Frederick Wiseman
Director
57
Filmes
1
Séries
Frederick Wiseman (January 1, 1930 — February 16, 2026) was an American filmmaker, documentarian, and theatre director. As a documentarian, Wiseman has been noted for his ability to capture the nuances of life in American institutions such as prisons, hospitals, welfare offices, and high schools. He started out in 1963 by producing a narrative feature, The Cool World, an examination of the lives of Harlem teenagers. In the beginning, Wiseman was a staunch social reformist, and his films were calls for change.
Titicut Follies, his first documentary, is an exposé of life in a prison for the criminally insane in Bridgewater, MA. It was controversial and left Wiseman with the reputation of being a muckraker. His four subsequent documentaries were all exposés of other tax-supported institutions designed to show the ineffectiveness of the bureaucracy that not only threatens to destroy them, but also dehumanizes the people they were meant to serve. Wiseman toned down his message and began focusing more on American culture to point out the symbolism of daily activities in his film Primate (1974).
In the 1980s, he began examining institutions as they relate to ideology. Unlike other documentaries, Wiseman’s work does not progress chronologically; rather, the segments are arranged thematically, like an essay, and are linked via rhetorical devices such as comparison and contrast to create a patterned structure. His films are never narrated, thereby forcing viewers to make connections between the sequences themselves. Wiseman has occasionally returned to fictional films, albeit in a non-fiction performance style, as with Seraphita’s Diary (1982) and La Derniere Lettre (2002).
Por Trás das Câmeras
Central Park
Director, Editor, Productor
Titicut Follies
Director, Editor, Escritor, Productor
Nedostaje mi Sonja Henie
Director
La Danse - Le Ballet de L'Opéra de Paris
Director, Editor, Sound Director, Escritor, Productor
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
Director, Productor, Editor, Sound
Crazy Horse
Editor, Productor, Director
Model
Director, Productor, Editor
Aspen
Director, Editor, Productor
Un Couple
Director, Escritor, Editor
Menus-Plaisirs, les Troisgros
Editor, Productor, Escritor, Director
Hospital
Director, Editor, Productor
The Cool World
Productor
Welfare
Editor, Productor, Director
Meat
Director, Productor, Editor
Domestic Violence
Director, Editor, Productor
City Hall
Director, Productor, Editor
Seraphita's Diary
Director
Essene
Director, Escritor, Productor, Editor
In Jackson Heights
Productor, Editor, Sound Director, Director
National Gallery
Escritor, Editor, Productor, Director, Sound
High School
Director, Editor, Productor, Escritor
Boxing Gym
Director, Editor, Sound
La Comédie-Française ou L'amour joué
Director, Productor, Editor
Juvenile Court
Director, Editor, Productor
Law and Order
Director, Editor, Productor, Escritor
At Berkeley
Editor, Director, Sound, Productor
Sinai Field Mission
Director, Editor, Productor
Basic Training
Director, Editor, Productor, Escritor
The Store
Director, Productor, Editor
Primate
Director, Productor, Editor