"People who come to their calling after being in another line of work tend to cling to it all the more fervently and work at it all the more relentlessly; they express gratitude for a second chance by way of unflagging exertion. Frederick Wiseman, who died yesterday, at the age of ninety-six, is one such latecomer. Having started out in law, he made his first feature at thirty-six and thereby launched a second career,"
"and, judging from his ample filmography, he did more than make up for lost time-he lapped it. Between 1967 and 2023, he made forty-seven features (nearly one a year), many of them running considerably more than two hours. His body of work, considered in terms of number of features and of total running time, is one that probably no one in his generation or younger can match."
Frederick Wiseman began his filmmaking career after practicing law and teaching at Boston University, making his first feature at thirty-six. Between 1967 and 2023 he made forty-seven feature documentaries, many over two hours, often nearly one per year. He filmed institutions such as Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and used observational methods to probe political and social power. He fused his life and work intensely, producing a body of work unmatched in total running time by his generation. He demonstrated relentless productivity and commitment after a late start, and he died at age ninety-six.
Read at The New Yorker
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