NEW YORK (AP) — Frederick Wiseman, the celebrated director of “Titicut Follies” and dozens of other documentaries whose in-depth, unadorned movies comprised a unique and revelatory history of American institutions, died Monday at age 96.
The death was announced in a joint statement from his family and from his production company, Zipporah Films. Additional details were not immediately available.
“He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, colleagues, and the countless filmmakers and audiences around the world whose lives and perspectives were shaped by his unique vision,” the statement reads in part.
Among the world’s most admired and influential filmmakers, Wiseman won an honorary Academy Award in 2016 and completed more than 35 documentaries, some several hours long. With subjects ranging from a suburban high school to a horse race track, his work aired on public television, screened at retrospectives, was spotlighted in festivals and praised by critics and fellow directors. Wiseman was in his mid-30s before he made his first full-length movie, but was soon ranked with — and sometimes above — such celebrated peers as D.A. Pennebaker and Robert Drew for helping to establish the modern documentary as a vital and surprising art form.
Starting with “High School” and the scandalous “Titicut Follies,” he patented a seamless, affecting style, using a crew so tiny that Wiseman served as his own sound engineer. The results led to acclaim, amusement, head-shaking, finger-pointing and — with “Titicut Follies” — prolonged legal action.
“I don’t set out to be confrontational, but I think sometimes the content of the movie runs against people’s expectations and fantasies about the subject matter,” Wiseman told Gawker in 2013.
Wiseman’s vision was to make “as many films as possible about different aspects of American life,” and he often gave his documentaries self-explanatory titles: “Hospital,” “Public Housing,” “Basic Training,” “Boxing Gym.” But he also dramatized how people functioned within those settings: an elderly welfare applicant begging for assistance, a military trainee complaining of harassment, a doctor trying to coax coherent answers out of a dazed heroin addict, sales clerks at Neiman Marcus rehearsing their smiles.
“The institution is also just an excuse to observe human behavior in somewhat defined conditions,” Wiseman told The Associated Press in 2020. “The films are as much about that as they are about institutions.”
The bitter and the sweet
For “Titicut Follies,” which premiered in 1967, Wiseman visited the Massachusetts-based Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane. He amassed footage of nude men being baited by sadistic guards and one inmate being force-fed as he lies on a table, liquid pouring down a rubber hose shoved into his nose. The images were so appalling and embarrassing that state officials successfully restricted its release, giving the film exalted status among those determined to see it.
In “High School,” released in 1968, Wiseman recorded daily life in a suburban Philadelphia school. He filmed a student being questioned about whether he has permission to make a phone call, an English teacher earnestly analyzing the lyrics of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Dangling Conversation,” an awkward sex education class in which boys are told the more active they are, the more insecure they must be.
“What we see in Fred Wiseman’s documentary … is so familiar and so extraordinarily evocative that a feeling of empathy with the students floods over us,” The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael wrote. “Wiseman extends our understanding of our common life the way novelists used to.”
Wiseman made movies without narration, prerecorded soundtracks and title cards.
He vehemently argued against being associated with the “cinema verite” movement of the 1960s and ’70s, dismissing it as a “pompous French term that has absolutely no meaning.” D’Angelo, whose real name was Michael Archer, made a significant impact on the R&B and soul scene in the ’90s with his debut album “Brown Sugar” in 1995, followed by “Voodoo” in 2000, and “Black Messiah” in 2014. The R&B legend, known for his hit single “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” won four Grammys, including one for his vocal performance. The actor, who was nominated for Emmy and Golden Globe awards, also appeared in the 1983 comedy “Stroker Ace” alongside Burt Reynolds on the big screen. Colley, who began his Hollywood career in 1961, recently starred in the 2024 film “Dan Hawk Psychic Detective” and lent his voice to the 2023 short film “I Am Tree.” Castro-Arabejo, who hails from the Philippines, made her debut on the fourth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and later appeared on “RuPaul’s Drag Race Allstars.” She immigrated to New York and began her drag career around 20 years ago, participating in competitions and pageants. Flores, a native of Chicago, had gained a loyal following by performing at renowned venues like LA’s Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store, and the Hollywood Improv.
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Paul Danan
Paul Danan, a well-known actor famous for his role as Sol Patrick on the British soap opera “Hollyoaks,” passed away at his residence in Bristol, England on January 15, 2025. He was 46 years old.
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