Frederick Wiseman Quotes & Sayings

You have to edit the material. That assumes that some kind of a mind is operating in relation to the material. Not all minds are the same. Every aspect of filmmaking requires choice. The selection of the subject, the shooting, editing and length are all aspects of choice. — Frederick Wiseman

I think my movies aren't sentimental. I think my movies are funny and sad and realistic. Not realistic in the sense that they're documentaries, but realistic in the sense that they're not idealistic, they're not optimistic, not pessimistic, and not propagandistic. They're an analysis of a situation. I call it as I see it, so to speak. — Frederick Wiseman

Of course there's conscious manipulation! Everything about a movie is manipulation ... If you like it, it's an interpretation. If you don't like it, it's a lie - but everything about these movies is a distortion. — Frederick Wiseman

My goal is to make as many films as possible about different aspects of American life. — Frederick Wiseman

I'm too busy to be nostalgic, which is one of the reasons to keep busy. I'm not a very sentimental person. — Frederick Wiseman

Anybody whose mind is functioning at all can't be content with the way the world works. — Frederick Wiseman

Everything about a movie is manipulation. — Frederick Wiseman

I think I have an obligation, to the people who have consented to be in the film, to make a film that is fair to their experience. The editing of my films is a long and selective process. I do feel that when I cut a sequence, I have an obligation to the people who are in it, to cut it so that it fairly represents what I felt was going on at the time, in the original event. I don't try and cut it to meet the standards of a producer or a network or a television show. — Frederick Wiseman

I'm very careful of not being critical of other people's movies, which work in different styles. I think some of my movies can be interpreted as critical of their subjects. — Frederick Wiseman

In moviemaking, you learn to pay attention to detail, because so much is in the detail. And when you're shooting, you try to be very alert to what's going on, even if you're tired. — Frederick Wiseman

I don't like to read novels where the novelist tells me what to think about the situation and the characters. I prefer to discover for myself. — Frederick Wiseman

It is always a problem to know what an image means. — Frederick Wiseman

Documentary filmmaking ruins you for real life, because you learn to be extremely attentive. — Frederick Wiseman

I'm interested in ordinary experience, and regardless of the precise definition of ordinary, and I've found that in so-called ordinary experience, there is as much comedy, tragedy, sadness, as there is in great drama. And I don't invent it, I recognize it. — Frederick Wiseman

Making movies is an effort, is an attempt to leave a trace of your existence. — Frederick Wiseman

I hope that not only my documentaries, but everybody's documentaries, last. It will really confuse historians in the next century, because they'll have, in addition to all the print material, they'll have all these pictures to look at. — Frederick Wiseman

Whether you're a newspaper journalist, a lawyer, a doctor. You have to organize your thoughts. — Frederick Wiseman

One's relationship to time is complicated, and sometimes a day will drag on forever and sometimes it'll be over in a flash. When you look back, "I'm old," after 40 or 60 years, I can't believe I'm as old as I am. — Frederick Wiseman