State Legislature (Frederick Wiseman, 2007)

[Oedipax]

Frederick Wiseman has a new documentary making the festival rounds, and it's set to air on PBS on June 13, 2007. The synopsis on his site reads as follows:

STATE LEGISLATURE shows the day-to-day activities of the Idaho Legislature, including committee meetings, debates of the House and Senate, informal discussions, meetings with lobbyists, constituents, the public and the press. The workings of a democratic government are not of interest solely to Americans, but, because so many countries in the world are currently trying to adopt a democratic form of government, the issues presented have relevance on a global scale. The film is an example of the achievements, values, constraints and limitations of the democratic process.

The running time is listed at 217 mins. I for one am thrilled we'll be seeing a new Wiseman film so soon. After the debacle that was The Garden's withheld release, it's nice to see Wiseman has moved on and is still out there making films.

[Floyd]

A friend of mine not long ago referred me to the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman. I then proceeded to watch 9 of them. Something like Public Housing is somewhat difficult to sit through as talks can go for about 40 minutes but in general what I have seen from Wiseman is what I believe strongly in with the work of documentary filmmaking and am pretty thrilled you posted this and to see he is continuing to make them.

[ranaing83]

Wow, this is great news! Wiseman's High School was one of those watershed film experiences for me, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

[milk114]

I meant to mention this a while ago but last month while at the Chicago Documentary Film Festival (which showed a Wiseman retrospective) I read in an interview in Time Out that Wiseman will be releasing all his films on dvd this summer. He said the reason they haven't been released before is that it seemed no one wanted to produce them. Let's hope that a reputable company is releasing them, or at least that the price point is low.

[Oedipax]

I meant to mention this a while ago but last month while at the Chicago Documentary Film Festival (which showed a Wiseman retrospective) I read in an interview in Time Out that Wiseman will be releasing all his films on dvd this summer. He said the reason they haven't been released before is that it seemed no one wanted to produce them. Let's hope that a reputable company is releasing them, or at least that the price point is low.

Wow, very interesting news. I wonder about the price point as well - it was my understanding that Wiseman owns the rights to all his films and was weary of their commercial release on home video because much of his income comes from rentals of his back catalog. A copy of just one of his films on VHS used to run several hundred dollars...

[ltfontaine]

This encouraging update from Zipporah Films:

We are currently working on transferring the films to DVD, and will likely make them available for individual purchase, and priced accordingly, by fall 2007. If you would like to be notified by email when the DVDs are released for individual purchase, please send us your email address.

[Antoine Doinel]

The NY Times interviews Wiseman.

[Oedipax]

Reminder: the film will air tonight on PBS.

That is, unless you're like me, and apparently have a piece of shit for a PBS affiliate. Instead, I'll be treated to a documentary called Warplane. I guess now we know what really counts in American democracy

I wrote the affiliate in question and have yet to receive a reply.

[Floyd]

Now that is how you end a documentary.

I liked this a lot more than the last Wiseman I saw which was Public Housing.

[Oedipax]

Man this just isn't fair at all.

Glad to hear it was good, though. Not like that was ever really in doubt, of course...

[BrightEyes23]

i missed this post but just happened to catch the listing on my tv guide for this @ 9:38 and DVR'd it from there...I can't imagine missing 8 minutes out of 217 is going to affect the viewing experience all that much...can anyone who managed to catch this confirm my suspicion? Maybe give me a quick overview of the beginning?

[Oedipax]

i missed this post but just happened to catch the listing on my tv guide for this @ 9:38 and DVR'd it from there...I can't imagine missing 8 minutes out of 217 is going to affect the viewing experience all that much...can anyone who managed to catch this confirm my suspicion? Maybe give me a quick overview of the beginning?

With Wiseman, the beginning is often very important as he uses it to frame the entire film. With some of his films, like Hospital, the only exteriors in the whole running time are at the very beginning and then again at the end, as if to suggest that outside the hospital, life goes on largely unaware of what we've seen within.

Don't get me wrong, you'll still be able to follow very well along with the film I'm sure, but Wiseman's beginnings are certainly important. It's a way to set the stage for what's going to follow over the course of the next 3+ hours.

[Keith Kawaii]

DAMNIT... is this scheduled to be on again anytime? Its not coming up at all on tvguide

[Handsome Dan]

As a fan of TITICUT FOLLIES and HIGH SCHOOL and someone who's curious about Wiseman's output in general, I really wanted to watch this. Unfortunately, I actually work for the Wisconsin state legislature, so STATE LEGISLATURE sounds like it would be the equivalent of spending an extra 3 hours at work. Maybe I'll be ready for this one after I've been out of there for a few years.

Good news about Zipporah finally putting everything out on video; I've always thought it was stupendiously dumb of Wiseman to not take advantage of DVD until now.

[BrightEyes23]

i missed this post but just happened to catch the listing on my tv guide for this @ 9:38 and DVR'd it from there...I can't imagine missing 8 minutes out of 217 is going to affect the viewing experience all that much...can anyone who managed to catch this confirm my suspicion? Maybe give me a quick overview of the beginning?

With Wiseman, the beginning is often very important as he uses it to frame the entire film. With some of his films, like Hospital, the only exteriors in the whole running time are at the very beginning and then again at the end, as if to suggest that outside the hospital, life goes on largely unaware of what we've seen within.

Don't get me wrong, you'll still be able to follow very well along with the film I'm sure, but Wiseman's beginnings are certainly important. It's a way to set the stage for what's going to follow over the course of the next 3+ hours.

thanks for the reply. I'm kind of curious if there is any setting up of what is to come at the beginning of State Legislature.

I really hope that this is rebroadcast so I can see the whole thing, but it doesn't look like its going to be in the near future.

It will be real interesting to see how his films are put out on dvd and at what kind of pricing structure. If they go with a Kino/Facets type of pricing it'll cost a fortune to pickup all of his work, but then because it sounds like they're doing this direct it'll provide Mr. Wiseman a nice source of income to support himself and to make more films in the future.

It'd be nice if he released his work in sets, maybe by time periods or themes.