Courtesy of Zipporah films

“Frederick Wiseman’s films are like meditations.

They reveal the soul of places, people, and most importantly, oneself. His pursuit is essential to our understanding of images in relation to the world; there is no reality but a gaze.”

– Apichatpong Weerasethakul

New York, NY (January 13, 2025) – Film at Lincoln Center announces the schedule for “Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution,” to be presented at FLC from January 31 through March 5. The retrospective will feature an extensive selection of films spanning decades of the iconic filmmaker’s prolific career, including many films newly restored in 4K following a five-year restoration process by Zipporah Films and overseen by Wiseman.

Throughout his career, Wiseman has been steadily constructing an unflinching, ongoing project chronicling late-20th and early-21st-century institutional life. His films have come to typify a cinematic practice that expresses, with unobstructed lucidity, the complexity and ambiguity of social structures and their impact on the individual, whether they are students, doctors, politicians, soldiers, fashion models, zookeepers, factory workers, Benedictine monks, or the terminally ill. With 11 of Wiseman’s films having been selected for the New York Film Festival, this series signifies a celebration of the long-standing relationship between FLC and the renowned documentary filmmaker.

“Lincoln Center has been interested in my films and shown them since my first film, Titicut Follies, in 1967. I am pleased and honored that they are showing the 33 films that have been restored,” said Wiseman about the series.

The screening schedule is available below. Press screenings are being held at FLC through January 16; please email John Kwiatkowski (jkwiatkowski@filmlinc.org) and Eva Tooley (etooley@filmlinc.org) for more information and to RSVP.

Organized by Florence Almozini and Tyler Wilson.

Acknowledgements
Karen Konicek, Zipporah Films; Michael Tuckman

A special Student All-Access Pass for $99 is now available here. Tickets will go on sale here January 15 at noon, with an early access period for FLC Members starting January 14 at noon. Tickets are $17; $14 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $12 for FLC Members. See more and save with 3+ Film Package ($15 for GP; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for FLC Members).

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
All films screen in the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St.)

4K Restorations

Titicut Follies
Frederick Wiseman, 1967, U.S., 84m
Wiseman’s first feature is a stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions that existed at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Titicut Follies documents the various ways the inmates are treated by the guards, social workers, and psychiatrists. An NYFF5 selection.
Friday, January 31 at 2:00pm
Sunday, February 2 at 3:30pm

High School
Frederick Wiseman, 1968, U.S., 74m
Filmed at a large urban high school in Philadelphia, High School documents how the school system not only exists to pass on “facts” but also transmits social values from one generation to another. High School presents a series of formal and informal encounters between teachers, students, parents, and administrators through which the ideology and values of the school emerge. An NYFF7 selection.
Friday, January 31 at 6:00pm
Thursday, February 20 at 9:15pm

Law and Order
Frederick Wiseman, 1969, U.S., 81m
Law and Order follows the day-to-day work of the Kansas City Police Department as they operate in an area hit hard by violence during several 1968 race riots. The film surveys the wide range of work the police are asked to perform: enforcing the law, maintaining order, and providing general social services. The incidents shown illustrate how training, community expectations, socioeconomic status of the subject, the threat of violence, and discretion all affect police behavior.
Friday, January 31 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, February 19 at 5:00pm

Hospital
Frederick Wiseman, 1969, U.S., 84m
Hospital shows the daily activities of New York City’s Metropolitan Hospital, following hospital staff and a variety of patients with an emphasis on the emergency ward and outpatient clinics. The cases depicted illustrate how medical expertise, availability of resources, organizational considerations, and the nature of communication among the staff and patients affect the delivery of appropriate health care.
Friday, January 31 at 4:00pm
Saturday, February 1 at 12:00pm
Tuesday, February 11 at 9:00pm

Basic Training
Frederick Wiseman, 1971, U.S., 89m
Basic Training follows a company of draftees and enlisted men through nine weeks of the basic training cycle and the many forms of ideological training familiar to those who have served in the armed forces. The varieties of training techniques used by the army in converting civilians to soldiers are illustrated in scenes of drills, M-16 and bayonet use, a gas chamber, mines, night crawls, an infiltration course, and the many forms of ideological training familiar to millions of men and women who have served in the armed forces.
Saturday, February 1 at 2:00pm
Tuesday, February 4 at 8:30pm
Monday, February 10 at 12:15pm

Essene
Frederick Wiseman, 1972, U.S., 89m
Essene is about daily life in a Benedictine monastery and the resolution of conflict between personal needs and the institutional and organizational priorities of the community. In the Order, where the focus of life is the relationship of individual work and worship to the community as a whole, the brethren must cope with the same issues that arise in any community: rules, work, worship, values, love, and play.
Thursday, February 13 at 1:30pm
Sunday, February 23 at 12:00pm

Juvenile Court
Frederick Wiseman, 1973, U.S., 144m
Juvenile Court shows the complex variety of cases before the Memphis Juvenile Court: foster home placement, drug abuse, armed robbery, child abuse, and sexual offenses. The sequences illustrate such issues as community protection vs. the desire for rehabilitation, the range and the limits of the choices available to the court, the psychology of the offender, and the constitutional and procedural questions involved in administering a juvenile court.
Tuesday, February 11 at 6:00pm
Thursday, February 20 at 3:00pm

Primate
Frederick Wiseman, 1974, U.S., 105m
Primate presents the daily activities of Atlanta’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Scientists in the film are concerned with studying the physical and mental development of primates. Some of the experimental work shown in the film deals with the capacity to learn, remember, and apply language and manual skills; the effect of alcohol and drugs on behavior; the control of aggressive and sexual behavior; and other neural and physiological determinants of behavior.
Saturday, February 1 at 9:15pm
Saturday, February 22 at 6:15pm

Welfare
Frederick Wiseman, 1975, U.S., 167m
A profile of the welfare system that illustrates the staggering diversity of problems that surround welfare: unemployment, divorce, housing, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers and clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.
Sunday, February 2 at 12:00pm
Monday, February 17 at 2:30pm

Meat
Frederick Wiseman, 1976, U.S., 113m
Meat examines one of America’s largest feed lots and packing plants while tracing the process through which cattle and sheep become consumer goods. It depicts the processing and transportation of meat products by a highly automated packing plant, illustrating important points and problems in the area of production, transportation, logistics, equipment design, time-motion study, and labor management.
Tuesday, February 4 at 6:00pm
Saturday, February 22 at 8:45pm

Canal Zone
Frederick Wiseman, 1977, U.S., 174m
Canal Zone is about the people who live and work in the Panama Canal Zone and shows both the operation of the canal and the various governmental agencies related to its functioning and the lives of the Americans in the zone. The film includes sequences of ships in transit, the work of special canal pilots, aspects of the civil government, the work of the military, and the social, religious and recreational life of the Zonians.
Wednesday, February 12 at 12:30pm
Tuesday, February 18 at 7:00pm

Sinai Field Mission
Frederick Wiseman, 1978, U.S., 127m
Sinai Field Mission follows the diplomats and technicians who operate the U.S. Sinai Field Mission, the early warning system established in 1976 to help facilitate the disengagement between Egypt and Israel after the 1973 war. The major purpose of the Mission is to monitor the approaches to strategic passes and to verify the operations of the Egyptian and Israeli surveillance stations in the Sinai Buffer Zone.
Thursday, February 13 at 3:30pm
Monday, February 24 at 6:00pm

Manoeuvre
Frederick Wiseman, 1979, U.S., 115m
Manoeuvre follows a U.S. infantry tank company through NATO’s annual fall maneuvers in Western Europe. The various stages of the training exercise are seen from the point of view of a company fighting a simulated conventional war. One purpose of these war games is to test how quickly and effectively U.S. reinforcements can come to the aid of NATO forces stationed in Europe. The various stages of the training exercise, including defensive and offensive tactics, and hypothetical wins and losses are seen from the point of view of a company fighting a simulated, conventional, non-nuclear ground and air war.
Wednesday, February 12 at 4:00pm
Monday, February 17 at 8:30pm

Model
Frederick Wiseman, 1980, U.S., 129m
Model shows male and female models at work on TV commercials, fashion shows, magazine covers, and advertising for a variety of products, including designer collections, fur coats, sports clothes, and automobiles. The models are seen at work with photographers whose techniques illustrate different styles of fashion and product photography. The business aspect of running an agency is also shown: interviewing prospective models, career counseling, arranging portfolios, talking with clients, and planning trips. The film presents a view of the intersections of fashion, business, advertising, photography, television, and fantasy. An NYFF62 Revivals selection.
Saturday, February 1 at 4:00pm
Saturday, February 15 at 1:00pm

The Store
Frederick Wiseman, 1983, U.S., 120m
Centered on the main Neiman-Marcus store and corporate headquarters in Dallas, The Store studies the selection, presentation, marketing, pricing, advertising, and selling of a vast array of consumer products. The film illustrates the internal management and organizational aspects of a large corporation through sales meetings, the development of marketing and advertising strategies, training, personnel practices, and sales techniques.
Saturday, February 1 at 6:45pm
Friday, February 21 at 8:30pm

Racetrack
Frederick Wiseman, 1985, U.S., 114m
Racetrack is about New York’s Belmont Race Track, one of the world’s leading race tracks for thoroughbred racing. The film highlights the training, maintenance, and racing of thoroughbred horses, showing everyday occurrences — from the grooming, feeding, shoeing, and caring for horses in preparation for races, to the various aspects of training, exercising, and timing the horses at the practice track, to betting and watching the races from the grandstand. The film also reveals the variety of work done by trainers, jockeys, jockey agents, grooms, hot walkers, stable hands, and veterinarians.
Tuesday, February 11 at 3:30pm
Saturday, February 22 at 3:45pm

Deaf
Frederick Wiseman, 1986, U.S., 164m
Deaf is a chronicle of the total communication teaching methods (i.e., the use of signs and finger spelling in conjunction with speech, hearing aids, lip reading, gestures, and the written word) used at The School for the Deaf at the Alabama Institute. The film shows sequences dealing with various aspects of this comprehensive training such as teaching students and parents to sign, speech therapy, psychological counseling, regular academic courses, vocational training, disciplinary problems, parental visits, sports and recreational activity, training in living and working independently, and developing skills in home and money management.
Saturday, February 15 at 8:00pm
Monday, February 24 at 2:30pm

Blind
Frederick Wiseman, 1986, U.S., 133m
Blind follows the educational programs and daily life of students in kindergarten through the 12th grade at the Alabama School for the Blind, a school organized to educate blind and visually impaired students to be in charge of their own lives. The film shows mobility training, braille instruction and orientation, traditional classroom subjects such as English and music, psychological counseling sessions, vocational training, staff dealing with student disciplinary problems, and the wide variety of recreational and athletic programs.
Sunday, February 16 at 7:30pm
Tuesday, February 25 at 3:30pm

Adjustment & Work
Frederick Wiseman, 1986, U.S., 120m
Adjustment & Work shows adjustment services for adults in personal and work situations as they learn to adjust to their impairments. The first part of this film takes place at the E.H. Gentry Technical Facility, which provides evaluation and personal adjustment services to sensory impaired adults and also functions as a vocational training center offering technical instruction in 15 career areas such as business, printing, home economics, food services, and computer sciences. The film goes on to show work at the Alabama Industries for the Blind, the second largest employer of blind people in the U.S., which provides employment and training to more than 300 blind, deaf, and other people with disabilities.
Tuesday, February 11 at 1:00pm
Tuesday, February 25 at 6:15pm

Multi-handicapped
Frederick Wiseman, 1986, U.S., 126m
This film shows the day-to-day activities of multi-handicapped and sensory-impaired students and their teachers, dormitory parents, and counselors at the Helen Keller School. The primary mission of the school is to meet the needs of deaf and/or blind children, some of whom also have other disabilities. The film presents situations involving personal hygiene, mobility training, concepts of time and money, self-help and independent living, dorm life, recreation, sports, vocational training, and psychological counseling.
Wednesday, February 19 at 2:00pm
Monday, February 24 at 8:45pm

Missile
Frederick Wiseman, 1987, U.S., 115m
Missile is a look at the 4315th Training Squadron of the Strategic Air Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base, where officers are trained to man the Launch Control Centers for the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. The film includes discussion of the moral and military issues of nuclear war, the arming and launching of the missile, codes, communications, protection against terrorist attacks, emergency procedures, staff meetings, and tutorial sessions.
Monday, February 17 at 6:00pm
Tuesday, February 25 at 1:00pm

Near Death
Frederick Wiseman, 1989, U.S., 358m
Near Death presents the complex interrelationships among patients, families, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and religious advisors as they confront the personal, ethical, medical, psychological, religious and legal issues involved in making decisions about whether or not to give life-sustaining treatment to dying patients at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. An NYFF27 selection.
Sunday, February 16 at 1:00pm
Tuesday, March 4 at 12:30pm

Central Park
Frederick Wiseman, 1990, U.S., 176m
Central Park focuses on the famous New York City landmark and the variety of ways people make use of it, while illustrating the complex problems the New York City Parks Department deals with in order to maintain and preserve the park and keep it open and accessible to the public.
Friday, February 14 at 6:00pm
Tuesday, March 4 at 7:00pm

Aspen
Frederick Wiseman, 1991, U.S., 146m
Aspen is an exploration during the winter months of the daily life and activities of the people who live, work, visit, and play in Aspen, famous in the 19th century for silver mining and now known for its scenic splendor, mountains, skiing, hiking, music, intellectual activity, and fashionable people.
Saturday, February 15 at 3:45pm
Friday, February 21 at 5:30pm

Zoo
Frederick Wiseman, 1993, U.S., 130m
Zoo is a film about the Miami Zoo, the care and maintenance of the animals by the keepers, the work of the veterinarians and their staff, and the visits to the zoo by people from all over the world. The film presents the wide diversity of interests and activities at the zoo and the interrelatedness of the animal, human, ethical, financial, technical, organizational, and research aspects of its operation.
Monday, February 10 at 2:15pm
Saturday, February 22 at 1:00pm

High School II
Frederick Wiseman, 1994, U.S., 220m
High School II looks at Central Park East Secondary School, a successful alternative high school in New York’s Spanish Harlem, 85–95% of whose graduates go on to four-year colleges. The film illustrates the school’s emphasis on the “Habits of Mind” program — which focuses on weighing evidence, awareness of multiple points of view, seeing connections and relationships, speculating on possibilities, and assessing values — by showing classroom activities in the humanities and sciences; family conferences; discussions of race, class, and gender; faculty meetings; disciplinary problems; sex education; conflict resolution by students; and student council meetings.
Sunday, February 2 at 5:30pm
Friday, February 14 at 1:30pm

Ballet
Frederick Wiseman, 1995, U.S., 170m
Ballet is a profile of the American Ballet Theatre in New York. The film presents the company in rehearsal and on tour in Athens and Copenhagen, showing choreographers and ballet masters and mistresses at work with dancers, soloists, and the corps de ballet, as well as the administration and fundraising aspects of the company.
Sunday, February 23 at 2:00pm
Wednesday, March 5 at 12:30pm

La Comedie-Française
Frederick Wiseman, 1996, France/U.S., 223m
La Comedie-Française is the oldest continuous repertory company in the world, founded in Paris in the late 17th century. This is the first time a documentary filmmaker has been allowed to look at all the aspects of the work of this great theatrical company, including casting, set and costume design, administrative meetings and rehearsals, and performances of four classic French plays: Don Juan by Molière, La Thebaide by Racine, La Double Inconstance by Marivaux, and Occupe-toi d’Amélie by Feydeau.
Monday, February 10 at 6:45pm

Public Housing
Frederick Wiseman, 1997, U.S., 195m
Public Housing documents daily life at the Ida B. Wells public housing development in Chicago. The film illustrates some of the experiences of people living in conditions of extreme poverty. Events include the work of the tenants’ council, street life, the role of police, job training programs, drug education, teenage mothers, dysfunctional families, elderly residents, nursery school, after-school teenage programs, and the activities of the city, state, and federal governments in maintaining and changing public housing. An NYFF35 selection.
Wednesday, February 12 at 6:30pm
Friday, February 21 at 1:15pm

Belfast, Maine
Frederick Wiseman, 1999, U.S., 248m
Belfast, Maine details the ordinary experiences in a beautiful old New England port city. It is a portrait of daily life with particular emphasis on the work and the cultural life of the community. Among the activities shown in the film are the work of lobstermen, tug-boat operators, factory workers, shop owners, city counselors, doctors, judges, policemen, teachers, social workers, nurses, and ministers. Cultural activities include choir rehearsal, dance class, music lessons, and theater production.
Sunday, February 23 at 5:30pm

Domestic Violence
Frederick Wiseman, 2001, U.S., 196m
Domestic Violence shows the police in Tampa, Florida, responding to domestic violence calls and the work of The Spring, the principal shelter in Tampa for women and children. Sequences include police response, intervention, attempted resolution of domestic violence calls, intake interviews, individual counseling sessions, anger management training, group therapy, staff meetings, conversations among clients and staff, and childrens’ school activities, therapy, and counseling at the shelter.
Wednesday, February 19 at 7:00pm
Wednesday, March 5 at 4:00pm

Domestic Violence 2
Frederick Wiseman, 2002, U.S., 160m
Domestic Violence 2 takes place in the arraignment, misdemeanor, and injunction courts in Hillsborough County in Tampa, Florida. The judges and lawyers ask questions that elicit the stories of couples’ relationships and the specific form of violence between them. The courts deal with issues such as bail bonds, release pending trial, the specific context of injunctions regulating time and place of parental visits, restraining orders, contact with children, support payments, and the court’s decision about fault and punishment.
Thursday, February 20 at 6:00pm
Wednesday, March 5 at 8:15pm

The Last Letter
Frederick Wiseman, 2002, U.S., 62m
The Last Letter follows a mother who was locked away in a Jewish ghetto of an occupied Ukrainian town in 1941 as she revisits her life in a last letter to her son, who was safe outside enemy lines. The letter, with its detailed observations of daily life in a ghetto, reveals the fear, courage, frailty, compassion and dignity of this woman as she reviews her life and faces her death.
Monday, February 10 at 5:00pm
Tuesday, February 25 at 8:45pm

State Legislature
Frederick Wiseman, 2006, U.S., 217m
State Legislature shows the day-to-day activities of the Idaho Legislature during an entire session. The film is an example of the achievements, values, constraints, and limitations of the democratic process. Lobbyists, lawmakers, and their constituents are seen debating and discussing the concerns of the electorate on issues that range from violence in schools, mad cow disease, and video voyeurism to illegal immigration, secondhand smoke, and the deregulation of telephone rates.
Thursday, February 13 at 6:30pm
Tuesday, February 18 at 2:30pm

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER
Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) is a nonprofit organization that celebrates cinema as an essential art form and fosters a vibrant home for film culture to thrive. FLC presents premier film festivals, retrospectives, new releases, and restorations year-round in state-of-the-art theaters at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. FLC offers audiences the opportunity to discover works from established and emerging directors from around the world with a passionate community of film lovers at marquee events including the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.

Founded in 1969, FLC is committed to preserving the excitement of the theatrical experience for all audiences, advancing high-quality film journalism through the publication of Film Comment, cultivating the next generation of film industry professionals through our FLC Academies, and enriching the lives of all who engage with our programs.

Film at Lincoln Center receives generous, year-round support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Film at Lincoln Center. For more information, visit filmlinc.org and follow @filmlinc on X and Instagram.