Frederick Wiseman is an American documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 filmmaker

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

. He came to documentary filmmaking after first being trained as a lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

. He has won numerous film awards, as well as Guggenheim

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

 and MacArthur

MacArthur Fellows Program

The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...

 fellowships.

In 2003, Wiseman was awarded the Dan David Prize

Dan David Prize

The Dan David Prize annually awards 3 prizes of $1 million each awarded by the Dan David Foundation and Tel Aviv University to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution in the fields of science, technology, culture or social welfare. There are three prize categories - past, present and...

 for his outstanding films, which make us reckon with our emotions and the cost to society of marginalizing those who cannot speak for themselves. In 2006, Wiseman received the George Polk Career Award

George Polk Awards

The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States.-History:...

, given annually by Long Island University

Long Island University

Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...

 to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting.

The first feature-length film that Wiseman produced was The Cool World in 1963. He next produced and directed Titicut Follies

Titicut Follies

Titicut Follies is a 1967 American documentary film directed by Frederick Wiseman, about the treatment of inmates/patients at Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane, a Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The title is taken from a talent show put on by...

 (1967). He has both produced and directed all of his films since. They chiefly are studies of social institutions: for example, hospital, high school, police department. All have been aired on PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

, one of his primary funders.

The style of Wiseman's films are often referred to as the observational mode, which has its roots in direct cinema

Direct Cinema

Direct Cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States...

. However, Wiseman dislikes the term:

What I try to do is edit the films so that they will have a dramatic structure, that is why I object to some extent to the term observational cinema or cinema verité, because observational cinema to me at least connotes just hanging around with one thing being as valuable as another and that is not true. At least that is not true for me and cinema verité is just a pompous French term that has absolutely no meaning as far as I'm concerned. Aftab, Weltz

Philosophy

Wiseman's films are, in his view, an elaboration of a personal experience and not an ideologically objective portrait of his subjects.

In many interviews, Wiseman has emphasized that his films are not and cannot be unbiased. In spite of the inescapable bias that is introduced in the process of "making a movie", he still feels he has certain ethical obligations regarding how he portrays the events in his films:

[My films are] based on un-staged, un-manipulated actions... The editing is highly manipulative and the shooting is highly manipulative... What you choose to shoot, the way you shoot it, the way you edit it and the way you structure it... all of those things... represent subjective choices that you have to make... In [Belfast, Maine] I had 110 hours of material ... I only used 4 hours – near nothing. The compression within a sequence represents choice and then the way the sequences are arranged in relationship to the other represents choice. Aftab, Weltzhttp://www.iol.ie/~galfilm/filmwest/40wiseman.htm

All aspects of documentary filmmaking involve choice and are therefore manipulative. But the ethical ... aspect of it is that you have to ... try to make [a film that] is true to the spirit of your sense of what was going on. ... My view is that these films are biased, prejudiced, condensed, compressed but fair. I think what I do is make movies that are not accurate in any objective sense, but accurate in the sense that I think they're a fair account of the experience I've had in making the movie. Spotnitz

I think I have an obligation, to the people who have consented to be in the film, ... to cut it so that it fairly represents what I felt was going on at the time in the original event. Poppy

Process and style

Wiseman works only four to six weeks in the institutions he portrays, with almost no preparation. He spends the bulk of the production period editing the material, trying to find a rhythm to make a “movie.”

Present in every Wiseman film is a dramatic structure. Not necessarily a narrative arc per se – his films rarely have what could be considered a distinct climax and conclusion; any suspense there may be is at a per-scene, human experience level and not constructed from carefully placed plot points; there are no consistent human characters with whom the viewer is expected to identify. Nevertheless, Wiseman feels that drama is a crucial element for his films to "work as movies" (Poppy). The "rhythm and structure" (Wiseman) of Wiseman's films pull the viewer into the position and perspective of the subject (human or otherwise). The viewer feels the dramatic tension of the situations portrayed in the films, as various environmental forces create complicated situations and conflicting values for the subject.

Wiseman openly admits to manipulating his source material to create dramatic structure, and indeed insists that it is necessary to "make a movie."

I'm trying to make a movie. A movie has to have dramatic sequence and structure. I don't have a very precise definition about what constitutes drama but I'm gambling that I'm going to get dramatic episodes. Otherwise, it becomes Empire

Empire (1964 film)

Empire is a silent, black-and-white film made by Andy Warhol. It consists of eight hours and five minutes of continuous slow motion footage of the Empire State Building in New York City. Abridged showings of the film were never allowed, and supposedly the very unwatchability of the film was an...

. ... I am looking for drama, though I'm not necessarily looking for people beating each other up, shooting each other. There's a lot of drama in ordinary experiences. In Public Housing, there was drama in that old man being evicted from his apartment by the police. There was a lot of drama in that old woman at her kitchen table peeling a cabbage. Peary

A very distinctive aspect of Wiseman's style is the complete lack of expository (narration), interactive (interviews), or reflexive (revealing to the viewer some part of the filmmaking process) elements. Regarding the lack of reflexive elements, Wiseman has stated that he does not "feel any need to document [his] experience" and feels that such elements in films are vain. (Lucia)

In the process of producing a film, Wiseman will often acquire more than 100 hours of raw footage. His ability to create a feature-length film that is engaging and interesting, without the use of any voiceover, title cards, or motion graphics, while still being "fair", is the reason why Wiseman is seen as a true master of documentary film.

This great glop of material which represents the externally recorded memory of my experience of making the film is of necessity incomplete. The memories not preserved on film float somewhat in my mind as fragments available for recall, unavailable for inclusion but of great importance in the mining and shifting process known as editing. This editorial process ... is sometimes deductive, sometimes associational, sometimes non-logical and sometimes a failure... The crucial element for me is to try and think through my own relationship to the material by whatever combination of means is compatible. This involves a need to conduct a four-way conversation between myself, the sequence being worked on, my memory, and general values and experience. Wiseman

Filmography

• Crazy Horse (2011)
• Boxing Gym (2010)
• La Danse
  La Danse (film)
  La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet is a 2009 French documentary film directed by Frederick Wiseman. The film follows the production of seven ballets by the Paris Opera Ballet....
  
   (2009) - about the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris - PBS link
• State Legislature
  State Legislature (film)
  State Legislature is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Frederick Wiseman. It details the workings of the Idaho Legislature....
  
   (2006)
• The Garden (2005)
• Domestic Violence 2 (2002)
• La Dernière lettre / The Last Letter (2002)
• Domestic Violence (2001)
• Belfast, Maine (1999)
• Public Housing (1997)
• La Comédie-Française ou L'amour joué (1996)
• Ballet
  Ballet (film)
  Ballet is a 1995 American documentary film directed by Frederick Wiseman. It portrays rehearsals, choreography, performances, business transactions, and other day to day life of the American Ballet Theater. Much of the footage dates from the 1992 season...
  
   (1995)
• High School II (1994)
• Zoo (1993)
• Aspen (1991)
• Central Park (1989)
• Near Death (1989)
• Blind (1987)
• Missile
  Missile (film)
  Missile is a 1987 American documentary film by Frederick Wiseman. It chronicles the 14 week training course for the men and women of the United States Air Force who are charged with manning the ICBM silos in remote places like Minot AFB and Whiteman AFB...
  
   (1987)
• Adjustment and Work (1986)
• Deaf (1986)
• Multi-Handicapped (1986)
• Racetrack (1985)
• The Store (1983)
• Model (1980)
• Seraphita's Diary (1980)
• Manoeuvre (1979)
• Sinai Field Mission (1978)
• Canal Zone (1977)
• Meat (1976)
• Welfare (1975)
• Primate (1974)
• Juvenile Court (1973)
• Essene (1972)
• Basic Training (1971)
• I Miss Sonia Henie (1971)
• Hospital (1970)
• Law and Order (1969)
• High School (1968)
• Titicut Follies
  Titicut Follies
  Titicut Follies is a 1967 American documentary film directed by Frederick Wiseman, about the treatment of inmates/patients at Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane, a Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The title is taken from a talent show put on by...
  
   (1967)
• The Cool World (1963) (producer only)

External links

• Zipporah Films Official distributor of Wiseman's work
• Frederick Wiseman Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
• Frederick Wiseman's Fair Movies Essay by John Bachir (.pdf)
• Interview at Reason Magazine
• Interview with Wiseman at Not Coming To a Theater Near You
• Reflections in a Golden Eye Sight & Sound essay by Nicolas Rapold
• A Discussion with Frederick Wiseman and Robert Kramer - Documentary Box
• 2003 Dan David Prize laureate

Further reading

• Barry Keith Grant, Voyages of Discovery: The Cinema of Frederick Wiseman, University of Illinois Press, 1992. (Wiseman's oeuvre: 1963-1990)
• Thomas W. Benson and Carolyn Anderson, Reality Fictions: The Films of Frederick Wiseman, 2nd edition (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002). (Comprehensive history and criticism of the films).
• Dave Saunders, Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties, London, Wallflower Press 2007 (Contains a lengthy section on Wiseman's first five films)
• Barry Bergman, 43 years after 'Titicut Follies,' it's Berkeley, the movie,, UC Berkeley News, Sept. 14, 2010.
• Siegel Joshua, de Navacelle Marie-Christine,"FREDERICK WISEMAN",The Museum of Modern Art, New York,2010. ISBN 9780870707919