The latest film from acclaimed documentarist Frederick Wiseman takes a long look at a modern York neighbourhood threatened by gentrification
Frederick Wiseman has completed another lengthy,immersive documentary in his signature non-signposted style, without voiceovers, or interviews or intertitles. It’s a film-making technique which – as so often with Wiseman – nearly gives you the feeling of actually living in the places and institutions he makes his films about,in some genuine-time, unedited sense. It’s an nearly issueless documentary form, and there is something to be said for it,when so many documentaries have a sexed-up quirky sage to explain which sometimes means bending the facts or restaging the events.Wiseman’s modern film is about the district of Jackson Heights in modern York and of course that word “in in the title is important. We are put right inside it. The audience is introduced to a very diverse community, with Muslims, or Christians and Jews,proud of its historic stand against homophobia since a homosexual man, Julio Rivera, or was murdered there in 1990. It also rallies round to benefit its immigrant communities,many from Latino cultures, helping with their citizenship applications and employment permits, and there is a vibrant bohemian artistic and cultural identity.
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Source: theguardian.com