GREATER BOSTON FILM INSTITUTIONS JOIN FORCES TO CELEBRATE CINEMA LEGEND FREDERICK WISEMAN
Retrospective to feature freshly-restored
films by the iconic documentarian
Boston,
Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville, Massachusetts (February 19, 2025) — Boston film
institutions The Brattle Theatre, Coolidge Corner Theatre, IFFBoston, Museum of
Fine Arts Boston (MFA), and Somerville Theatre announce a programming
partnership in celebration of legendary local documentarian Frederick Wiseman.
Beginning on March 1 with a screening of Titicut Follies at
the MFA, this wide-ranging retrospective will feature a selection of films
spanning decades of the iconic filmmaker’s prolific career, including many of
the 33 classics newly restored in 4K following a five-year restoration process
by Zipporah Films and overseen by Wiseman.
Throughout his
nearly six-decade career, Wiseman has been steadily and unflinchingly
chronicling institutional life in America and abroad. Featured screenings
include Hospital (The Brattle, March 10); National
Gallery (Museum of Fine Arts, March 15); High School (Coolidge
Corner Theatre, April 1); and Boxing Gym (Somerville Theatre,
May 6).
“Frederick
Wiseman is one of our greatest living documentary filmmakers, and it is an
honor to work together to pay tribute to his storied career,” said the
participating film institutions in a joint statement.
Wiseman himself
adds, “I am very pleased that the Brattle, Coolidge, MFA, Somerville and
IFFBoston are collaborating on the retrospective of my films. It is a
great honor for me that the theaters I spent so much time in, at various stages
of my life, are working together to show the films.”
A full
schedule of screenings is listed below. Showtimes and ticket prices vary; please visit
organization websites for details. Additional screenings and showtimes TBA.
The
Brattle: https://brattlefilm.org/film-series/frederick-wiseman/
Coolidge Corner
Theatre: https://coolidge.org/wiseman
IFFBoston: https://iffboston.org/
MFA: https://www.mfa.org/series/two-films-by-frederick-wiseman
The Somerville Theatre: https://www.somervilletheatre.com/
FILM SCHEDULE (listed by date)
Titicut
Follies
Frederick
Wiseman, 1967, USA, 84m
This explosive
film, which made Wiseman a household name, provides an unflinching look at the
conditions inside the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in
Massachusetts. Through a combination of observational footage and stark,
unfiltered moments of daily life at the institution, Titicut Follies reveals
the dehumanizing and brutal treatment of the patients.
Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston
Saturday,
March 1 at 1:30pm
Tickets: https://www.mfa.org/event/film/titicut-follies
Hospital
Frederick
Wiseman, 1969, U.S., 84m
Hospital shows the daily activities of New
York City’s Metropolitan Hospital, following hospital staff and a variety of
patients with an 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 appropriate health care.
The Brattle
Theatre
Monday, March
3 at 6:00pm
Tickets: https://brattlefilm.org/
Essene
Frederick
Wiseman, 1972, U.S., 89m
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. In the Order,
where the focus of life is the relationship of individual work and worship to
the community as a whole, the brethren must cope with the same issues that
arise in any community: rules, work, worship, values, love, and play.
The Brattle
Theatre
Monday, March
3 at 8:00pm
Tickets: https://brattlefilm.org/
Law and
Order
Frederick
Wiseman, 1969, U.S., 81m
Law and Order follows the day-to-day work of the
Kansas City Police Department as they operate in an area hit hard by violence
during several 1968 race riots. The film 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, socioeconomic status of the subject, the threat of
violence, and discretion all affect police behavior.
The Brattle
Theatre
Monday, March
10 at 6:00pm
Tickets: https://brattlefilm.org/
Basic
Training
Frederick
Wiseman, 1971, U.S., 89m
Basic
Training follows a
company of draftees and enlisted men through nine weeks of the basic training
cycle and the many forms of ideological training familiar to those who have
served in the armed forces. 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.
The Brattle
Theatre
Monday, March
10 at 8:00pm
Tickets: https://brattlefilm.org/
Canal Zone
Frederick
Wiseman, 1977, U.S., 174m
Canal Zone is 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 its functioning and the lives of the
Americans in the zone. The film includes sequences of ships in transit, the
work of special canal pilots, aspects of the civil government, the work of the
military, and the social, religious and recreational life of the Zonians.
The Brattle
Theatre
Tuesday, March
11 at 6:00pm
Tickets: https://brattlefilm.org/
National
Gallery
Frederick
Wiseman, 2014, USA, UK, and France, 180 min
The director’s
classic National Gallery takes audiences behind the scenes of a London
institution, on a journey to the heart of a museum inhabited by masterpieces of
Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century. National Gallery is
the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world, its
staff and public, and its paintings.
Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston
Saturday,
March 15 at 1:30pm
Tickets: https://www.mfa.org/event/film/national-gallery
Juvenile
Court
Frederick
Wiseman, 1973, U.S., 144m
Juvenile Court
shows the complex variety of cases before the Memphis Juvenile Court: foster
home placement, drug abuse, armed robbery, child abuse, and sexual offenses.
The sequences illustrate such issues as community protection vs. the desire for
rehabilitation, the range and the limits of the choices available to the court,
the psychology of the offender, and the constitutional and procedural questions
involved in administering a juvenile court.
The Brattle
Theatre
Monday, March
17 at 6:00pm
Tickets: https://brattlefilm.org/
Welfare
Frederick
Wiseman, 1975, U.S., 167m
A profile of the
welfare system that illustrates the staggering diversity of problems that
surround welfare: unemployment, divorce, housing, medical and psychiatric
problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are
presented in a context where welfare workers and clients struggle to cope with
and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.
The Brattle
Theatre
Monday, March
24 at 7:00pm
Tickets: https://brattlefilm.org/
Model
Frederick
Wiseman, 1980, U.S., 129m
Model shows male
and female models at work on TV commercials, fashion shows, magazine covers,
and advertising for a variety of products, including designer collections, fur
coats, sports clothes, and automobiles. The models are seen at work with
photographers whose techniques illustrate different styles of fashion and
product photography. The business aspect of running an agency is also shown:
interviewing prospective models, career counseling, arranging portfolios,
talking with clients, and planning trips. The film presents a view of the
intersections of fashion, business, advertising, photography, television, and
fantasy.
The Brattle
Theatre
Monday, March
24 at 6:00pm
Tickets: https://brattlefilm.org/
High School
Frederick
Wiseman, 1968, U.S., 74m
Filmed at a large
urban high school in Philadelphia, High School documents how
the school system not only exists to pass on “facts” but also transmits social
values from one generation to another. High School presents a
series of formal and informal encounters between teachers, students, parents,
and administrators through which the ideology and values of the school emerge.
Coolidge
Corner Theatre
Tuesday, April
1 at 7:30pm
Tickets: www.coolidge.org
The Store
Frederick
Wiseman, 1983, U.S., 120m
Centered on the
main Neiman-Marcus store and corporate headquarters in Dallas, The
Store studies the selection, presentation, marketing, pricing,
advertising, and selling of a vast array of consumer products. The film
illustrates the internal management and organizational aspects of a large
corporation through sales meetings, the development of marketing and
advertising strategies, training, personnel practices, and sales techniques.
Somerville
Theatre
Thursday,
April 3 at 7:00pm
Tickets: https://www.somervilletheatre.com/
Racetrack
Frederick
Wiseman, 1985, U.S., 114m
Racetrack is about New York’s Belmont Race
Track, one of the world’s leading race tracks for thoroughbred racing. The film
highlights the training, maintenance, and racing of thoroughbred horses,
showing everyday occurrences — from the grooming, feeding, shoeing, and caring
for horses in preparation for races, to the various aspects of training,
exercising, and timing the horses at the practice track, to betting and
watching the races from the grandstand. The film also reveals the variety of
work done by trainers, jockeys, jockey agents, grooms, hot walkers, stable
hands, and veterinarians.
Somerville
Theatre
Tuesday, April
8 at 7:00pm
Tickets: https://www.somervilletheatre.com/
Menus-Plaisirs
– Les Troisgros
Frederick
Wiseman, 2023, U.S., 240m
The MENUS-PLAISIRS is
a film about the Troisgros family and their three restaurants, Troisgros, Le
Central and Colline, located in three neighboring locations in central France.
Troisgros, a restaurant founded 93 years ago, has had three Michelin stars for
55 years and in 2020 was awarded a Michelin green star for exemplary
sustainable practices. Much of the film takes place at Troisgros.
Coolidge
Corner Theatre
Thursday,
April 10 at 7:00pm
Tickets: www.coolidge.org
Aspen
Frederick
Wiseman, 1991, U.S., 146m
Aspen is an exploration during the winter
months of the daily life and activities of the people who live, work, visit,
and play in Aspen, famous in the 19th century for silver mining and now known
for its scenic splendor, mountains, skiing, hiking, music, intellectual
activity, and fashionable people.
Somerville
Theatre
Tuesday, April
15 at 7:00pm
Tickets: https://www.somervilletheatre.com/
La Danse:
The Paris Opera Ballet
Frederick
Wiseman, 2009, U.S., 158m
The Paris Opera
Ballet is one of the world’s great ballet companies. The film follows the
rehearsals and performances of seven ballets: Genus by Wayne
McGregor, Le Songe de Medée by Angelin Preljocaj, La
Maison de Bernarda by Mats Ek, Paquita by Pierre
Lacotte, Casse Noisette by Rudolph Nureyev, Orphée and
Eurydice by Pina Bausch, and Romeo and Juliette by
Sasha Waltz. The film shows the work involved in administering the company and
the coordinated and collaborative work of choreographers, ballet masters,
dancers, musicians, and costume, set, and lighting designers.
Coolidge
Corner Theatre
Thursday,
April 17 at 7:00pm
Tickets: www.coolidge.org
Central
Park
Frederick
Wiseman, 1990, U.S., 176m
Central Park focuses on the famous New York City
landmark and the variety of ways people make use of it, while illustrating the
complex problems the New York City Parks Department deals with in order to
maintain and preserve the park and keep it open and accessible to the public.
Coolidge
Corner Theatre
Wednesday,
April 23 at 7:00pm
Tickets: www.coolidge.org
Zoo
Frederick
Wiseman, 1993, U.S., 130m
Zoo is a film about the Miami Zoo, 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. The film presents the wide diversity of interests and activities
at the zoo and the interrelatedness of the animal, human, ethical, financial,
technical, organizational, and research aspects of its operation.
Independent
Film Festival Boston (IFFBoston)
Sunday, April
27 at a time and venue TBA
Tickets: https://iffboston.org/
Boxing Gym
Frederick
Wiseman, 2010, U.S., 91m
The subject of
the film is an Austin, Texas institution, Lord's Gym, which was founded over
twenty years ago by Richard Lord, a former professional boxer. A wide variety
of people of all ages, races, ethnicities and social classes train at the gym:
men, women, children, doctors, lawyers, judges, business men and women,
immigrants, professional boxers and people who want to become professional
boxers alongside amateurs who love the sport and teenagers who are trying to
develop strength and assertiveness. The gym is an example of the American
“melting pot” where people meet, talk, and train.
Somerville
Theatre
Tuesday, May 6
at 7:00pm
Tickets: https://www.somervilletheatre.com/
Public
Housing
Frederick
Wiseman, 1997, U.S., 195m
Public Housing 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. Events include
the work of the tenants’ council, street life, the role of police, job training
programs, drug education, teenage mothers, dysfunctional families, elderly
residents, nursery school, after-school teenage programs, and the activities of
the city, state, and federal governments in maintaining and changing public housing.
Somerville
Theatre
Tuesday, May
20 at 6:30pm
