NoirFan

Although the first wave of self-released DVD-Rs from documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman became available at the beginning of this year, I don't believe there has been a thread devoted to them. If there is, my apologies. I have purchased five of these films, with five more on the way. The transfer quality is certainly not reference quality, but given the age, source materials, etc, they are perfectly watchable. The prices - $29.95 and up plus tax and shipping, and the presentation - no extras, laser printed covers, are a bit off putting, but the films themselves are fascinating. The films are available here. Note: free shipping is available for orders over $150.00.

DVD Talk reviews:

Belfast, Maine
Domestic Violence
High School
Law and Order
Meat
Model
State Legislature
Welfare

Norm de Plume

Thanks for the tip. If you like Wiseman's work, I recommend checking out the films of Allan King. King and Wiseman are arguably the two most important figures in the vanguard of cinema verite. I prefer King's institutional docus to those of Wiseman. Dying at Grace, in my view his best movie, is a devastating, clinical look at the last days of patients in the palliative care ward of a hospital. Wiseman made a similar film, Near Death, which I haven't seen. Warrendale, King's most well-known and acclaimed film, is about disturbed children in a special boarding school of sorts, and A Married Couple follows the vicissitudes of a rancorous marriage.

At his website, King's films are available on DVD at a cost that is comparably exorbitant to Wiseman's offerings. I suspect not too many people, even fans, will be willing to spend $30+ for a barebones DVD. I like Wiseman's Law and Order, but I don't think I will fork over that much.

Yakuza Bengoshi

NoirFan, I assume you're the person that's been adding Wiseman titles to the DVDAF catalog lately. Your efforts are much appreciated. After having three submissions rejected in a row, I gave up trying to add titles there and I just wait and hope somebody else gets around to it. I must have more than three dozen titles now that aren't in their catalog.

Anyway, your collection appears to be coming along nicely. Very impressive!

Norm de Plume, thanks for the info. I'd heard of Allan King, but haven't seen any of his films. Maybe we can get a couple of them reviewed here soon.

Norm de Plume

Yakuza, I don't know what Allan King Film's policies are, but perhaps they would be open to sending you or someone else at DVDTalk review copies in exchange for the publicity of reviews. I dealt with a helpful woman there named Amanda.

Yakuza Bengoshi

Thanks Norm, I'll definitely add King's works to my short list of independent distribution titles to ask our editor, John Sinnott, to try to get. King's films look to be just my kind of thing. At the moment, there seems to be an embarrassment of riches here with too many intriguing titles coming in than we can keep up with, speaking for myself anyway, and I've just started to try catching up on a backlog of review discs that built up when I was at SilverDocs Film Fest two weeks ago, and on travel last week.

Norm de Plume

Great, I would be delighted to see any of King's (or Wiseman's) wonderful films given some deserved exposure. I would post reviews here myself, but I won't for reasons of, to put it vaguely, conflicting interests.

If you do review any of their documentaries, can you do us a favour and alert us in this thread? I don't ever venture into the reviews section of DVDTalk.

JackBurton

A friend of mine got me interested in Wiseman's films, but I had not found them accessible. Thanks for the heads up on the Wiseman & King sites. I'll definitely check them out.

pjflyer

I saw King's "Memory for Max, Claire and Ida" at TIFF a few years ago. I can't express how moving a film it is. It shows life on an Alzheimer's ward.

Norm de Plume

I saw it on TVOntario a couple of years ago. I didn't find it nearly as impressive or cogent as Dying at Grace for some reason.

Yakuza Bengoshi

Well in addition to the eight listed in the first post, there are two new reviews my me, Titicut Follies, Basic Training, and, one new one by Stuart Galbraith IV, Domestic Violence 2.

There are still two more to come shortly: Missle, and The Store.

NoirFan

Just watched Hospital last night. The vomit-spewing mescaline addict from Minnesota had the best line of the film: "There's no future in art..." I was rather surprised by the calm lucidity of the schizophrenic transvestite, who despite his (her?) apparently drug-addled speech patterns, seemed the most self-aware of any of the film's subjects.

Norm de Plume

Thanks for the heads-up.

NoirFan

Missile review. Probably the first dvd with a four and a half star content rating to receive a "rent it" recommendation.

David Cornelius

That felt weird to me, too, but I really think Zipporah's gone overboard with pricing. (I also flinch at their teacher prices - I'm of the mind that you should make them easier for schools to get these, not harder.)

Yakuza Bengoshi

Actually, it's one of 69 DVDs to get a "rent it" or "skip it" recommendation for a film rated 4 1/2 or 5 stars for content. In fact, five 5-star films have received a "skip it."

NoirFan

I totally understand why you gave it the rating you did - my apologies if my comment sounded bitchy, it wasn't meant to be.

David Cornelius

Didn't think it was bitchy at all, actually.

NoirFan

I was a bit let down by Public Housing. Wiseman's penchant for showing long takes of uninterrupted action is effective when what we see is interesting - the excitement of real life unfolding before our eyes. Watching a plumber fix a leaky sink or a small child work his way through a simplistic card game in real time can be a monotonous experience. That being said, the film is not without it's moments. The scene in which a lecture on safe sex is drowned out by the shrieking of babies just drips with irony. Watching the obese, blank-faced teenage mothers pass around a female condom with a barely concealed lack of interest, the cliche about closing the barn door after the horse has already left never rang truer.

NoirFan

Has anyone else experienced technical problems with their DVDs? I had to return two discs, Domestic Violence and Titicut Follies, due to pixilation issues and choppy video playback. Also, are there plans to review any more titles?

Yakuza Bengoshi

Hi Norm, in total DVD Talk has reviewed of 13 of Wiseman's films available on DVD. All of the reviews and be found here.

I've also recently reviewed Allan King's Warrendale and Dying at Grace.

Norm de Plume

Thanks for the update, Yakuza. I'll check out your reviews. I take it the DVDTalk acquisitions person was successful.

NoirFan

According to this interview, Wiseman has two films coming soon: Also, here is a Sight and Sound article from their most recent issue.

NoirFan

Essene and Primate released.

NoirFan

Review of Wiseman's MSG doc The Garden, currently in legal limbo.

NoirFan

Deaf is now available.