High School (1968 film)

High School is a 1968 American documentary film shot by Frederick Wiseman that shows a typical day for a group of students at Northeast High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was one of the first direct cinema (or cinéma vérité) documentaries. It was shot over five weeks in March and April 1968. The film was not shown in Philadelphia at the time of its release, because of Wiseman's concerns over what he called "vague talk" of a lawsuit.[1]

High School
Directed byFrederick Wiseman
Release date
  • November 13, 1968 (1968-11-13)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The film was released in November 1968 by Zipporah Films, Wiseman's distribution company. High School has aired on PBS. Wiseman distributes his work (DVDs and 16mm prints) through Zipporah Films, which rents them to high schools, colleges, and libraries on a five-year long-term lease. High School was selected in 1991 for preservation in the National Film Registry.[2] [3] [4]

In 1994, Wiseman released High School II, a second documentary on high school, based on Central Park East Secondary School in New York City.

Reception and interpretation

Film critic David Denby, writing in the New York Review of Books, described High School as "a savagely comic portrait" of an urban high school in a period of emerging social unrest:

... [t]he movie was shot in 1968, and the school was then clearly attempting to hold off what it perceived as cultural anarchy outside its walls. Many of the teachers and administrators are exercising a bland and frightened dictatorship; their speech is deadened as if any sign of life might inspire the students to break out of control. Meanwhile, dull and demoralized by the teachers' inability to bring any subject to life, many of the best students are gathered in a class of malcontents where they sit in resentful torpor - they are also victims of the hypocrisy and authoritarianism promoted in the school ...

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See also

References
  1. "Long-delayed debut of "High School," 2001". Current. Archived from the original on 20 November 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  2. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064429/trivia
  3. "Complete National Film Registry Listing | Film Registry | National Film Preservation Board | Programs at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
  4. Kehr, Dave. "U.S. FILM REGISTRY ADDS 25 `SIGNIFICANT` MOVIES". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
  • Ellsworth, Liz. Frederick Wiseman: A Guide to References and Resources. Boston, MA: G.K.Hall & Co., 1979.
  • Grant, Barry Keith. "Five films by Frederick Wiseman" University of California Press, 2006.
  • Rosenthal, Alan. The New Documentary In Action: A Casebook in Film Making. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1971.
  • High School essay by Barry Grant on the National Film Registry website.
  • High School essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 637-639
  • Comma, Space: Frederick Wiseman's "High School" (1968) essay by Craig Keller[1]
  • High School on IMDb
  1. "Comma, Space: Frederick Wiseman's "High School" (1968) essay by Craig Keller". MUBI. April 24, 2012. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
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