Welfare

Frederick Wiseman’s remarkable glimpse into the Kafkaesque nature of New York’s welfare system.

Unfolding like a Kafka-esque novel, this remarkable, clear-sighted film reveals the absurdities of New York’s welfare system from the point of view of the staff administering it and the claimants attempting to access it. Deeply serious yet playful in parts, Welfare reveals the myriad reasons why people seek help and the complex tangle of regulations that frequently deny it.