FRED WISEMAN RETROSPECTIVE

WELFARE

USA, 1975, 167 min.

Director: Frederick Wiseman
Cinematography: William Brayne
Editing: Frederick Wiseman
Production company: Zipporah Films
Print Source:
Zipporah Films
One Richdale Avenue, Unit #4
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02140
USA
Tel.: 617.576.3603
Fax: 617.864.8006
e-mail: info@zipporah.com
www.zipporah.com

Welfare

The nature and complexity of the welfare system is examined by 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 the clients, are struggling to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.

Frederick Wiseman was born in 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts. He initially studied law at Yale University. A member of the Massachusetts Bar, Wiseman was a Lecturer-in-Law at Boston University and a Research Associate in the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University before becoming a filmmaker. He started his career by producing a fiction feature film about Harlem teenagers, The Cool World (1963), adapted from the novel by Warren Miller and directed by New York filmmaker Shirley Clarke.

In 1967 Fred Wiseman made his debut as a documentary filmmaker with Titicut Follies, an expose that chronicled the various ways the inmates at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts are treated by guards, social workers and psychiatrists. Due to its revealing nature, Titicut Follies became mired in lengthy litigation with state authorities, and the ensuing controversy resulted in Wiseman garnering the inaccurate reputation as a muckraker. Though has gone on to examine the ins and outs of hospitals, high schools, army basic training, a welfare center and a police precinct, his films have also been concerned with the institution of American culture. And though his initial films did seem to be motivated by a desire for social change, recent films lack an ardent activist drive and instead are about the film experience itself, about finding narrative themes and exploring symbolic potential in the everyday through editing. They are also longer. Wiseman’s recent films can run into the three and four hour mark, a drastic increase from the 84 minute running time of Titicut Follies.

In 1971 Fred Wiseman founded a distribution company, Zipporah Films. Though his works have been shown on PBS, Zipporah Films is committed to preserving, promoting and funding Mr. Wiseman’s body of work through rentals, screenings and lectures.

During his expansive career, Wiseman has received numerous awards and accolades including Emmy Awards, the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, the Grand Prix at the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film and a personal Peabody Award.

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