THE GREAT EXPERIMENT followed by conversation with filmmaker Steve Maing

The SNF Parkway presents *The Great Experiment*, a documentary examining American democracy through four years of observation across the United States, followed by a conversation with filmmaker Steve Maing. Filmed in black and white from 2017 through 2021, the film considers what happens when neighbors become estranged, shared spaces become contested, and the possibility of a common future grows uncertain.

Rather than taking sides in the era’s political conflicts, the film approaches the recent past as an evolving historical record. Its observational perspective moves among a wide range of American experiences, including Gays for Trump, ICE arrests and deportations, Antifa activists, migrants facing an increasingly uncertain welcome, Civil War reenactors, and protesters opposing Confederate monuments. Drawing on the wide-ranging perspective of Robert Frank’s *The Americans*, the film places contradictory lives and viewpoints in the same frame, inviting reflection on the country’s complexity, grief, resilience, and plurality.

When: Thursday, November 5, 2026

Showtimes: 7:00 PM at Theatre 1. The scheduled venue time is 7:00–9:30 PM EST.

Program: Screening of *The Great Experiment*, followed by a conversation with filmmaker Steve Maing.

Tickets: Price not available

Run time: 100 minutes

Languages: English and Spanish

Directors: Stephen Maing and Eric Daniel Metzgar

Producer: Farihah Zaman

Sound design: Cesar Gonzales Jesus Arteaga

Music: Meredith Monk, Live Footage, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Che Chen, and Ka Baird

Venue: The SNF Parkway, Theatre 1, the historic first-floor theatre

Venue: The SNF Parkway (Maryland Film Festival)