Few (if any) filmmakers have chronicled American institutions and public spaces like Frederick Wiseman. Ever since the 1960s, the director has provided invaluable insight into the programs and institutions that are integral to American society in many ways. The very succinct titles of his documentaries detail all that he’s explored — High School, Welfare, Hospital, Basic Training, Central Park, Zoo, Public Housing, State Legislature, City Hall, National Gallery, At Berkeley, Ex Libris – The New York Public Library. These and his other documentary masterpieces collectively form an alternative history of the United States defined by the systems and structures that its people rely on, the very systems which are currently being dismantled by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE.
Documentarian Frederick Wiseman discusses America and President Trump, and details his process of filmmaking. Read More