Documentary filmmaker Fred Wiseman speaks on SMU campus

by John P. Meyer

The April 14 event is free and open to the public.

A quick overview of IMDB comments on Frederick Wiseman's various documentary films uncovers the use of adjectives such as inquisitive, banal, gripping, mystical, shocking and funny.

In the case of The Garden (2005), we can add obscure to the list of descriptors, since the operators of Madison Square Garden (upon which the film is based) have thusfar prevented the film from being theatrically released.

Now's your chance to attend a free public event highlighting Wiseman's remarkable career as a filmmaker, starting off with a clip reel of his work, followed by a panel discussion presided over by the man himself - whom at least one self-proclaimed cinephile refers to as "the greatest American filmmaker alive."

The same cinephile (Christoph Huber) says Wiseman is "the most ceaseless chronicler of the way society works," which - aside from being a rather syntactically suspect phrase - nevertheless explains why the folks as Southern Methodist University consider Wiseman to be a great choice for a visiting speaker - and why Lisa M. Stabler, Education & Community Outreach Coordinator for the AFI Dallas International Film Festival states that Wiseman's work stimulates "connections between almost every unit on campus (most explicitly Art History, Art, Cinema, Journalism, Theatre, Dance, Anthropology, English, History, Sociology, Psychology, and Law)."

This special open-to-the-public event happens Tuesday night, April 14 at the Hughes Trigg Theatre on the SMU campus, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.