City, State, and Town:
Three by Frederick Wiseman
(January 21 – February 10)

To Frederick Wiseman, the foremost chronicler of American institutions over the last half-century, every detail matters, and each one reveals larger truths about the American Experiment. The 91-year-old director’s most recent film, City Hall (January 21-27), documents in impeccable detail the micro and macro levels of governance in Boston. “I made City Hall,” Wiseman said, “to illustrate why government is necessary for people to successfully live together . . . Boston’s city government is the opposite of what Trump stands for.” The epic portrait of political process largely follows the day-to-day-activities of the highly regarded Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who Joe Biden recently named as his choice for labor secretary. 

To complement City Hall, Metrograph will present two of Wiseman’s previous examinations of government at work on all municipal levels: State Legislature (January 28 – February 3), which tracks lobbyists, lawmakers, and their constituents throughout an entire 12-week session of the Idaho Legislature, and Monrovia, Indiana (February 4-10), an exploration of a small mid-American town that illustrates how positive community values are formed, and maintained when faced with conflicting forces. To understand our country, and how we arrived at this moment, look no further than Frederick Wiseman.