Una’s Lectures

Frederick Wiseman, Una’s Lecturer 2002-2003

“The Making and Reading of a Documentary Film” || April 2, 2003

Frederick Wiseman is one of the most important documentary filmmakers working today. Pursuing the “direct cinema” tradition of documentary filmmaking—continued filming, as unobtrusively as possible, of human conversation and the routines of everyday life with no music, interviews, or voice-over narration— Wiseman has produced over more than three decades films that powerfully examine “webs of social institutions” in America and their impact upon individuals and groups.

Born in 1930 in Boston, Wiseman received his B.A. at Williams College, earned a degree in Law from Yale University, and began a career as a professor of Law. He turned to filmmaking only in 1967, when he began a corpus of groundbreaking films that were broadcast broadly on public television in the United States, regularly marking the opening of each new PBS season for a number of years. Titicut Follies, which examined life in a prison for the criminally insane in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, was Wiseman’s first documentary and initiated his so-called “institutional series.” It was followed by films such as High School (1973), Law and Order (1969), Hospital (1969) and Welfare (1975). A prolific filmmaker, Wiseman’s most recent works include Belfast, Maine (1999), Domestic Violence (2001), Domestic Violence II (2002), and La Dernire Lettre (2002).

Frederick Wiseman’s honors and awards include two Emmy Awards (1969 and 1970) and the Career Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association (1990). He held a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1980-1981 and was a fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 1982-1987. In addition to filmmaking, Frederick continues to write and lecture on his films as well as on law enforcement issues.

Other Events with Frederick Wiseman

“Ethnography on Film” || April 3, 2003

A panel discussion with Wiseman, Laura Nader (Department of Anthropology), Candace Slater (Department of Spanish & Portuguese), and Loíc Wacquant (Department of Sociology).