Recognised with an honorary Academy Award in 2016, Wiseman directed and produced almost 50 films with a lifelong commitment to curiosity and naturalism
Frederick Wiseman, the prolific film-maker whose documentaries primarily explored US public institutions and communities, has died aged 96.
His death on Monday was announced in a joint statement from the Wiseman family and his production company, Zipporah Films.
“For nearly six decades, Frederick Wiseman created an unparalleled body of work, a sweeping cinematic record of contemporary social institutions and ordinary human experience primarily in the United States and France,” the statement read. “His films – from Titicut Follies (1967) to his most recent work, Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (2023) – are celebrated for their complexity, narrative power and humanist gaze.”
Wiseman, whose extraordinary career was recognised with an honorary Academy Award in 2016, directed and produced almost 50 films, including City Hall (2020), about Boston’s city government; Ex Libris (2017), about the New York Public Library; and In Jackson Heights (2015), about a neighbourhood in the New York borough of Queens.
