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doily fii(Dbglii . &cirirDigt&
ocumentary filmmaker examines institutions
"My feeling is that if (my) films do anything, they
may contribute information that people might not
otherwise have, and may suggest things that some
peoph may not otherwise think about. "
Frederick Wiseman
Documentary Explorations
The impact of filmmaker Frederick Wiseman's
films originates with the exposure of American life he
provides. Wiseman never editorializes toward one
political solution, whether rightist or leftist.
Wiseman will be a guest of the Sheldon Film
Theatre this week in conjunction with the screening
of several of his award winning films. Thursday and
Friday he will introduce his films and hold discussion
sessions after the 7 p.m. showings in the Sheldon Art
Gallery auditorium.
Wiseman's films deal with public, tax supported
institutions: a state hospital for the criminally insane,
a police department, a high school, a city hospital, a
juvenile court.
Critic Stophan Mamber has said of the films, "We
see the government at its point of direct impact,
revealing the immensity of problems and the quality
of response. Wiseman makes ethnographic films turn
inward: cultural investigations for a society that takes
few stops between the offices and the suburb.."
Wiseman's films are not objective cinema verite.
Wiseman likes to say they are documents of his
experience as a filmmaker at the particular
institutions. To the viewer, however they seem a very
thorough invest Ujatbn, done simply and directly, of
each institution.
The films are never staged, Wiseman said, and the
people and situations are real and frequently
poignant. The sound tracks are actual records of
conversations and encounters between different
individuals involved.
'Conrack'
is mush,
but great
mush
.greg lukow
Conrack is director Martin Ritt's third
"black film" of the past few years. He did
The Great White Hope in 1971 and came
out last year with the popular Sounder.
Sounder was supposed to be a film that
finally dealt intelligently with blacks, but
it was little more than good
sentimentality and owed much of
competence to its near perfect cast.
In Conrack, Ritt is still pouring on the
sentiment but he loses any claim
to making an intelligent film about
blacks. Although he retains his skill in
audience capturing entertainment, he is
now a surgeon operating with baseball
gloves.
Based on a true story, Conrack is
really Pat Conroy (Jon Voight), a young
white schoolteacher who leaves his world
to teach a group of poor, backward black
children on an isolated is and off the
South Carolina coast. The kids are so
ignorant they can't even say Conroy's
name correctly, let alone read, add two
and two or know what country they liv
In.
But Voight takes their education to
task with all the crusading enthusiasm of
a freewheeling messiah. Telling us that he
.grew up a bigot, he jostles, cavorts and
sweet talks with them as if to tell the
world, and the audience, how much he
digs these deprived tots.
The kids are fun to watch and Ritt did
wonders with their performances, but in
the long run, they are little more than
cartoon characters. They are a mass of
slow, noisy; illiterate stereotypes like
something out of Bill Cosby's Fat Albert
comedy. When Conrack first arrives at
their dumpy little school, they sit
around like bumps on logs, wide eyed and ,
open mouthed.
But Ritt shows us that all they need to
wake them up is the lovable Conrack.
When the gospel according to Conrack
has worked its way into their heads, the
kids know yoga positions and who Babe
Ruth and Rimsky-Korsokoff are, but
nothing that will really help them in the
world outside their island.
Inevitably, Conrack's antics lead to his
firing by a kind but stodgey old Southern
superintendent, and this leads to the
film's most overbearing moment: when
Conracks rents a van and loud-speaker
and rides through town denouncing the
old Southern prejudices and advocating
his new freedom. .,,.. . ,
Still, Votght's role is a joy to watch',
and the first really good performance of
the new movie season. And the film
contains several genuine moments among
all the stereotyped stickiness.
Conrack is a movie that surrounds
itself with a serious problem" and "never
deals with it. All we are left with is the
dumb-cuteness of the black students and
the selfless heroics of the white man who
brought a brief period of job into their
empty lives.
The important thing, then, is that it is
a movie that advances considerably the
recent trend away from "meaningful,"
problem pictures in favor of sure fire,
almost old-fashioned entertainment. The
cycle probably began with Sounder and
continued this year with successes like
Paper Moon, The Sting and The Way We
Were, a picture no different in spirit than
the Betty Davis-Joan Crawford weepers
of the '40s.
Conrack wouid not have been made In
1970, bill could have in the golden days
of the '30s and '40s when Hollywood
knew how to make great sentimentality.
This movie is mushy, but it's great mush
.,and it has ajiearu ... , m
c
I Hip 0
There aren't too many films on
campus or television this week, but
the films of Frederick Wiseman are
particularly promising.
Tuesday
Law and Order, Sheldon Gallery
Auditorium, 3 and 7 p.m.,
admission $1.25. Law and Order is
an award winning documentary
dealing with problems of a corrupt
legal system and with police, the
men who have chosen to be
responsible for the control of
human waywardness. It's a hard
hitting film.
WadncKUiy
Hifih School, Sheldon Gallery
Auditorium, 3 and 7 p.m.,
admission $1.25. This unstaged
piece of cinema runs the gamut of -problems
in the U.S. high school,
from bad teachers, stifling 1
student-counselor encounters,
student boredom, teacher boredom,
to the futility of individuality, as
well as showing good teachers and
excited students.
Tb Contractor, ETV, 7:30 p.m.
David Storey's piay explores the
relationship of three generations of
the working class in today's
changing Great Britain.
Thursday
Mnimatii!. Shmldon Gallery
Auditorium, 3 and 7 p.m.,
admission $1.25. Wiseman
examine a iare urban medical
center as a focal point of human
society. The fast, efficient
teamwork of compassionate
doctors, nurses, aides and
policemen is seen to by stymied
when human comfort and care are
at the mercy of the bureaucracy
and inefficiency of supposedly
cooperating social and medical
agencies.
Tfoa rV&gallan Penguin, ETV,
6:30 p.m. The extinction of the
Mageilan Penguin by man is the
subject of this fascinating
documentary.
Bad Tirnua on Gold Mountain,
ETV, 11 p.m. This documentary
reports on stme of th troubling
elements of life in San Francisco's
Chinatown.
Friday
Esssrte, Sheldon Gsllory
Auditorium, 3 and 7 p.m.,
admission $1.25. Wiseman's film
deals with the lives of a group of
monks who resrdf in a nearly
sdf-swfficient monastic community.
Visually, Eun is the most
consciously creative of Wiseman's
films.
Juvenile Court, Sheldon Gallery
Auditorium, 3 and 7 p.m.,
admission $1.25. Wiseman has
filmed day to day episodes that
typify the treatment of juvenile
offenders, from their arrests and
initial processing to the final
disposition of their cases in a
municipal juvenile court. This is a
powerful film, and Wiseman has
used admirable restraint in its
editing.
Sunday
Two Communities, ETV, 7:30
p.m. This film looks at the religious
fervor of American youth as the
program takes viewers to the Mt.
Baldy Zen Center, 60 miles west of
Los Angeles, end the community of
Agape, in the heart of San
.Francisco's Mission District.
4
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FMMWmS1 SIIOIKMS
The Films of Frederick Wiseman
"tredericin wise man encourage concern for riic cjimiliy ui uie in
America through a deft combination of relevant subject matter and nn
appropriately mosaic-like structure. Mis films deal with public tax-supported
institutions: a ciiy hospital, a police department, high school
and the juvenile vourts. We see government at its point of direct Impact,
revealing the Immensity of the problems and the quality of the response.
Wiseman makes ethnsgraphlc films turned inward: cultural Investigations
for a society that takes few stop:t between the offices and the suburbs."
!The New Documentaries of Frederick Wiseman) by Stephen Mamber,
Dinema)
Schedule:
LAW AND ORDER-Tuesday, April 9
HIGH SCHOOL-Wednesday, April 10
HOSPITAL-Thursday, April 1 1
ESSEN E-Friday, April 12
JUVENILE COURT-Saturday, April 13
Screenings each day at 3 and 7 p.m.
. Admission $1.25
Mi. Wiseman will ba sneaking at the Sheldon Theatra after th seven
!o hock Btrcc m;& i;i ini i 1 n ju aiiu r..3ujr.. uii nyttt s biiu a.
There will be a workshop 5 drfay, April 12 at 9:30 to 12:30 with Mr.
Wkemitn In flip r.illrrv Theatre. 1 he workiihnn wtll ha free nd onerk
j to any interwuea prisons.
cpnl 8, 1974
daily nebraskan