Frederick Wiseman, Oscar-Winning Documentarian, Dies at 96

Frederick Wiseman, the pioneering documentary filmmaker whose penetrating, observational depictions of public institutions raised ethical issues and provoked social examination, has died. He was 96.

Wiseman, a recipient of an honorary Oscar at the 2016 Governors Awards, died Monday, it was announced by Zipporah Films, the distribution company he founded in 1971

A law professor turned filmmaker, Wiseman pretty much made one documentary 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.

Throughout his career, Wiseman tackled a range of troubling social and economic issues. His cinema verite style powerfully exposed the horrific inhumanity of public institutions (like hospitals, schools and housing projects) supposedly created to help people.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/frederick-wiseman-dead-oscar-winning-documentarian-1236507046/