Non-fiction cinema is before and after Frederick Wiseman, an indisputable notion that loses no import with the news, made official by his own Zipporah Films, that the artist behind—let’s name just a fraction—Titticut Follies, High School, The Store, Welfare, Central Park, and Belfast, Maine, plus recent triumphs At Berkeley, City Hall, National Gallery, Ex Libris, and Monrovia, Indiana has died at 96. And while it would take unfathomable lengths of time to experience the entire corpus, one imagines the void he leaves is without repair.
Wiseman’s filmography concluded with 2023’s Menus-Plaisirs, les Troisgros, shortly after which he rather bluntly expressed doubt—from the combination of work requirements and age limitations—about continuing, a prophecy sadly rendered true. Yet recent years were spent restoring past work, an incomprehensible effort that is more than likely to pay dividends for future generations.
We were lucky enough to interview Wiseman on a number of occasions, and will humbly gesture towards them as complements for each attendant film: