■ (loud footsteps) (upbeat sic) - [jen] walls have always existed. - [moises] it's one of the most primal and basic ways that you can separate people. - [jose] ty' like message boards of society. - [cedon] walls rm the space of a city. - [jacqueline] l's meet at the wall,

let's et in th ace and pray. - [shan]alls are put into place you know how to act and u know howo ay in your lane. - [carol] walls keep us safe, walls help us sleep at night. - john f. kennedy said, "a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war." (upbeat music) whether we're talking about china or berlin or anywhere else, none of the great walls were constructed for the purpose of becoming a symbol. but many of them have come to be viewed as symbols over time. (dramatic music) augu 13, 196 rbed wirsunday. the pele of bein awaked the rume and clg of constction mainery and eir liveare chand. e leaderof the wtern wld and the ited statesnd brita, didn'tiew thconstrucon of the berlin ll as a csis,

they hoped it would be the end of a crisis. while the berlin wall was still standing and still in force, it symbolized to the western world, communist oppression. (gentle music) this is november 1989, when the berlin wall came down. (gentle music) - the berlin wall coming down, was certainly this astonishing moment of such incredible joy for bo sides tt have be separat for so ng. (people eer) i codn't reay see, i coul't see a it's pretty iortant dail, whenou're a otographer (gentle sic) i just look around and i saw thisall, stdy, german, smilintripod that asked i i could and on, t on hishouldersnd phograph a he was nderful. then my kons we clangi off hisorehead, while he wasxperiencg this pnomenal ment

in historyoo. (gentlmusic) - [dav] for mo of han histo, wallwere bui to see a miliry functn to fend off invasion. thearliest city wall was constructed in the ninth millennium bc in what would become the biblical city of jericho. (gentle music) this is hadrian's wall. the roman emperor hadrian constructed it in the second century in order to keep barbarians out of roman britain. this is the great wall of china. the chinese states first began building walls around 800 bc. one emperor after another, many of the mad with power, would build long walls on the border of china. the walls came to be viewed as a symbol of forced labor

by the peasants. - walls, define our environment. th dictatehere we n go, how wexist, howe move. entle muc) - this is the inside of a pson ce that teenagewould li in. theye using is wall a the spa to create a new world. trying to imagine what it's like for a child live inhis spac and ok at althe chilike graffitihat's onhe walls 's tragi i have son and can't imagine ving mchild, beg in thispace, whereverythi that's great out yout beg squeez out of em. they're ju trying toscape thwalls, theyre beingonfined . - sohis habecome an aar or a rine to something tt's impoant to this hun being. as they rest in this room with no window and no light.

here's what i'm dreaming about here's what i'm praying for and ve put i re for mto see. (gentlmusic) throughout all of human history. there has been the desire to make something large, something grand that make us think about a god, who's bigger than we are. (gentle music) this is cca. theris something stationary around which to organize. seeing this place marks the presence of a god we love. the wailing wall is a wall in the old city in jerusalem. the pope is praying at the wall, the rabbi is praying at the wall. so the wailing wall was a wall, where people of all nationalities go to jerusalem and pray. i am t pastor of ahurch that w startedy e dutch in628. walling out, most likely, most of the native americans walling out, most likely,

theynslaveafricans entle muc) and no centuri later, m e first rican-amican d the fit woman servthat dut church that wald peopleut. and my church, we're pushing all the time about how to make those walls permeable. our doors are flung open and everybody's welcom (gentlmusic) walls e being transfmed, beautifuart being pled walls to take the space and change it to something thatells a story as opposed to something th keeps folks out. (gentlmusic) - were ab to find a wl in detit th actuallchanged from the origil inte to tir prese manifestion. - i'm ke, kay, the deoit wallwhat is is?" i d never ard of i and so get onle and it prettsimple

this wall was built to separate and segregate black and white people. and i was like, "this wall should be knocked down." when got to troit, i nt strait to theall and i arted taing to folksrom ther ack peop, my peoe. [man] i n be ang about i i can cose to recognize this as evidence of injustice. - we could look over it, how da you? en we we kids th wall represend a right ofassage, if y could wk the wa, u were o of the ol kids. lo how beaiful theall is. - throh talkinto ma people detroit i realiz that itas less aut the fts and mo about pple's very peonal kwledge othe wall becae the la of knowdge is alsvery telng.

i had neveheard ofhis wall. (gene music) - that's how iworks sometimes, we don't know our hiory. (gene music) i initially said that i think that the wall should be knocked down. i don't really feel like that anymore because this wall is what brings this community together and i feel like it's what keeps them together. thesfolks at 8ile reclmed and invented what theall isor theelves. you ed that,ou know, you ne that lo. (carrev) - this affr with walls really begins with thsubculture, the so-cald graffi movemen (upbt music)

was alwa interesd inaking aras a kid you'd on a school bus or something and you'd see a beautiful white wall and you think that's a perfect place to paint. (upbeat music) we all painted together like a big team. we felthat we would probably be like, the modern day cave painters. because we were going out in the dark, painting in places that it was illegal. we're leaving a mark, we're tryi to commicate withhe publi and here's wall that i photographed in cuba. you have three students walking past it like, "might as well be a coca-cola mural." it's always be a necesty for huma to leava mark. with that yodevelop a loveor walls d differt places (upbt musicontinue the ve sort of placemt of thealls and the y that ty late to ty block theylso beco this ki of visuapublic sce

of the cy. i rememb the vy first ment th somebody pointed the muraand he w like, "heydid you ar that' real peoe up the?" and he meant like, that's us. philly is in the midst of an ioid cris d there'a place philly, it'snder t elated train tcks. it the lgest open-a drug maet on the eastern seaboard. and people are dying in the street every day. ke, the vel of han suering ishocking. the murais about alof thoseeople th make uphat commity. (gene music) the ys that 're putting this mul, ere's th palpablsense at sometng posive isappening on is block and th's like ch a rareeeling aund here (gtle musi - we have entered a second age of walls.

lls have been going up around countries around the world. more than countri are thought have border walls (sofclick sods) morn wallsend toocus on unwanted immigration, the flow of illegal drugs. and in many countries they'rregarded as and ey were intended as barrier against terrorism. thousands of miles of walls have been built by india to protect against terrorism. - it's not just protection but in a way it's a prison forhemselves too d that'shat fears. is is thborder ll in rasthan between dia and kistan, whe the camels patrol. the indians have one of the last camel brigades in the world that actually are actively used to patrol that desert border

betweeindia anpakistan the borders have been disputed since 1947. - [jen] but in northern ireland, it's the opposite. (gentle music) the peace wall was established to separate this entire city to t and maintai it's caed peace between thostwo side (gentle sic) but w the governnt nts to te it dow and thers this aiety arod, we, will t violencreturn (gentlmusic) - soere in norern ireld, the ll is sothing at peopllive wit i an, in tir bacards, lirally pele use t ll as pa of theihouse. (gentlmusic)

we've be mainly west beast, walkinthe leng of the mn wall that separat theoyalist d cathol communies. ey've rt of nobecome a urist ataction cause ofhis tradion ofecoratinwith murs with piticalessages,ith picturesf people that died (ueat music) during jy, the lalist communy celebres a bate over t catholiforces. ey go ouon the seets, theyo bonfir, you kn, so of beinproud of theireritage. th're stila very vid relationip to thhistory and to uresolve sues and anosity anmistrust peapthe wallare maybeasier tdeal wit than reconciliation.

- what this means is that walls are not something th comes o of a partular culre or aarticulaplace. this very simple structure, very quickly morphs to this mplex syem of ideas or intentions. entle muc) - i have a very deep relationship with this fence. - i'm actually third generation, us citizen of mexican descent that has been raised in mexico. rely wanteto do someing thatas artisc. this w a piece where i soaked a linen shirt and vinegar and then hugged the border fence til the ll left ige on the t-shirt andn my bod that one was just kind of a part of me,

letting out the scar that iear on the insideo the outside. changing the context of what walls can be, isomethinghat's ry inspirional anhopeful. (gene music) - [caroli follow a oup fromhe carav from micali tijuana thiss jonath and his beved fe. lot of emoons mixed into o desperation odyssey hope, you knowexhaustion california was rht there but he was joking that he could scale that wall in basically a nanosecond. (gentle music) and he did. this was his moment of victory, could have easily crossed and ran but he wouldn't leave his wife and child behind.

by the next morning they had just given up, you know, atawn th walkeaway. s fe actuay id, you ow, i'm done, it too dangous here m going ck to houras. i went home for a few days anthen one of the photojournalists that i knew from meco messaged me and said, "i just sawour familyross." (gentle music) - [david] a wall is an object. anlike any oect, a wallan be vied as a symbol of anything by anyone at any time. - [ami] the walls and war are symptoms and also the result of our fear of e another. - [moises] walls can be a precursor to something worse. the types of violence and war that i've seen in many other places.

- [caledonia] walls can also be a place of congregation. they don necessarily have toe somethinthat is used to divide peop. - [carol] let's alsoalk abt all the beautiful stories on theides of these was. - [jacqueline] there are walls all around our cultures that have cease to mean you don't belong here and have come to mean we all belong here. - [jen] whether they are decoration, delineation or detrence, walls are a human reaction to how we exist with others. (dramac music) (gentle sic)

announcer: funding for the kcet "fine cut festival of films" is generously provided by the bridges larson foundation and by the national endowment for the arts, on the web at arts.gov. ♪