Philippe Pilard (originally published in La Sept/Arte)

Fred Wiseman is probably one of today’s greatest living documentary filmmakers. For close to thirty years, thanks to the Public Broadcast Service (PBS), he has created an exceptional body of work consisting of thirty full length films devoted primarily to exploring American institutions. Over time these films have become a record of the western world, since now more than ever as we approach the century’s close, nothing North American is really foreign to us.

The institutions that Wiseman examined early in his career – a hospital, a high school, army basic training, a welfare center, a police precinct – have “problems” that the filmmaker uncovers. His approach reveals the profound acknowledged and unacknowledged conformity and inequality of American society. Wiseman’s films are also a reflection on democracy. What do his films portray, the “American dream” or the “air conditioned nightmare”? Both, but also a questioning of the world and of existence.

Occasionally, his films describe less circumscribed institutions – the world of fashion, a public park, and a ski resort. In addition to examining the social and ethical questions he is not afraid to confront the “big” metaphysical questions particularly in the films about handicapped children and dying patients. The filmmaker is trying to encompass all of human experience in his films.

In the past, Wiseman had already made movies outside the borders of his own country, in the Sinai, in Germany, and in Panama. In each of these films, however, his subject was Americans abroad.

In 1993, in his film BALLET, he followed the American Ballet Theatre rehearsals in New York and performances in Europe. For a long time Wiseman had wanted to make a film in France and in 1995 he tackled that most French of institutions, The Comedie Francaise. Both in BALLET and LA COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE Wiseman raises questions about the conditions necessary for artistic creation: how to create those conditions which allow a director, an actor, or a dancer to achieve the goal of a perfect even sublime performance; how the specific dialect for the theatre works, the dialect which both places in opposition and transcends the solitude of individual creation and group collaboration.

“Documentaries, like theatre pieces, novels or poems are forms of fiction,” claims Wiseman. Over the years his films have become more a skillful mix of observation, testimony, reflection, an absence of prejudice, and courage, and humor. A complex body of work, as great works of fiction (novels, drama, music, and film) can be, with the same profundity, contradictions, and questions without answers.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Williams College, 1951
LL.B., Yale Law School, 1954

Honorary Degrees

• Doctor Honoris Causa, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, May 2016

• Doctor of Fine Arts, State University of New York at Purchase, 2009

• Doctor of Fine Arts, Bowdoin College, 2005

• Doctor of Fine Arts, Princeton University, 1994

• Doctor of Humane Letters, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 1994

• Doctor of Fine Arts, Lake Forest College, 1991

• Doctor of Humane Letters, Williams College, 1976

• Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Cincinnati, 1973
  

Distinctions

• Carrosse d’Or, Cannes Film Festival, 2021

• Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, Harvard University, Norton Lecture Series, 2018

• Honorary Oscar, Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, 2016

• Venice International Film Festival Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, 2014

• Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2000

• Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 1987

• John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow, 1982-1987

• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow, 1980-1981
  

National Film Registry

• THE COOL WORLD – Producer

• HIGH SCHOOL

• HOSPITAL

• TITICUT FOLLIES

Awards and Fellowships

• Carrosse d’Or, Cannes Film Festival, 2021

• Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award, 2019

• Library Lions Honoree, New York Public Library, 2019

• Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, Harvard University, Norton Lecture Series, 2018

• Camerimage Award for Outstanding Achievements in Documentary Filmmaking, 2017

• Disability Law Center Impact Award, 2017

• Honorary Oscar, Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, 2016

• France Culture Prix Consécration, Cannes Film Festival, May 2016

• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary), for IN JACKSON HEIGHTS 2015

• Venice International Film Festival Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, 2014

• Career Achievement Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, 2013

• New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Special Award, 2013

• Career Achievement Award, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, 2013

• Lifetime Achievement Award, The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, 2010

• Dartmouth Film Award, Dartmouth College, 2010

• IDFA Living Legend Award, 2009

• Lifetime Achievement Award, The Chicago International Documentary Festival, 2007

• George Polk Career Award, 2006

• American Society of Cinematographers Distinguished Achievement Award, 2006

• Dan David Prize Laureate, 2003

• HOT DOCS Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2002

• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Career Award, 2002

• Yale Law Association Award of Merit, 2002

• Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2001

• Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2000

• Irene Diamond Life-Time Achievement Award/Human Rights Watch, 2000

• The Rosenberger Medal, University of Chicago, 1999

• Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1991

• The Peabody Award for Significant and Meritorious Achievement, 1990

• Humanitarian Award, Massachusetts Psychological Association, 1990

• Career Achievement Award, International Documentary Association, 1990

• Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, Virginia Festival of American Film, 1988

• Louis Hazam Award, Washington Film and Video Council, 1987

• Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 1987

• Great Director Tribute and Award for Continuing Directorial Achievement in the Documentary Field, USA Film Festival, 1984

• John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow, 1982-1987

• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow, 1980-1981

• Personal Achievement Gabriel Award, Catholic Broadcasters’ Association, 1975

• Gold Hugo Award, Chicago International Film Festival, 1972

Professional Experience

• Independent Filmmaker, 1967-present

• Zipporah Films, Inc., President, 1971-present

• Treasurer, Organization for Social & Technical Innovation, 1966-1970

• Research Associate, Brandeis University, Department of Sociology, 1962-1964

• Russell Sage Foundation Fellowship, Harvard University, 1961-1962

• Lecturer-in-Law, Boston University Law School, 1959-1961

• Member, Massachusetts Bar, 1955

• Private Practice, Paris, France, 1956-1957

• United States Army, 1955-1956

• Artistic Council and Board of Directors, Theater for a New Audience, 1998-present

• Honorary Committee, The Boston Jewish Film Festival, 1994-present

• Honorary Member, Les Amis du Cinéma du Réel Association, 1987-present

• AFI Docs Advisory board, 2015-present

FILMS

• Titicut Follies, 1967

• High School, 1968

• Law and Order, 1969

• Hospital, 1969

• Basic Training, 1971

• Essene, 1972

• Juvenile Court, 1973

• Primate, 1974

• Welfare, 1975

• Meat, 1976

• Canal Zone, 1977

• Sinai Field Mission, 1978

• Manoeuvre, 1979

• Model, 1980

• The Store, 1983

• Racetrack, 1985

• Blind, 1986

• Deaf, 1986

• Adjustment and Work, 1986

• Multi–handicapped, 1986

• Missile, 1987    

• Central Park, 1989

• Near Death, 1989

• Aspen, 1991

• Zoo, 1993

• High School II, 1994

• Ballet, 1995

• La Comédie-Française ou   

• L’Amour Joué, 1996

• Public Housing, 1997

• Belfast, Maine, 1999

• Domestic Violence, 2001

• Domestic Violence 2, 2002

• La Dernière Lettre, 2002

• The Garden, 2004

• State Legislature, 2006

• La Danse—Le Ballet de    

•   l’Opéra de Paris, 2009

• Boxing Gym, 2010

• Crazy Horse, 2011

• At Berkeley, 2013

• National Gallery, 2014

• In Jackson Heights, 2015

• Ex Libris – The New York

• Public Library, 2017

• Monrovia, Indiana, 2018

• City Hall, 2020

• A Couple, 2022

• Menus-Plaisirs—Les Troisgros, 2023

Theater

• "Oh Les Beaux Jours" (Happy Days) by Samuel Beckett. La Comedie Francaise, Paris. Director, November - January 2006; Director & Actor, Jan-March 2007

• "The Last Letter" an adaptation from the novel Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. Theatre for a New Audience, New York. Director, December 2003

• “The Last Letter” an adaptation from the novel Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman.  North American Tour with La Comedie Francaise production (Ottawa/Toronto, Canada; Cambridge/Springfield, MA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL)  Director, May-June 2001

• “The Last Letter” an adaptation from the novel Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman.  La Comedie Francaise, Paris.  Director, March-April 2000, September-November, 2000

• “Welfare: The Opera,” story by Frederick Wiseman and David Slavitt, libretto by David Slavitt, music by Lenny Pickett.  St. Anne’s Center for Restoration and the Arts, New York.  Director, May 1997

• “Welfare: The Opera,” story by Frederick Wiseman and David Slavitt, libretto by David Slavitt, music by Lenny Pickett.  American Music Theater Festival, Philadelphia.  Director, June 1992

• “Hate” by Joshua Goldstein.  American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge.  Director, January 1991

• “The Last Letter” an adaptation from the novel Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman.  American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge.  Director, May 1988

• “Tonight We Improvise” by Luigi Pirandello.  American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge.  Director of video sequences and actor in role of documentary filmmaker, November 1986-February 1987

Publications

• "Reality Fictions" The Threepenny Review, Summer 2004

• “Near Death” The Threepenny Review, Winter 2004

• “Walker Evans VI” The Threepenny Review, Winter 2002

• “Jill Freedman IV” The Threepenny Review, Winter 1999

• “Dan Weiner III,” The Threepenny Review, Winter 1998

• "Une approche du monologue" Comédie-Française Les Cahiers, No 23, 1997

• “A Nonscholar’s Approach to Monologue,” The Threepenny Review, Winter 1997

• “Dorothea Lange V,” The Threepenny Review, Winter 1995

• “Implementation,” section of Report of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, co-author.  Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1968

• “Psychiatry and Law: Use and Abuse of Psychiatry in a Murder Case,” American Journal of Psychiatry, October 1961