Los Angeles: Oscar-Winning documentarian Frederick Wiseman has passed away. He was 96.
He breathed his last on Monday. The news of his demise was announced by Zipporah Films, the distribution company he founded in 1971, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
“For nearly six decades, Frederick Wiseman created an unparalleled body of work, a sweeping cinematic record of contemporary social institutions and ordinary human experience primarily in the United States and France,” a statement from the company read.
A law professor turned filmmaker, Wiseman pretty much made onedocumentary a year since his first one, the controversial Titicut Follies (1967), which exposed appalling brutalities at Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
Officials in Massachusetts sued him, and the film was removed from distribution for two decades, according to The Hollywood Reporter
“What’s kept me going is it’s fun and an adventure,” he said during his breezy acceptance speech at the Governors Awards. “Constantly working also keeps me off the streets, or at least on the streets that I like.”
His 50th documentary, Menus Plaisirs — Les Troisgros, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2023.