Frederick Wiseman Gets a Massive 4K Retrospective at Lincoln Center

Last week, Film at Lincoln Center announced one of the most exciting retrospective series in years, “Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution,” which features a massive selection of 33 films (most of which are very difficult to find), spanning the six decades of the iconic filmmaker’s prolific career — and they’re all in 4K. They were newly restored from their original camera negatives and sound elements by Zipporah Films and overseen by Wiseman throughout a five-year restoration process, serving as one of the most essential restoration projects of recent years. Once limited to 16mm film prints rarely screened in theaters, these invaluable works can now be experienced in their fullest form at the Walter Reade Theater.

The fact that this series is happening at FLC is significant, considering their lengthy relationship with the filmmaker, whose films have been selected for the New York Film Festival 11 times since 1967. Wiseman is justifiably considered one of the greatest documentary filmmakers, whose work has been brilliant since his controversial directorial debut, Titicut Follies (1967), which was banned worldwide until 1991, all the way to 2023. His epic film from that year, Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros, was named MovieWeb’s best documentary of 2023, and remains one of the best films of the decade. The practically eternal Wiseman made the film in his 90s (he is currently 94, and turns 95 on New Year’s Day).

The series will be presented from January 31 through March 5, 2025. A special Student All-Access Pass for $99 will be available in limited quantities starting December 12 at noon here. Tickets will go on sale on January 15 at noon, with an early access period for FLC members starting January 14 at noon. Tickets are $17; $14 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $12 for FLC members. See more and save with 3+ Film Package ($15 for GP; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for FLC Members).

The Timeless Style of Frederick Wiseman

The press release from Film at Lincoln Center does a remarkable job of summarizing Wiseman’s style and genius. “Frederick Wiseman has been steadily constructing an unflinching, ongoing project chronicling late-20th and early-21st-century institutional life. Working with a small crew (recording sound himself alongside a cinematographer and assistant) and eschewing narration, music, or interviews, Wiseman fashioned an unassuming yet revelatory style from his peerless gift for responding quickly and intuitively to the action unfolding in his presence, no matter how contradictory and unpredictable.”

The statement continues:

“After shooting, he personally edits upward of 150 hours of footage into, as the filmmaker himself has put it, ‘fictional movies based on real, unstaged events.’ But the consequences of these movies have been both immediate in their real-world reforms and monumentally influential to generations of audiences, activists, and filmmakers.

“Taken together, they have come to typify a cinematic practice that expresses, with unobstructed lucidity, the complexity and ambiguity of social structures and their impact on the individual, whether they are students, doctors, politicians, soldiers, fashion models, zookeepers, factory workers, Benedictine monks, or the terminally ill.”

Highlighted Films from “Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution” at FLC

If you’re looking to see certain films from “Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution,” the first and last movies in the retrospective are must-watch films. His infamous Titicut Follies “is a stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions that existed at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Titicut Follies documents the various ways the inmates are treated by the guards, social workers, and psychiatrists.” Like John Huston’s revelatory (and also banned) documentary Let There Be Light, Wiseman takes an objective and honest look at mental health, always grounded in humanity.

As Wiseman’s career developed, his films got longer and longer, and 2006’s State Legislature has his usual runtime of three to three and a half hours. And yet, these films are never dull, and lure audiences into a trance-like state of pure experience. (Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros was four hours long, and each minute feels meaningful). State Legislature “shows the day-to-day activities of the Idaho Legislature during an entire session. The film is an example of the achievements, values, constraints, and limitations of the democratic process.”

In the 1980s, Wiseman spent a lot of time focusing on communities of people with different disabilities or impairments, culminating in a cycle of four films released in 1986. Deaf “is a chronicle of the total communication teaching methods (i.e., the use of signs and finger spelling in conjunction with speech, hearing aids, lip-reading, gestures, and the written word) used at The School for the Deaf at the Alabama Institute. Blind “shows the educational programs and daily life of students in kindergarten through the 12th grade at the Alabama School for the Blind, a school organized to educate blind and visually impaired students to be in charge of their own lives.”

Meanwhile, Adjustment & Work “shows adjustment services for adults in personal and work situations as they learn to adjust to their impairments. Sequences include routine work and manufacturing of a variety of household and military products.” Finally, Multi-Handicapped “shows the day-to-day activities of multi-handicapped and sensory-impaired students and their teachers, dormitory parents, and counselors at the Helen Keller School.” These four compassionate films form one of the most empathetic, mind-opening, humanistic, and detailed portraits of disability in film history.

Just as those four films were incredibly ahead of their time, Wiseman’s Near Death (1989) is a groundbreaking epic about near-death studies, including hospice and the still (somehow) controversial issue of assisted suicide. It’s not exactly a good introduction to Wiseman — its heavy subject, emotional content, and six-hour runtime should be a warning — but it is one of his masterpieces. The film “presents the interrelationships among patients, families, doctors, nurses, and religious advisors as they confront the issues involved in making decisions about life-sustaining treatment for dying patients at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital.”

Basically, every Wiseman film is worth watching, and many are life-altering, so if you’re in New York between January 31 and March 5, you owe it to yourself to check out Film at Lincoln Center’s retrospective, “Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution.” You can get tickets and a full look at all the films in this series here, and check out Film at Lincoln Center’s usual calendar of great films here.