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One of the most essential venues for experimental film and video, with an emphasis on expanded cinema, in the country, I’d argue!

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High School In High School (1969), Frederick Wiseman visited Northeast High in Philadelphia, which, in the words of a student, is one of the most “scientifically and technologically” advanced high schools in the ...

On 1968's High School, by Cosmo Bjorkenheim: www.screenslate.com/articles/hig...

Law and Order The Police Tapes (1977), which follows cops from a South Bronx precinct going about a routine that they explicitly describe as colonial, was a precursor to Cops (1989–present), which would take a much...

On 1969's Law and Order, by Cosmo Bjorkenheim: www.screenslate.com/articles/law...

Essene Frederick Wiseman’s Essene premiered on Monday, November 13, 1972, not in a movie theater but on television. It was a PBS special, up against Laugh-In, Gunsmoke, Hogan’s Heroes, and Boris Karloff Pres...

On 1972's Essene, by David Schwartz: www.screenslate.com/articles/ess...

Primate In Fredrick Wiseman’s 1974 documentary, Primate, a group of scientists sit around a table discussing the point of their research. “You can’t always look for the applied value of research”, says one of...

On 1974's Primate, by Chris Shields: www.screenslate.com/articles/pri...

Near Death Frederick Wiseman’s Near Death (1989) opens with a montage of Boston: scullers rowing along the Charles River, billboards perched over traffic on a two-lane road, and then a wide-shot of the Beth Isra...

On 1989's Near Death, by Mick Gaw: www.screenslate.com/articles/nea...

Aspen Opening on a ski jacketed bride and groom struggling to make their vows heard while flying in a hot air balloon, Frederick Wiseman’s Aspen captures the waning days of the Reagen/Bush era as a culture ...

On 1991's Aspen, by Joshua Bogatin: www.screenslate.com/articles/aspen

Public Housing Although Frederick Wiseman, the implausibly prolific standard-bearer of American vérité, often claimed to undertake all his projects without a thesis in mind, it is difficult to imagine that he approa...

On 1997's Public Housing, by Cosmo Bjorkenheim: www.screenslate.com/articles/pub...

National Gallery Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery focuses on London’s publicly-owned museum which houses 2,300 paintings, including major works by Rembrandt, Leonardo, Turner, Van Gogh, Caravaggio and Vermeer. The...

On 2014's National Gallery, by Vanessa McDonnell: www.screenslate.com/articles/nat...

In Jackson Heights Frederick Wiseman’s frequent forays into the minutiae of institutions are less about their particular objectives than their ability to serve as circumscribed microcosms of dysfunction and human folly.

On 2015's In Jackson Heights, by Aaron Schmiberg: www.screenslate.com/articles/jac...

Monrovia, Indiana Frederick Wiseman's survey of small-town Midwestern life opens with a montage of static views – fields, roads, houses, shops – as if flipping through a god-view cable package devoted solely to the tit...

On 2018's Monrovia, Indiana, by Danielle Burgos: www.screenslate.com/articles/mon...

City Hall Frederick Wiseman applies his observational approach to the Boston government

On 2020's City Hall, by Conor Williams: www.screenslate.com/articles/cit...

A Couple (NYFF 2022) Frederick Wiseman is exceptionally capable of establishing a dialectic between the smallest detail and the vastness of the bigger picture. This uncanny yet relatable human tension is the realest aspec...

On Wiseman's list fiction film, 2022's A Couple, by Clara Miranda Scherffig: www.screenslate.com/articles/cou...

Lucky Enough to Be Around: Frederick Wiseman on Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros When embarking on the editing phase of one of his films, Frederick Wiseman has said, he rewatches all his raw footage—often hundreds of hours—and rates each sequence according to the grading system of...

An interview by Mark Asch for the release of Wiseman's now-final film:
www.screenslate.com/articles/luc...

For reasons that should be obvious—namely, him being an easy contender for the greatest documentarian, period, no qualifiers—Wiseman is a director Screen Slate has covered a lot over the years. In honor of the master, here's a roundup of those pieces, starting with today's feature, on 1976's Meat:

FEBRUARY 16, 2026 — THE WEEK IN THE BAY Monday, Angels with Dirty Faces is at the Lark, Before Sunrise (on 35mm) is back at the Roxie, where Arco, Thai afterlife romcom A Useful Ghost, and Kiristin Stewart's directorial debut The Chronology...

And here's the roundup for the week: www.screenslate.com/articles/feb...

Meat The United States reached its peak beef consumption in 1976, reaching just shy of 95 lbs per capita. Perhaps not coincidentally, 1976 was also the bicentennial, a nationwide birthday party that permea...

This week, by bittersweet coincidence, our feature pick is Frederick Wiseman's Meat, the last film in the @bampfa.bsky.social Wiseman retrospective, written up by Wiseman Podcast host Arlin Golden. www.screenslate.com/articles/meat

Notebook on Cities and Clothes Wim Wenders tells us his first Yohji Yamamoto fashion experience was as a consumer, having bought a Yamamoto shirt and jacket that made Wenders feel “more me than before,” partly on account of the gar...

And don't forget that LAST week's pick, Notebook on Cities and Clothes, Wim Wenders's 1989 Yohji Yamamoto doc, screens TONIGHT at the Balboa: www.screenslate.com/articles/not...

A Means of Abstraction: A Conversation with Robert Beavers The films of Robert Beavers are like stained glass tone poems, earthly film phrases foraged and then framed in light. Born outside of Boston in 1949, Beavers moved from New York to Europe in 1967 with...

Robert Beavers arrives this week at @bampfa.bsky.social for a two-week residency and near-complete career survey, so check out Max Levin's interview with Beavers on the occasion of a similar retrospective in 2024: www.screenslate.com/articles/mea...

WTO/99 “From Selma to Stonewall to Seattle, we who believe in freedom will not rest until every battle is won,” the transgender communist revolutionary Leslie Feinberg wrote in a 2003 afterword to hir classi...

And a few from the archives: Whitney Strub on WTO/99, the mostly archival doc about "last great mobilization of the 20th Century left in the United States," screening Wednesday and next Tuesday at the Roxie: www.screenslate.com/articles/wto99

JANUARY 26, 2026 - THE WEEK IN THE BAY Monday, Reds and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert are at the Alamo Drafthouse Mountain View (MV), My Own Private Idaho is at the Alamo Drafthouses New Mission (NM) and Valley Fair (VF)...

Here's the weekly roundup: www.screenslate.com/articles/jan...

Johnny Mnemonic (SF Bay)

Also this week, Screen Slate presents Johnny Mnemonic on 35mm at the Balboa on Tuesday night so come on out, say hi, and celebrate their new 35mm changeover system (no more abrupt mid-scene intermissions! woohoo!) www.screenslate.com/events/johnn...

When The Wind Blows The animated feature When the Wind Blows began as Raymond Briggs’s 1982 graphic novel about Jim and Hilda Bloggs, pensioners in the quiet, leafy Sussex countryside, preparing for the bomb—and for what...

This week, Bernardo Rondeau on When the Wind Blows, Jimmy T. Murakami's animated adaptation of Raymond Briggs’s apocalyptic graphic novel, screening tonight and Sunday at the Roxie: www.screenslate.com/articles/whe...

Fighting Reality: A Conversation with Kleber Mendonça Filho The risk a period piece runs is that any immaculate reconstruction of the past, however distant, will always feel like a different reality than the present one. History is only recoverable insofar as ...

Also also don't miss our interview with Kleber Mendonça Filho, whose latest, The Secret Agent, is still floating around Bay area theaters: www.screenslate.com/articles/fig...

A Language of Static Shots: A Conversation with Lav Diaz “A white man!” screams a Malay villager as she stares into the camera before fleeing in terror during the opening moments of Lav Diaz’s Magellan (2025). A post-colonial epic that tries to rewire our w...

Also, don't miss our interview with Lav Diaz, whose new film, Magellan, starring Gael García Bernal, opens Friday at the Roxie: www.screenslate.com/articles/lan...

JANUARY 12, 2026 — THE WEEK IN THE BAY Monday, Ethan Iverson introduces Elevator to the Gallows at the Vogue, the Smith Rafael's series of International Oscar nominees continues, The First Wives Club is at the Alamo Drafthouse Mountain Vie...

And the weekly round-up, featuring Ethan Iverson introing Elevator to the Gallows at the Vogue, Peter Watkins' Evening Land at Bathers Library, Jennifer Reeves at Shapehisfters and SFCinematheque, essential Wiseman at BAMPFA, Noir City at the Grand lake, and more:
www.screenslate.com/articles/jan...

Jon Wengström on Swedish Silent Cinema Regular attendees of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive will likely have noticed their recent focus on Swedish cinema, from retrospectives of Mai Zetterling, Roy Andersson, and Gunvor Ne...

This week, @feuilladist.bsky.social interviews Swedish Film Institute Senior Curator Jon Wengström ahead of his visit to @bampfa.bsky.social to kick off a series of Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller silent films: www.screenslate.com/articles/jon...

Screen Slate First Viewings and Discoveries 2025 presented in ballot order, from the link below, to allow for easy following along with those who made the selections first (each film can only be listed once) www.screenslate.com/articles/best-movies-...

My new year gift to you all is this 2,600+ title @letterboxd.social list that compiles all of the films listed as First Viewings and Discoveries in the @screenslate.bsky.social year end poll. It's probably the only list where you'll find Rollerball (2002) alongside 25 films directed by Mikio Naruse.

World-Building: Bi Gan on Resurrection After only two features, Bi Gan had already developed a fervent following from viewers who left the theater walking on air from the unfastened-camera showmanship of Kaili Blues (2015) and Long Day’s J...

SSSFB is taking the rest of the year off, but if you need your fix, the @screenslate.bsky.social mothership carries on through the holidays, e.g. today's Bi Gan inverview by nicolasrapold.bsky.social on Resurrection, playing now at the Roxie and Smith Rafael. www.screenslate.com/articles/wor...