CITY HALL
Image of movie City Hall
CITY HALL
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City Hall

Frederick Wiseman
United States 2020
272 min
V'20

Over the course of a career that began more than 50 years ago, Frederick Wiseman has made films that offer a multitude of insights into what it means to be part of a community and how institutions function. Many recent works from the indefatigable documentarist, now 90, have focused on specific institutions, notably cultural monuments – the National Gallery, the New York Public Library (EX LIBRIS), even the Crazy Horse nightclub. His latest, however, stretches over four and a half hours to cover many aspects of the administrative machinery of Boston – effectively making for a portrait of the entire city.
Wiseman’s remit, and that of CITY HALL, covers public housing, animal welfare, road mending, celebrations for the Red Sox baseball team, and veterans’ commemorative events. At the center of it all – if the film does have a center, and if a Wiseman film can ever be said to have a protagonist – is Democratic mayor Marty Walsh, whose commitment to diversity, compassion, and civic values makes the film stand as a proud affirmation of the possibility of a humane, decent America even as the Trump regime puts the nation through its darkest moments. (Jonathan Romney)

Frederick Wiseman: TITICUT FOLLIES (1967), HIGH SCHOOL (1968), JUVENILE COURT (1973), PRIMATE (1974), WELFARE (1975), MEAT (1976), RACETRACK (1986), MISSILE (1988), CENTRAL PARK (1989), HIGH SCHOOL II (1994), ZOO (1994), BALLET (1995), PUBLIC HOUSING (1997), BELFAST, MAINE (1999), DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (2001), DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 2 (2002), STATE LEGISLATURE (2007), LA DANSE (2009), BOXING GYM (2010), CRAZY HORSE (2011), AT BERKELEY (2013), NATIONAL GALLERY (2014), IN JACKSON HEIGHTS (2015), EX LIBRIS: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (2017), MONROVIA, INDIANA (2018)

Credits
  • John Davey
  • Frederick Wiseman
  • Frederick Wiseman
Puritan Films

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