Description
Book SynopsisVoyages of Discovery is the definitive account of Frederick Wiseman’s career, offering a comprehensive analysis of the work of the leading documentary filmmaker in the United States. In this updated edition, Barry Keith Grant adds new material exploring the documentarian’s works since the 1990s.
Trade ReviewBarry Keith Grant provides an updated version of his own singularly authoritative study of documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s astonishing range of films—from the controversial
Titicutt Follies through such diverse examples as
Meat, Missile, Model, Deaf, Blind, Public Housing,
Ballet, and
Belfast, Maine, to name a few. In his deeply informed study, Grant creates his own meticulous, yet accessible, “tapestry” of inquiry worthy of the same approach he credits Wiseman with adopting. Grant’s insightful readings of Wiseman’s carefully wrought compositions—and the happy accidents that sometimes occur—highlight colorful thematic threads woven to create the “reality fictions” Wiseman, in his own words, is producing. At the same time, Grant presents a capacious “mosaic,” placing Wiseman’s films in textured dialogue, not only with each other, but also with works of literature, art, theater, music, and dance, along with other films and Hollywood genres, that inform them. Grant explores Wiseman’s penetrating vision of institutional operations—the human interactions that sustain them and the ideological underpinnings beneath the “rules” that govern them. As Grant compellingly claims, Wiseman avoids providing viewers with easy answers.
Voyages of Discovery powerfully uncovers the ambiguities inviting viewers to democratically, actively, and reflexively assess their own participation in, contributions to, and complicity within the cultural conditions Frederick Wiseman so evocatively observes. -- Cynthia Lucia, Rider University
Voyages of Discovery is one of the very best books of film analysis and scholarship that I've ever read. It is certainly the essential work about a major film-maker, whose films require special tools and sensitivities to discuss, which Grant possesses in abundance. This is a most useful work both for those just discovering Wiseman and those who think they know him. Great ideas abound on every page, and Grant's organization of the films is original and helpful. Exemplary as well are the carefully selected frame enlargements, which nicely support his close analysis of visual issues. Grant's ability to bring in relevant ideas from both film study and beyond it is the mark of an eminent scholar. That Grant discusses the entirety of Wiseman's prodigious output, in depth and entertainingly, is also quite an accomplishment. -- Stephen Mamber, author of Cinema Verite in America: Studies in Uncontrolled Documentary
This is the new edition we have been waiting for. Barry Keith Grant provides an essential companion to Frederick Wiseman, one of the most distinctive and prominent voices in US documentary.
Voyages of Discovery offers perceptive and in-depth analyses of Wiseman's vast catalogue, ranging from the 1960s to his most recent work. Grant foregrounds the ways Wiseman's films have not only documented institutions but have challenged their established practices, encouraging audiences to meaningfully engage with and question the hierarchies and fraught political dynamics encountered in everyday life. This study matches the subtlety and resistance to reductive narratives found in Wiseman's own films, revealing why his work remains compelling and necessary viewing that continues to speak to the present day. -- Jeffrey Geiger, author of American Documentary Film: Projecting the Nation
This revised edition of
Voyages of Discovery is updated and expanded to cover Wiseman’s prodigious output over the decades since the original appeared. Supplemented and supported by a range of secondary sources from diverse fields spanning film studies, sociology, art history, and political science (among so many others), Grant develops a portrait of a working filmmaker that is informed and definitive. -- Michael Baker, Sheridan College
The time is right for a second edition, and this year's 'revised and expanded' version rises to the occasion. * Journal of American Culture *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1. Man with a Movie Camera
2. American Madness:
Titicut Follies (1967),
High School (1968),
Law and Order (1969),
Hospital (1970),
Juvenile Court (1974),
Welfare (1975)
3. The Big Parade:
Basic Training (1971),
Manoeuvre (1979),
Missile (1988)
4. Blood of the Beasts:
Primate (1974),
Meat (1976),
Racetrack (1985),
Zoo (1993)
5. When Worlds Collide:
Canal Zone (1977),
Sinai Field Mission (1978),
Model (1980),
The Store (1983)
6. The Bad and the Beautiful:
The Cool World (1963),
Seraphita’s Diary (1982)
7. You and Me:
Essene (1972),
Blind (1987),
Deaf (1987),
Adjustment and Work (1987),
Multi-Handicapped (1987),
Aspen (1991)
8. Love and Death:
Near Death (1989)
9. The Never-Ending Story:
High School II (1994),
Public Housing (1997),
Domestic Violence (2001),
Domestic Violence 2 (2002)
10. Playtime:
Ballet (1995),
La Comédie-Française, ou L’amour joué (1996),
The Last Letter (2002),
La Danse—Le Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris (2009), Boxing Gym (2010),
Crazy Horse (2011),
National Gallery (2014),
A Couple (2022)
11. Our Town:
Central Park (1989),
Belfast, Maine (1999),
State Legislature (2007),
At Berkeley (2013),
In Jackson Heights (2015),
EX-LIBRIS: The New York Public Library (2017),
Monrovia, Indiana (2018),
City Hall (2020)
Filmography
Individual Awards
Retrospective Screenings
Notes
Bibliography
Index
