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Frederick Wiseman<\/strong>, Honorary Oscar\u00ae<\/sup> recipient and the author of more than forty feature projects, is definitely such a filmmaker. This November he will come to Bydgoszcz to talk with the festival\u2019s participants about his documentary ethos, inspirations and passions, and to accept the Camerimage Award for Outstanding Achievements In Documentary Filmmaking<\/strong>. Wiseman<\/strong>, who occupies a special place in the world of documentary filmmaking, will join the ranks of previous Camerimage<\/strong> recipients: Jay Rosenblatt<\/strong>, Marcel \u0141ozi\u0144ski<\/strong>, Kim Longinotto<\/strong>, Joan Churchill<\/strong>, Steven Okazaki<\/strong>, Albert Maysles<\/strong>, Terry Sanders<\/strong>, and Kazimierz Karabasz<\/strong>.<\/div>\n
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Frederick Wiseman, photo by Erik Madigan Heck<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The cinema of Frederick Wiseman<\/strong> is not easy to digest, for it demands both the viewers’ complete attention, something which is becoming increasingly difficult in this constantly accelerating world of ours, and their intense participation. Investing your emotions and experiences in order to feel and understand the emotions and experiences of the characters, people similar to us, though put in situations we would not like to be put into. The best example is Wiseman\u2019s<\/strong> directorial debut, Titicut Follies<\/em><\/span>, in which the filmmaker closely observed the workings of the state prison hospital for the criminally insane. The film provoked an outrage and because of that it was labelled as scandalous, but you may look in vain for another equally cinematic depiction of institutional dehumanization of either the bygone days or the world we live in right now. Titicut Follies<\/em> <\/span>still evokes strong emotions, proving indisputably that the line between the primitive and the civilized was, is and always will be very thin.<\/div>\n
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Dozens of films later, Frederick Wiseman<\/strong> still holds the same values; he did not change his attitude towards documentary filmmaking or their audiovisual qualities. When he begins working on a project \u2013 whether the subject is deaf students learning to communicate with the outside world (Deaf<\/em><\/span>), or observing the intricate mechanisms of a ballet company (La danse<\/em><\/span>) \u2013 he loses himself completely in the given world. He spends several weeks in it, observing, searching, absorbing, shooting hundreds of hours of footage, often in collaboration with cinematographer John Davey<\/strong>, who will also be the guest of Camerimage<\/strong>. Next, Wiseman<\/strong> goes into a laborious process of editing, reworking, adding, cutting, repeating, using carefully selected images and sounds to mold the footage into a self-explanatory narrative which will present his personal experience of the given world to the viewer, while also guiding the audience through its many complexities. It results in an audiovisual amalgam of emotions, thoughts and reflections that makes you stop what you are doing, take a look around, and adopt a new perspective.<\/div>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\nStill from\u00a0“Titicut Follies”<\/em><\/div>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\nStill from “La danse”<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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At the same time, Wiseman<\/strong> swims imperturbably against the modern currents and trends. He shoots the kind of films he would like to watch, he tells stories that come straight from his heart and mind, as well as fifty years of shaping the instinct of documentary filmmaker. His projects, produced and distributed by Zipporah Films<\/strong> which he founded, typically run\u00a0for hours (Near Death<\/em><\/span>, a tale of workers and terminally ill patients of Boston\u2019s Beth Israel Hospital, is almost six hours long). No talking heads<\/em>, no alluring montages, no voiceover suggesting how one should feel and perceive what is happening on the screen. Although in his films he analyzes the ways of mainly American institutions, as well as their influence over people\u2019s mentality and identity, Wiseman<\/strong> excels in creating humanistic cinematic odysseys that are extremely accurate observations of the condition of the modern Western world. While his characters, always depicted with a professional distance but also warmth and understanding for their typically human flaws, are always inseparable from the filmmaker and his worldview.<\/div>\n
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To put it in other words, Wiseman<\/strong> finds human drama in the mundanity of everyday life, and recognizes the mundanity of everyday life in each and every human drama he depicts. As in Boxing Gym<\/em><\/span>, in which the titular facility becomes a meeting place for people from various backgrounds who find the motivation in sport to face the greyness of the everydayness. Or as in Basic Training<\/em><\/span>, in which Wiseman<\/strong> showcases how young people are being shaped into soldiers \u2013 through discipline, rigor, and carrying out orders without asking unnecessary questions. It will probably help them survive the inferno of the Vietnam War, but at the same time it will deprive some of them of a part of their humanity. Wiseman\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0deliberate pacing enables him to contemplate over various, seemingly trivial matters, thus making the viewer rethink those and dig deeper by rejecting numerous social conventions that surround them.<\/div>\n
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