Film and Discussion: "American Experience: Panama Canal"

A screening of the documentary film “American Experience: Panama Canal” on a summer evening in The Fells new open-air Pavilion. This 90-minute film focuses mostly on the building of the Panama Canal and gives context to the significance of the United States’ emergence as a global power. The film raises questions about the costs and benefits of this extraordinary engineering feat, including the loss of more than 5000 lives and rigid segregation of workers based on race. The film features “an extraordinary archive of photographs and footage, rare interviews with canal workers, and first-hand accounts of life in the Canal Zone.” The connection to The Fells is clear: As Secretary of State, John Hay wrote that in negotiations for the Panama Canal Treaty, he was instrumental “in getting the proper guaranties for jurisdiction over the Canal” There will be a brief discussion, following the film. 


Citizen Diplomacy: A Foreign Service Institute Workshop
John Hay: Diplomacy in the Era of American Imperialism

Panama Treaty Negotiation Simulations
Intergenerational Model UN Conference