Prolific and brilliant documentarian Frederick Wiseman is to receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ 31st News and Documentary Emmys. For those unfamiliar with Wiseman’s style, he uses no narration, staging, or interviews; he strictly follows his subject(s) throughout the film without any breaks and is noted for his extreme realism. He’s consistently brilliant and a great change of pace for those who are sick of cutesy pop-documentaries that get all the distribution. He’s certainly not for everyone, and it’s a wonder that these films even got made in the first place, something for which we can thank the Public Broadcast Service.
Most recently, Wiseman’s “Boxing Gym” was in this year’s Director’s Fortnight, which Variety had a positive take on, saying: “Adhering to the auteur’s trademark fly-on-the-wall style, the pic favors portraiture over narrative and thus faces familiar critical and commercial limitations. Yet for those in Wiseman’s corner, “Boxing Gym” goes the distance.” This writer is a big fan of Wiseman’s first film “Titicut Follies,” which is a chilling examination of a mental asylum and was banned for quite some time. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find Wiseman’s films, and although his work is available on his website, the price tags for the DVDs are quite hefty.
It’s great that the auteur is getting the respect that he deserves with the award, and hopefully the new award will raise some demand for the brilliant director’s work. Below the jump is a trailer for “La Danse” and a clip from “Public Housing,” and we can look forward to “Boxing Gym” in October thanks to IFC.
