Frederick Wiseman

[tenia]

He funds restorations on a regular basis, like Lucas through his foundation, so that might just be it.

[yoloswegmaster]

With a groundbreaking career spanning seven decades, Frederick Wiseman is one of the great American storytellers. His documentaries, shot vérité-style, are meticulously edited narratives chronicling life’s complexities through rich portraits of social and cultural institutions. Wiseman’s themes are expansive: democracy, power, inequality and community, to name a few; but his focus is compellingly specific and humane. Whether revealing shortcomings in social support or celebrating culinary excellence, he has a unique eye – and ear – for detail.

Representing their first release in the UK, this 3-disc / 5-film collection features a selection of Wiseman’s work made between 1967 and 1975, including Titicut Follies, High School and Juvenile Court.

The Films:

Titicut Follies (1967, 84 mins)
High School (1968, 75 mins )
Hospital (1970, 84 mins)
Juvenile Court (1973, 144 mins)
Welfare (1975, 167 mins)

Extras:

Newly restored in 4K by Zipporah Films and presented in High Definition
Newly commissioned video essay by Ian Mantgani on the films of Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman: A Discussion (2025): filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman and curator Matthew Barrington discuss Frederick Wiseman’s aesthetics and approach to filmmaking. Recorded at BFI Southbank, London
Limited edition including a perfect-bound book featuring essays by David Jenkins, Eric Marsh, Stephen Mamber, Philip Concannon and Shawn Glinis and Arlin Golden, hosts of the long-running Wiseman Podcast. Also includes a 1986 interview with William Brayne (cinematographer on Hospital and Juvenile Court) and a 1974 essay from Sight & Sound by Thomas Atkins
Newly created English descriptive subtitles on all five films

[GaryC]

That 2025 discussion is this coming Thursday, following a showing of High School. I have a ticket for it.

[pistolwink]

Some label should decide to be legends and release all of Wiseman's work on one approx. 50-disc set.

[andyli]

Which will be announced in 2026, delayed until 2030 for "supply chain issues".

[hearthesilence]

Frederick Wiseman meets Jafar Panâhi at Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA. (Too bad the cameras weren't closer, they could've made a stereoscopic photo.)

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

A Zipporah Films, Inc and BFI release
CINEMA EXPANDED: THE FILMS OF FREDERICK WISEMAN

TITICUT FOLLIES (1967)
HIGH SCHOOL (1968)
HOSPITAL (1969)
JUVENILE COURT (1973)
WELFARE (1975)

Released on BFI Blu-ray, Apple TV and Amazon Prime from 26 January 2026

With a groundbreaking career spanning seven decades, Frederick Wiseman is one of the great American storytellers. His documentaries, shot vérité-style, are meticulously edited narratives chronicling life’s complexities through rich portraits of social and cultural institutions. Wiseman’s themes are expansive: democracy, power, inequality and community, to name a few; but his focus is compellingly specific and humane, possessing a unique eye – and ear – for detail. CINEMA EXPANDED: THE FILMS OF FREDERICK WISEMAN, a five-film three-disc BFI and Zipporah Films, Inc. Blu-ray collection, released on 26 January 2026, features a selection of Wiseman’s work made between 1967 and 1975, including Titicut Follies, High School and Juvenile Court.

Special features
• Newly restored in 4K by Zipporah Films Inc and presented in High Definition
• Corridors of Power, Windows to the Soul (2025): in this newly commissioned video essay, filmmaker Ian Mantgani explores the films of Frederick Wiseman with a focus on his distinctive filmmaking style and observational storytelling
• 2025 BFI Southbank discussion: filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman and curator Matthew Barrington discuss Frederick Wiseman’s aesthetics and approach to filmmaking with programme curator Sandra Hebron
• 56-page perfect-bound book featuring essays by David Jenkins, Eric Marsh, Stephen Mamber, Philip Concannon and hosts of the long-running Wiseman Podcast Shawn Glinis and Arlin Golden. Also includes a 1974 essay from Sight and Sound by Thomas Atkins
• Newly created English descriptive subtitles on all five films

Product details
RRP: £39.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1556 / 15
USA / 1967-1975 / black and white / 554 minutes / English language with optional descriptive subtitles / original aspect ratios (1.33:1, 1.37:1) // BD50 x 3: 1080p, 24fps, DTS-HD MA 1.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)

[kekid]

This is a wonderful edition. Any chance they might issue a second volume?

[senseabove]

Per a comment from Ben Stoddart on FB, “This needs to sell out (and not years from now), for us to consider a follow-up. ”

[MichaelB]

None of which comes as a surprise; Wiseman has always had a pretty low profile in Britain (he's known more by reputation than actual screenings), so a box set was always going to be a risk.

Hence the lack of a hostage-to-fortune "Volume 1".

[jlnight]

His exposure on television in Britain is surprisingly vast - the Channel 4 season in 1986 (Hospital, Essene, Basic Training. Law and Order) was followed by the likes of High School and Juvenile Court in 1987 (didn't realise the runtime was long), Missile in 1988, Manoeuvre and Model in 1989, Central Park on BBC2 in 1990 (and 1991), all of Near Death back on Channel 4 in 1991, Aspen on BBC2 in '92 and '93, Titicut Follies on the Beeb in 1993, Zoo a couple of times on Channel 4, High School II and Ballet on BBC2, Public Housing apparently on the premium version of Film4 in 2001 and Domestic Violence on BBC4 (pre-Freeview I think) in 2002 and 2003. Plus National Gallery on BBC4 (in 2015) and Titicut Follies on one of Film4's Extreme seasons in about 2000/01 (subscription-era).

Different times though, I mean Channel 4 ran a season on Emile De Antonio in 1987!

Did you ever encounter any of his films during your time in rep cinema booking?

[kekid]

None of which comes as a surprise; Wiseman has always had a pretty low profile in Britain (he's known more by reputation than actual screenings), so a box set was always going to be a risk.

Hence the lack of a hostage-to-fortune "Volume 1".

France released 3 box sets with 13 to 17 DVD's in each.
Unfortunately they don't have English SDH titles.
Are the French more responsive to Wiseman than the British or the Americans?
I had also known him only by reputation. The DVD's available in USA were very expensive, and not good quality.
The BFI set corrects all these issues, and made me aware of how important he was.

[GaryC]

all of Near Death back on Channel 4 in 1991

I mentioned a few of the TV showings in my Cine Outsider review. This one may have the record of being the longest film shown on British television in a single time slot, with no breaks other than commercials. Certainly Sheldon Hall, who would know such a thing, doesn't know of another. A documentary of just under six hours, Wiseman's final film in black and white and his longest. I can't imagine anyone other than Channel 4 at the time doing that, and I can't imagine them doing that now.

[colinr0380]

That sounds likely to be the case, since Shoah seems to always get screened in its two separate parts (or "eras") rather than in one uninterrupted nine hour block. Channel 4 showed the long version of Jacques Rivette's La belle noiseuse on their first night of their channel going to 24 hour broadcasting in 1997, but even that was 'only' four hours long (or just over with advert breaks).

[Lowry_Sam]

France released 3 box sets with 13 to 17 DVD's in each.
Unfortunately they don't have English SDH titles.

They also have burned in French subtitles.

[GaryC]

That sounds likely to be the case, since Shoah seems to always get screened in its two separate parts (or "eras") rather than in one uninterrupted nine hour block. Channel 4 showed the long version of Jacques Rivette's La belle noiseuse on their first night of their channel going to 24 hour broadcasting in 1997, but even that was 'only' four hours long (or just over with advert breaks).

I saw the first showing of Shoah on C4 in 1987, the first time I saw the film - over two nights. The two eras didn't have any commercial breaks but there was an intermission on each night, with a string quartet playing.

Another one was The Human Condition, if you count that as one nine-hour film instead of a trilogy of three-hours. That was shown over three nights from 9pm to past midnight in 1985 and again I watched that. Black and white, subtitled, fully letterboxed in Scope in the days of 4:3 TV sets...again something that only C4 would have done then and wouldn't now. I've no idea what the viewing figures were for this, nor indeed for Near Death, to take us back to Wiseman.

[MichaelB]

The thing about Channel 4 in the 1980s is that the viewing figures fundamentally didn't matter; they had an exceptionally cushy arrangement, much resented by ITV (and, no doubt, ITV's clients), whereby they basically piggy-backed onto ITV's advertising. And of course they had a core remit to cater for tastes not covered by the other channels, which they took very seriously indeed.

But the 1990 Broadcasting Act forced them to sell their own advertising going forward, and while the 1990s was also a very rich period culturally for C4—it's that decade that was the golden age of C4-backed animation, not the 1980s—the writing was very much on the wall, and the really extraordinarily eye-opening screenings mentioned above rapidly started to become as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth. And then at the turn of the 21st century they got into reality television in a big way, from which point onwards Channel 4 was pretty much unrecognisable from what I grew up with. But I'm delighted that I got to spend some pretty crucial cultural formative years with it.

[Jonathan S]

In the very early days of Channel 4 they often couldn't get any advertising for older or obscure programmes. I remember shorter feature films being shown, especially late at night, without any breaks or, more usually, with breaks but no adverts, just a prolonged buffer displaying the film's title!

[colinr0380]

In the very early days of Channel 4 they often couldn't get any advertising for older or obscure programmes. I remember shorter feature films being shown, especially late at night, without any breaks or, more usually, with breaks but no adverts, just a prolonged buffer displaying the film's title!

Still off topic of Wiseman but this inspired me! That Matthew Harris "Bob the Fish Productions"/"The Hard Sell" series about UK television advertising has mentioned this aspect a few times during its run, and apparently that issue with adverts in the early days of Channel 4 was down to an Equity dispute about paying actors for appearing in the adverts that eventually escalated to pulling most advertising for the first months of Channel 4's broadcasting (I would never have been aware of this at the time as I was both too young - as in 2 years old young! - and the part of Cornwall I was living in at the time did not get Channel 4 for the first few years of its existence anyway!)

That same dispute incidentally (and due to the intertwined funding through advertising ITV connection MichaelB mentions above) also had a knock on impact on ITV's first ever attempt at a UK television breakfast show as well, TV-am, which three months after Channel 4 launched similarly had to make do with extremely limited adverts without any Equity union members (or visible on-screen human beings at all!) until the situation was resolved.

[MichaelB]

That same dispute incidentally (and due to the ITV connection MichaelB mentions above) also had a knock on impact on ITV's first ever attempt at a UK television breakfast show as well, TV-am, which three months after Channel 4 launched similarly had to make do with extremely limited adverts without any Equity union members (or human beings at all!) until the situation was resolved.

...and they also ended up showing old 1960s Batman episodes in lieu of original content.

Unsurprisingly, the ratings shot up, but I'm not sure that that was the reaction they were after!

[hearthesilence]

I didn’t realize this set would come in such slim packaging, basically the equivalent of a standard case containing a single movie, which is not a complaint - I was bracing for another shelf reorganization to make room for another box set.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Does the book fit comfortably in it?

[swo17]

Yes

[rapta]

I didn’t realize this set would come in such slim packaging, basically the equivalent of a standard case containing a single movie, which is not a complaint - I was bracing for another shelf reorganization to make room for another box set.

Out of interest, is it a hard slipbox or the thinner, flimsier card stock? Just curious and did try to find pics of the set but it's not very clear.

[swo17]

Thin card stock