Shopping Worlds

August 2 – August 17

To mark the end of summer, we present a series that attends to the social and cultural phenomenon that is the suburban shopping mall. At once a sanctuary and a prison, the mall was a fixture of American life (and cinema) in the 20th century. In recent years, it has become a bastion of nostalgia for generations – now steeped in the internet – who long for human interaction, no matter how superficial and mundane. Perhaps it is that very sense of the mundane – rendered charming through time and distance – that has elevated the placidness of the escalator, the sparkling of indoor fountains, and the airy echoes of Muzak into something so beguiling now.

Alexandra Lange, author of Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall will introduce the screening of Frederick Wiseman’s THE STORE on Sunday, Aug 6.

Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave., New York.

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