem in documentary form -- a mirror held to an American nation at war with its own reflection, asking not who is right, but whether the experiment itself can survive. Filmed in striking black and white across the US from 2017 to 2021, the film engages the recent past with the critical distance of archival footage, considering the results of what George Washington called "our last great experiment" in democracy. Its approach is spatial and observational, less interested in the ideological binary of left and right than in the vast, complicated country that lies between. Much as Robert Frank traveled the U.S. in the mid-1950s, bearing witness to the seen and unseen in his landmark photobook The Americans, the film weaves these lives together not to resolve their contradictions, but to hold them in the same frame long enough for something surprising to come into focus.
Director
Stephen Maing, Eric Daniel Metzgar
Producer
Stephen Maing, Eric Daniel Metzgar, Farihah Zaman
Distributor
Chorus of the Union Films
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 16, 2026, Limited
Runtime
1h 40m
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