Film Forum

Fifty years ago, Boston lawyer Frederick Wiseman often took his students to the State Hospital for the Insane, to show them the kind of place “they might some day be committing someone to,” then decided to film it – and, sans music, titles or narration, he’s been unflinchingly showing us aspects of our lives ever since.

Titicut Follies, the James Sewell Ballet’s new work based on Wiseman’s landmark film, will have its world premiere at NYU’s Skirball Theater on April 28.

Titicut Follies, High School and Hospital have been preserved in 35mm by the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, from original camera negatives in the Zipporah Films Collection.

COMING SOON: THE COMPLETE WISEMAN PART II

Reviews

“One of the most important and original filmmakers working today”
– The New York Times. Read Manohla Dargis & A.O. Scott’s full introduction to Wiseman here

“Wiseman doesn’t set out to judge or prove a point or — as so many documentarians like to do today — scold. He often knows relatively little about his chosen topic before he shows up with his camera and microphone and starts exploring. No matter the subject — be it shocking or frivolous — the films all glow with that sense of discovery.”
– Bilge Ebiri, The Village Voice. Read the full piece here. 

“Master of observational documentaries Frederick Wiseman has done more than anyone to chronicle, and derive greater meaning from, ordinary American life.”
– AM New York

“The scope, specificity, and occasionally daunting length of Wiseman’s films allow complex portraits of systems to emerge; time and again, he’s reached beyond the obvious Foucaultian dynamic to locate indelible moments of humanity.”
– Peter Labuza, The Village Voice

Films in this Series