Retrospective to feature freshly-restored films by the iconic documentarian
The Somerville Theatre is honored to be part of a regional 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.
FILM SCHEDULE (listed by date)
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
Tickets: https://www.somervilletheatre.
PAST SCREENINGS
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 31 at 6:00pm
Admission to this screening is free and first-come, first-served beginning at 5:30pm on the day of the show.
https://brattlefilm.org/movies/model/
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.
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.
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.
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 12:30pm at Somerville Theatre
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.
About Frederick Wiseman
About Frederick WisemanFrederick Wiseman is a film and theater director of 46 films, primarily focusing on American institutions. His most recent film, MENUS-PLAISIRS – Les Troisgros was released in fall 2023. In 2019, he was the honoree of the Library Lions Award from the New York Public Library and received the Pennebaker Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. In 2018, he was the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University. In 2016, he received an Honorary Award for lifetime achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors. He is a MacArthur Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has won numerous awards, including four Emmys®. In recent years, he directed The Belle of Amherst, Beckett’s Happy Days in Paris and Vasily Grossman’s The Last Letter at the Comédie-Française in Paris and Theatre for a New Audience in New York. A ballet inspired by his first film, TITICUT FOLLIES (1967), premiered at the New York University Skirball Theater in 2017.