Titicut Follies

Frederick Wiseman’s unflinching debut shows life inside an institution for the criminally insane, voted one of the greatest documentaries of all time.

Frederick Wiseman’s landmark debut film takes us inside a Massachusetts institution for the criminally insane, unflinchingly documenting the treatment and mistreatment of inmates. Often blurring the distinction between doctors and patients, and at times harrowing to watch, the film was prohibited from general distribution in the USA for almost 25 years.

Rather than self-righteous anger or telling his audience what to think, the moral dimension Wiseman presents here is far more complex, and the conclusions reached far more unsettling. In a 2014 poll of the greatest documentaries of all time, filmmakers voted it in 6th place. Contains scenes of violence, abuse, force feeding and death.