April 2 - 7:00pm

State Legislature

Frederick Wiseman (2007) 217 mins

Premiering at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, the latest opus by the doyen of observational documentary (Titicut Follies, Near Death, Domestic Violence) focuses unflinchingly & non-judgementally on the 2004 session of the Idaho Legislature & the extraordinary range of issues it has to deal with (from mad cow disease & video voyeurism to illegal immigration & the dangers of secondhand smoking). Culled from 160 hours of 16mm footage, Wiseman’s expansive but nuanced & humanistic film is a characteristically balanced day-to-day portrait of the achievements, failings & underlying processes that drive one of the key & most complex institutions of American democracy.

Imported print courtesy of

.