Frederick Wiseman (Born 1 January 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts USA) is a Documentary filmmaker. He came to documentary filmmaking after first being trained as a lawyer, a fact that has influenced his style and choice of subjects ever since. He is deeply committed to justice, but instead of seeking it in reference to the law, he tries to find its roots in everyday interactions between people and institutions. Wiseman is not an expose film maker in the sense of someone who has a defined agenda based on a specific injustice that they plan to expose. In a Wiseman movie you never know what is going to happen next or what will be said in the following scene. Wiseman does not interview his subjects, nor does he narrate or comment on what happens. It is left up to you to arrive at an understanding of what you have seen and heard in the movie. In making you responsible for your own understanding, Wiseman has promulgated a powerful vision of a social justice through his filmmaking.

Filmography

• Titicut Follies (1967)
• Highschool (U.S. 1969)
• Missile (1987)
• Zoo (1993)
• Public Housing (1997)
• The Garden (2005)

Listing is incomplete. For more information, see film notes at the Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/resources/film_notes/index.html