The Reagan Show

72 min co-directed with Sierra Pettengill

The Reagan Show is an all-archival documentary about the original performer-president’s role of a lifetime.

Teasing apart the spectacle at the heart of finger-on-the-button global diplomacy, the film follows Ronald Reagan’s rivalry with charismatic Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, tracing how the Communicator-in-Chief uses his public relations chops to overcome Soviet mistrust, the objections of a skeptical press corps and the looming threat of WW III.

Chock full of wit and political irony, and told solely through 1980s network news and videotapes created by the Reagan administration itself, the film explores Reagan’s made-for-TV approach to politics as he faced down the United States’ greatest rival.

“There’s an otherworldliness to the video footage of Ronald Reagan’s presidency that makes The Reagan Show feel like an elaborately-constructed parable for the Trump era.”
– Hollywood Reporter

The Reagan Show Documentary Film by Pacho Velez