May 23, 2007
Film Studies: P.O.V.
a danish journal of film studies
>for example Discovering the Shock of Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies
Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies (1967) is a landmark of cinéma vérité. It documents the day to day routines within Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Bridgewater, a mental hospital for the criminally insane. The film is notorious for the controversy that surrounded its release, for the trial in which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts brought Wiseman to court in order to prevent any further exhibition of the film.[1] The verdict imprinted itself on this film like a brand: it declared the documentary obscene and exploitive and banned any further public viewing of the film.
When Wiseman was summoned to appear in court, his film was described by the judge as a "nightmare of ghoulish obscenities."[2] This description leads us to expect the worst...
...one (of) the complaints the guards make at the time of the film's trial. (is) (t)heir claim is that the documentary "holds them up to ridicule, contempt and scorn in all respectable segments of our society" because inmates are presented as "indistinguishable from the guards."
article by Lance Duerfahrd
[film still from google\ noy POV]
Posted by Stubbornson at May 23, 2007 05:27 PM