A tribute to documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman
CBSN
A few weeks ago, we lost a giant in the world of filmmaking. Celebrated documentarian Frederick Wiseman died February 16 at age 96, leaving behind a truly extraordinary body of work. David Pogue spoke with Wiseman last year about his life and legacy:
A few weeks ago, we lost a giant in the world of filmmaking. Celebrated documentarian Frederick Wiseman died February 16 at age 96, leaving behind a truly extraordinary body of work. David Pogue spoke with Wiseman last year about his life and legacy:
A Frederick Wiseman documentary doesn't have a film score. There's no narration. No text identifying the people or places. No re-enactments. Not even interviews! They often depict meetings, phone calls, and conversations. And these movies are up to six hours long.
Not the ingredients you might expect for masterpieces. At a retrospective last year at New York's Lincoln Center, one moviegoer, Ainsley, characterized the appeal of Wiseman's films this way: "He got out of the way and just let things happen as they are."
In 2016, Wiseman was awarded an honorary Oscar. In accepting his honor, he said, "It's as important to document kindness, civility, and generosity of spirit as it is to show cruelty, banality, and indifference."
Wiseman told us last year he didn't like the term "documentaries" very much: "No. I like 'movies' better. It's simpler. Maybe because when I grew up, documentaries were supposed to be good for you. And I thought what used to be called a documentary could be as funny, as sad, as tragic as a fiction film."
