American at Work

5:00 minutes; 2017

Each of the 8,300 federal buildings in the United States displays two portraits in its lobby: one of the president and one of the vice president. Angel, a naturalized American citizen from Mexico City, is a General Services Administration employee at the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal building in Cleveland, Ohio. He is tasked with the removal of the outgoing president and vice president that brought him hope and pride, and installing White House-sanctioned portraits of the incoming president and vice president who are determined to wall off his homeland. Shown as a two channel film documenting the removal of President Obama's portrait on the top monitor and the installation of the portraits of President Trump and Vice President Pence on the lower monitor, this act of little ceremony hold great weight.