Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman is an American filmmaker, documentarian, theater director, and actor. His work is primarily about exploring American institutions. In 2017, The New York Times called him "one of the most important and original filmmakers working today".
Early life
Wiseman was born to a Jewish family in Boston on January 1, 1930, the son of Gertrude Leah and Jacob Leo Wiseman. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College in 1951, and a Bachelor of Laws from Yale Law School in 1954. He spent 1954 to 1956 serving in the U.S. Army after being drafted. Wiseman spent the following two years in Paris, France before returning to the United States, where he took a job teaching law at the Boston University Institute of Law and Medicine. He then started documentary filmmaking, and has won numerous film awards as well as Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships.Career
The first feature-length film Wiseman produced was The Cool World. This was followed by Titicut Follies, which he produced and directed. He has both produced and directed all of his films since. They are chiefly studies of social institutions, such as hospitals, schools, or police departments. All his films have aired on PBS, one of his primary funders.Wiseman's films are often described as in the observational mode, which has its roots in direct cinema, but Wiseman dislikes the term:
Wiseman has been known to call his films "Reality Fictions".
In a 2025 interview, Wiseman said he was retiring because he did not "have the energy" for a new production.
In the 2020s, Wiseman began taking acting roles, including in the films Other People's Children and A Private Life, and as an acclaimed poet in Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.
Philosophy
Wiseman's films are, in his view, elaborations of a personal experience and not ideologically objective portraits of his subjects.In 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 as to how he portrays events:
Process and style
Wiseman works 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.Every Wiseman film has a dramatic structure, though not necessarily a narrative arc; his films rarely have what could be considered a distinct climax and conclusion. He likes to base his sequence structure with no particular thesis or point of view in mind. Any suspense is on a per-scene level, not constructed from plot points, and there are no 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". The "rhythm and structure" of Wiseman's films pull the viewer into the position and perspective of the subject. The viewer feels the dramatic tension of the situations portrayed, 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":
Wiseman has said that the structure of his films is important to the overall message:
A distinctive aspect of Wiseman's style is the complete lack of exposition, interaction, and reflection. Wiseman has said that he does not "feel any need to document experience" and that he feels that such reflexive elements in films are vain.
While producing a film, Wiseman often acquires more than 100 hours of raw footage. His ability to create an engaging and interesting feature-length film without the use of voice-over, title cards, or motion graphics, while still being "fair", has been described as the reason Wiseman is seen as a true master of documentary film.
Credits
Documentaries
Feature films
Other credits
- The Cool World
- Other People's Children – actor
- Eephus – actor
Theatre
- Emily Dickinson, La Belle d’Amherst by William Luce. Le Théâtre Noir, Paris, Director, May–July 2012
- Oh les beaux jours by Samuel Beckett. La Comédie Française, Paris. Director, November – January 2006; Director & Actor, Jan–March 2007.
- The Last Letter an adaptation from the novel Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
- *Theatre for a New Audience, New York. Director, December 2003
- *North American Tour with La Comédie Française production Director, May–June 2001
- *La Comédie Française, Paris. Director, March–April 2000, September–November 2000
- Welfare: The Opera, story by Frederick Wiseman and David Slavitt, libretto by David Slavitt, music by Lenny Pickett.
- *St. Anne's Center for Restoration and the Arts, New York. Director, May 1997
- *American Music Theater Festival, Philadelphia. Director, June 1992
- *American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge. Director, May 1988
- Hate by Joshua Goldstein. American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge. Director, January 1991
- Tonight We Improvise by Luigi Pirandello. American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge. Director of video sequences and actor in role of documentary filmmaker, November 1986 – February 1987
Accolades
In 2003, Wiseman received the Dan David Prize for his films. In 2006, he received the George Polk Career Award, given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting. In spring 2012, Wiseman actively took part in the three-month exposition of the Whitney Biennial. In 2014, he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. In 2016, Wiseman received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.