Canal Zone

Dir. Frederick Wiseman. 1977, 174 mins. 16mm. Canal Zone is about the people, mostly Americans, who live and work in the Panama Canal Zone, showing both the operation of the Canal and the various governmental agencies—business, military, and civilian—related to the its functioning. The film includes sequences of ships in transit, the work of special canal pilots, the work of the military, and the social, religious, and recreational life of the Zonians.

“A despairing critique of lower-middle-class American values and a comic pathetic elegy for American imperialism. Canal Zone connects with [Wiseman’s] earlier works in disturbing ways: of all his films it is the saddest and, when you think about it, the most shocking.” —David Denby, Boston Phoenix 

Tickets: $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for children under 3 and Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online. (Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

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