Frederick Wiseman

An examination of domestic violence, its sufferers and the institutions that attempt to assist them.

Highly controversial documentary chronicaling life inside a Massachusetts institution for mentally ill convicts... (imdb)

A documentary about a Philadelphia high school in 1968.

Daily activities of the Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, with emphasis on the emergency ward and outpatient clinics. The cases depicted illustrate how medical expertise, availability of resources, organizational considerations and the nature of communication among the staff and patients affect the delivery of health care. (imdb)

A film about Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), a successful alternative high school in New York's Spanish Harlem, 85-95% of whose graduates go on to four-year colleges.

MISSILE follows the 4315th Training Squadron of the Strategic Air Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where Air Force officers are trained to man the Launch Control Centers for the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Sequences include discussion of the moral and military issues of nuclear war; the arming, targeting and launching of the missile; codes; communications; protection against terrorist attack; emergency procedures; staff meetings and tutorial sessions. (Zipporah)

A film about a town famous in the 19th century for silver mining and now known for its scenic splendor, mountains, skiing, hiking, music, intellectual activity and fashionable people. The film documents the daily life and activities of the people who live, work, visit and play in Aspen in the winter. (zipporah)

The film shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life. (zipporah)

Locked away in the Jewish ghetto of an occupied Ukrainian town in 1941, a mother revisits her life in a last letter to her son. (imdb)

Essene is about daily life in a Benedictine monastery and the resolution of conflict between personal needs and the institutional and organizational priorities of the community. (zipporah)

A film about the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital. The film is concerned with how people face death. (Zipporah)

A film about the zoo in Miami, Florida, the care and maintenance of the animals by the keepers, the work of the veterinarians and their staff, and the visits to the zoo by people from all over the world. (Zipporah)

A film showing the complex variety of cases before the Memphis Juvenile Court (Zipporah)

A film about the people who live and work in the Panama Canal Zone and shows both the operation of the Canal and the various governmental agencies related to the functioning of the Canal and the lives of the Americans in the zone. (Zipporah)

The day-to-day activities of the Idaho Legislature during an entire session. (Zipporah)

A film that presents the daily activities of Yerkes Primate Research Center. Scientists in the film are concerned with studying the physical and mental development of primates. (Zipporah)

A film about the famous New York City landmark and the variety of ways in which people make use of it. (Zipporah)

Follows a company of draftees and enlisted men through the nine weeks of the basic training cycle. The varieties of training techniques used by the army in converting civilians to soldiers are illustrated in scenes of drills, M-16 and bayonet use, a gas chamber, mines, night crawls, an infiltration course and the many forms of ideological training familiar to millions of men and women who have served in the armed forces. (Zipporah)

Follows a U.S. infantry tank company through NATO's annual fall manoeuvres in Western Europe. One purpose of these war games is to test how quickly and effectively U.S. reinforcements can come to the aid of NATO forces stationed in Europe. (Zipporah)

The School for the Deaf at the Alabama Institute is organized around a theory of total communication i.e. the use of signs and finger spelling in conjunction with speech, hearing aids, lip reading, gestures and the written word. The film shows sequences dealing with various aspects of this comprehensive training. (Zipporah)

La Comédie-Française is the oldest continuous repertory company in the world, founded in Paris in the late 17th century. This is the first time a documentary film-maker has been allowed to look at all the aspects of the work of this great theatrical company. (Zipporah)

The first part of this film takes place at the E.H. Gentry Technical Facility which provides evaluation and personal adjustment services to sensory impaired adults and also functions as a vocational training center. The film goes on to show work at the Alabama Industries for the Blind, the second largest employer of blind people in the U.S. (Zipporah)

A film about ordinary experience in a beautiful old New England port city. It is a portrait of daily life with particular emphasis on the work and the cultural life of the community. (Zipporah)

A profile of the American Ballet Theatre. The film presents the company in rehearsal in their New York studio and on tour in Athens and Copenhagen.

Traces the process through which cattle and sheep become consumer goods. It depicts the processing and transportation of meat products by a highly automated packing plant, illustrating important points and problems in the area of production, transportation, logistics, equipment design, time-motion study, and labor management. (Zipporah)

Shows the educational programs and daily life of students in kindergarten through the 12th grade at the Alabama School for the Blind. The School is organized around the effort to educate blind and visually impaired students to be in charge of their own lives. (Zipporah)

Takes place in the arraignment, misdemeanor, and injunction courts in Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida (Zipporah)

A film about the Belmont Race Track, one of the world's leading race tracks for thoroughbred racing. The film highlights the training, maintaining and racing of thoroughbred horses. (Zipporah)

Documents daily life at the Ida B. Wells public housing development in Chicago. The film illustrates some of the experiences of people living in conditions of extreme poverty. (Zipporah)

A film about the main Neiman-Marcus store and corporate headquarters in Dallas. (Zipporah)

Surveys the wide range of work the police are asked to perform: enforcing the law, maintaining order, and providing general social services. The incidents shown illustrate how training, community expectations, socio-economic status of the subject, the threat of violence, and discretion affect police behavior. (Zipporah)

Shows male and female models at work on TV commercials, fashion shows, magazine covers, and advertising for a variety of products. (Zipporah)

This film shows the day to day activities of multi-handicapped and sensory impaired students and their teachers, dormitory parents, and counselors at the Helen Keller School. The primary mission of the school is to meet the total and living needs of deaf and/or blind children, some of whom also have other disabilities. (Zipporah)

Shows the routine activities of the diplomats and electronics technicians who operate the U.S. Sinai Field Mission, the early warning system established in 1976 to help facilitate the disengagement between Egypt and Israel after the 1973 war. The major purpose of the Mission is to monitor the approaches to strategic passes and to verify the operations of the Egyptian and Israeli surveillance stations in the Sinai Buffer Zone. (Zipporah)

The story of a famous fashion model who, unable to cope with the fantasies and pressures her beauty induces in others, disappears. The film is a profile of her emotional life and contrasts the fantasies she creates in other people's minds with the strains of her real emotional life as revealed in her diaries. (Zipporah)

I Miss Sonia Henie is the title of a little-known collaborative short from 1972, instigated by Karpo Godina at the Belgrade Film Festival, and pairing Wiseman with such unlikely co-directors as Tinto Brass, Milos Forman, Paul Morrissey, Buck Henry and Dusan Makavejev.) (SurrealMoviez)

The film follows the production of seven ballets by the Paris Opera Ballet.

Explores the world of a boxing gym in Austin, Texas, dwelling on the discipline of training as people from all walks of life aspire to reach their personal best. (imdb)

Takes a cinéma vérité look inside Paris' Crazy Horse that boasts the greatest and most chic nude dancing in the world. (imdb)

The University of California at Berkeley, the oldest and most prestigious member of a ten campus public education system, is also one of the finest research and teaching facilities in the world. This film shows the major aspects of university life, its intellectual and social mission, its obligation to the state and to larger ideas of higher education, as well as illustrates how decisions are made and implemented by the administration in collaboration with its various constituencies.

A 196 minute documentary about the operation of Madison Square Garden that has been withdrawn from exhibition due to objections and legal problems coming from the management of the venue.

The National Gallery in London is one of the great museums of the world with 2400 paintings from the 13th to the end of the 19th century. Almost every human experience is represented in one or the other of the paintings. The sequences of the film show the public in various galleries; the education programs, and the scholars, scientists and curators, studying, restoring and planning the exhibitions. The relation between painting and storytelling is explored. (imdb)

Jackson Heights, Queens is one of the most culturally diverse communities in the US where 167 languages are spoken. IN JACKSON HEIGHTS explores the conflict between maintaining ties to old traditions and adapting to American values.

A look within the walls of the New York Public Library. (imdb)

In this documentary, his forty-fourth feature, Frederick Wiseman visits a small Midwestern town where the winds of change meet the chill of death. At such gatherings as a high-school class, a Bible-study group, and a church wedding, he finds the weight of the past suffocating the locale's vitality. [... (newyorker.com)

A look at Boston's city government, covering racial justice, housing, climate action, and more. (imdb)

A COUPLE is a film about a long term relationship between a man and a woman. The man is Leo Tolstoy. The woman is his wife, Sophia. They were married for 36 years, had 13 children nine of whom survived. Each kept a diary. Although they lived together, in the same house, they wrote letters frequently to each other. Leo Tolstoy insisted that they read their diaries aloud to guests at dinner parties. (Unifrance)

“Menus Plaisirs” is a film about the Troisgros family and their three restaurants: Troisgros, Le Central and La Colline, located in three neighboring locations in central France. The film shows the day-to-day operations involving the purchase, preparation and service at this restaurant.