Making Visual History
National Gallery: A Screening and Conversation with Frederick Wiseman

ADMISSION:
Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP at the links below beginning Tuesday, August 9, at 9 a.m.

USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP
USC Alumni: RSVP
General Public: RSVP

DESCRIPTION:
Join legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, the master documentarian of our time, for a screening and discussion of his three-hour tour de force National Gallery (2014), which looks behind the scenes and on the walls of one of the world’s greatest collections of paintings. Showing how museums have become perhaps our greatest secular cathedrals, National Gallery considers the role of art and art institutions in today’s world.

Wiseman is the celebrated director, producer, sound person, and editor of 40 documentaries, including Titicut Follies (1967) and In Jackson Heights (2015). He is known for his direct, observational style and for providing visual studies of modern social institutions that do not pretend to be “objective,” but rather acknowledge the personal experience of looking, interpreting, and understanding. Wiseman is the winner of the George Polk Career Award for journalistic integrity and investigative reporting and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice International Film Festival, as well as Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships. 

USC Dornsife professor Daniela Bleichmar will introduce the film. Following the screening, professor Akira Lippit will moderate a Q&A with Wiseman.

This event is presented as part of “Making Visual History,” a series of events exploring the intersection of the arts and humanities and the fascinating work of making history visible on screen.

Additional Links:
Frederick Wiseman IMDB

Related Events:
The World According to Frederick Wiseman: Beyond Documentary, Into History
Friday, August 26, 2016, 2 p.m.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108
For more info, click here.

Tom Kalin: Fictionalizing History and Reinterpreting the Past
Thursday, November 10, 2016, 7 p.m.
The Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108
For more info, click here.

Amanda Vickery: From the Classroom to the BBC
Monday, April 3, 2017, 7 p.m.
Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240
For more info, click here.

Organized by Vanessa Schwartz (History, Art History, and Visual Studies Research Institute), Daniela Bleichmar (Art History and History), Akira Lippit (Cinematic Arts, Comparative Literature, and East Asian Languages and Cultures), and Michael Renov (Cinematic Arts). Co-sponsored by the Visual Studies Research Institute, Mellon Sawyer Seminar, and USC School of Cinematic Arts.