Frederick Wiseman — Director (30)
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Canal Zone (1977)
Canal Zone IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
Frederick Wiseman
other title: 运河区 / 운하 지구
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 — business, military, and civilian — related to the functioning of the Canal 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, work of the military, and the social, religious and recreational life of the Zonians.
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At Berkeley (2013)
At Berkeley
Frederick Wiseman actor: Anahid Modrek / Sharon Inkelas …
other title: 在伯克利 / 直击柏克莱(港) …
Direct cinema pioneer Frederick Wiseman takes an in-depth look at the preeminent American university during a fall semester that saw a vigorous debate taking place over tuition hikes, budget cuts, and the future of higher education in the United States.
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A Couple (2022)
Un Couple WikiData IMDb TMDB
Frederick Wiseman actor: Nathalie Boutefeu
other title: Un couple / Un Couple …
"A Couple" is a film about a long term relationship between a man and a woman. The man is Leo Tolstoy. The woman is his wife, Sophia. They were married for 36 years, had 13 children, nine of whom survived. Each kept a diary. Although they lived together, in the same house, they wrote letters frequently to each other. Leo Tolstoy insisted that they read their diaries aloud to guests at dinner parties. The Tolstoy’s were also a dysfunctional couple, arguing frequently and being very unhappy with each other while occasionally enjoying passionate moments of reconciliation. The film is Sophia’s monologue about the joys and struggles of their life together, loosely drawn from their letters to each other and their diary entries.
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The Store (1983)
The Store IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
Frederick Wiseman actor: Art Buchwald / Lady Bird Johnson
other title: The Store - Grandi Magazzini / 商店 …
THE STORE is a film about the main Neiman-Marcus store and corporate headquarters in Dallas. The sequences in the film include the selection, presentation, marketing, pricing, advertising and selling of a vast array of consumer products including designer clothes and furs, jewelry, perfumes, shoes, electronic products, sportswear, china and porcelain and many other goods. The internal management and organizational aspects of a large corporation are shown, i.e., sales meetings, development of marketing and advertising strategies, training, personnel practices and sales techniques.
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Seraphita's Diary (1982)
Seraphita's Diary IMDb TMDB
Frederick Wiseman actor: Apollonia van Ravenstein
The story of a famous fashion model who, unable to cope with the fantasies and pressures her beauty induces in others, disappears. The film is a profile of her emotional life and contrasts the fantasies she creates in other people's minds with the strains of her real emotional life as revealed in her diaries.
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I Miss Sonia Henie (1971)
Nedostaje mi Sonja Henie
Frederick Wiseman / Karpo Aćimović Godina … actor: Brooke Hayward / Sonja Henie …
other title: Nedostaje mi Sonja Henie / I Miss Sonja Henie …
One camera in one setting, one attic and eight young directors – the result is a unique Dadaistic collage of seven short sketches. The original task for each filmmaker was to keep each short under three minutes, to set it in one hotel room, and to include the sentence “I miss Sonja Henie." This experimental film was shot over a single night at the international film festival FEST in Beograd in 1971.
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Juvenile Court (1973)
Juvenile Court
Frederick Wiseman
"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.
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Hospital (1970)
Hospital
Frederick Wiseman actor: Eugene Friedman / Stanley Friedman …
Daily activities of the Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, with 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 health care.
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Primate (1974)
Primate
Frederick Wiseman
other title: Primate - Herrentiere
Primate sees realist documentarian Frederick Wiseman hone his lens on the inmates of the Yerkes Primate Research Centre. A representative scientist explains the aims and outcomes of the organisation, describing the mating habits and relationships of the animals.
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In Jackson Heights (2015)
In Jackson Heights
Frederick Wiseman
other title: Em Jackson Heights / En Jackson Heights …
Legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman (At Berkeley, National Gallery) explores the culture, politics and daily life of the Queens, NYC district of Jackson Heights, which lays claim to being the most diverse neighbourhood in the world.
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Model (1981)
Model
Frederick Wiseman actor: Andy Warhol / Apollonia van Ravenstein
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.
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Monrovia, Indiana (2018)
Monrovia, Indiana TMDB
Frederick Wiseman
Monrovia, Indiana explores a small town in rural, mid-America and illustrates how values like community service, duty, spiritual life, generosity and authenticity are formed, experienced and lived along with conflicting stereotypes. The film gives a complex and nuanced view of daily life in Monrovia and provides some understanding of a way of life whose influence and force have not always been recognized or understood in the big cities on the east and west coasts of America and in other countries.
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Boxing Gym (2010)
Boxing Gym
Frederick Wiseman actor: Richard Lord
other title: 拳击馆 / 搏击健身房(台) …
Explores the world of a boxing gym in Austin, Texas, dwelling on the discipline of training as people from all walks of life aspire to reach their personal best.
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Welfare (1975)
Welfare
Frederick Wiseman
other title: 福利 / 복지 …
WELFARE shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.
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Near Death (1989)
Near Death IMDb TMDB
Frederick Wiseman
NEAR DEATH is a film about the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital. The film is concerned with how people face death. More specifically the film presents the complex interrelationships among patients, families, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and religious advisors as they confront the personal, ethical, medical, psychological, religious and legal issues involved in making decisions about whether or not to give life-sustaining treatment to dying patients.
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Central Park (1990)
Central Park
Frederick Wiseman actor: Ed Koch / Francis Ford Coppola …
The famous New York City landmark is given the spotlight, as well as the variety of ways in which people make use of it: running, boating, walking, skating, music, theatre, sports, picnics, parades and concerts. Further illustrated are the complex problems the NYC Parks Department deals with in order to maintain and preserve the park and keep it open and accessible to the public.
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Belfast, Maine (1999)
Belfast, Maine
Frederick Wiseman
BELFAST, MAINE is a film about ordinary experience in a beautiful old New England port city. It is a portrait of daily life with particular emphasis on the work and the cultural life of the community. Among the activities shown in the film are the work of lobstermen, tug-boat operators, factory workers, shop owners, city counselors, doctors, judges, policemen, teachers, social workers, nurses and ministers. Cultural activities include choir rehearsal, dance class, music lessons and theatre production.
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Ballet (1995)
Ballet
Frederick Wiseman actor: Julio Bocca / Alessandra Ferri …
An exploration of the inner workings of the New York City-based American Ballet Theatre, one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world. All facets are explored, from dancers Julio Bocca, Alessandra Ferri and Susan Jaffe in their relentless rehearsals to the managers and businesspeople who keep it running. The dancers' lives outside are represented as well, as they balance the strict demands of professional ballet with their personal lives.