Frederick Wiseman, Filmmaker and Documentarian

Since 1967, Frederick Wiseman has directed 46 documentaries—dramatic, narrative films that seek to portray ordinary human experience in a wide variety of contemporary social institutions. His films include 'Titicut Follies', 'High School', 'Welfare', 'Juvenile Court', 'Boxing Gym', 'La Danse', 'Ballet', 'La Comedie Francaise', 'Central Park', and 'Crazy Horse'. Wiseman's work has been distributed in theatres and broadcast on television in many countries by his Cambridge, MA company, Zipporah Films.

PBS Premiere March 2024
'Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros' showcases the Troisgros family and their three restaurants located in central France. The film is about the artistry, ingenuity, and imagination that goes into creating and presenting meals of the highest quality.

PBS Premiere: December 2020
City government touches almost every aspect of our lives. This film by Frederick Wiseman illustrates the variety of ways the Boston city administration can enter into civil discourse with its citizens. We see Mayor Walsh and his administration address policy priorities such as racial justice, affordable housing, climate action, and homelessness.

PBS Premiere: May 2019
Monrovia, Indiana, (population 1,063) is primarily a farming community in mid-America. Wiseman’s film explores the day-to-day experiences living and working in Monrovia, with emphasis on community organizations and institutions, religion and daily life in this farming community.

PBS Premiere: September 2018
Frederick Wiseman’s film, 'Ex Libris – The New York Public Library', goes behind the scenes of one of the greatest knowledge institutions in the world and reveals it as a place of welcome, cultural exchange and learning. With 92 branches throughout Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, the library is a resource for all the inhabitants of this multifaceted and cosmopolitan city, and beyond.

PBS Premiere: January 2017
'In Jackson Heights' shines a light on one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse communities in America, and the world. Immersive and enthralling, revealing issues of assimilation, integration, immigration, and religious and cultural differences, the film proves Jackson Heights to be, in the truest sense, a microcosm of the American melting pot.

PBS Premiere: August 2015
'National Gallery' takes the audience 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. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, film watches painting watches film.