MoMA Publishes FREDERICK WISEMAN Book

Publishing in December to mark the end of a year-longexhibition of Frederick Wiseman's films at The Museum of Modern Art, and to celebrate theacquisition of 36 newly struck film prints for the Museum's Permanent Collection, Frederick Wiseman is the first publication in English to provide a comprehensive overview of Wiseman's work to date, including his projects for theater and opera.

In a career spanning more than fourdecades, Frederick Wiseman has made nearly forty films that together form a monumental chronicle of late-twentieth century institutional and cultural life. From his controversial debut,Titicut Follies (1967), about the horrifying conditions at a state prison hospital for the criminallyinsane, to his recent critical and commercial successes La Danse-The Paris Opera Ballet (2009)and Boxing Gym (2010), Wiseman's films pose ethical, philosophical, and aesthetic dilemmas thatare both urgent and vexing.

Edited by Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of ModernArt, and Marie-Christine de Navacelle, a former film curator at the Centre Georges Pompidou, thepublication features new essays by an array of distinguished writers, critics, and artists: AndrewDelbanco, David Denby, Pierre Legendre, Errol Morris, Marie-Christine de Navacelle, JayNeugeboren, Geoffrey O'Brien, Christopher Ricks, Catherine Samie, Joshua Siegel, William T. Vollmann, and Frederick Wiseman. In his contribution to the book, Siegel writes, "This collectionof original essays, by Wiseman himself and by eminent observers on both sides of the Atlantic,seeks to dispel persistent myths of Wiseman as a ruthless muckraker, a social worker, or a fatherof cinema verité. Instead, it offers a more nuanced, complicated, and open-ended portrait of himas one of the world's most fearless and innovative filmmakers.

"Philip Gourevitch, author of the award-winning We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow WeWill Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, offers advance praise of the book, writing, "What a great salute to a true American original-our great scrutinizer, the filmmaker FredWiseman. In celebrating the fierce mastery of his eye and ear, the generous wisdom of his editing, and the enduring grip of his influence, the essays collected here (not least, his own) are full of essential insights into his work, and taken together they pay him the highest homage: they make you want-no, they make you need-to watch his movies again and again."

The publication will be released in December 2010. Advance copies of the bookwill be available for purchase at a special book signing with Frederick Wiseman on theopening night of the theatrical run of his latest film, Boxing Gym (2010), at the IFCCenter in New York, on October 22, 2010.

A sneak preview of Boxing Gym will bescreened at MoMA on October 20 at 7:00 p.m. Frederick Wiseman is published in English byThe Museum of Modern Art, New York, and is available at MoMA Stores and online at www.MoMAStore.org.

It is distributed to the trade by Distributed Art Publishers/D.A.P in theUnited States and Canada, and by Thames & Hudson outside North America. A French edition ispublished and distributed by Éditions Gallimard, Paris.

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