(USA / 2020 / Directed by Frederick Wiseman)

This film is accompanied by a post-screening conversation between Wiseman and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh.

At 90 years old, Wiseman’s work is as fastidious and captivating as ever. Turning his lens for the first time on his hometown of Boston, his latest film explores one of the central hives in the city’s functioning, painting an intricate portrait of a mayor and an administration who are trying to “put social justice at the heart” of their work.

City government touches almost every aspect of our lives, yet most of us don’t have a full picture of the multitude of services supporting ourselves and our neighbors. As Wiseman takes us into meeting rooms where officials and citizens hash out everything from the budget to trash collection to police deployments for a Red Sox victory parade, these formal activities are anything but boring. Instead, the intentness of his gaze and his way of finding interest in the most mundane details of institutional life give the movie a revelatory fascination. Like listening to a symphony, one of the pleasures of viewing it is watching its patterns emerge, and it’s heartening to hear the theme as voices from the mayor to his staff to the citizenry treat diversity and inclusion as both realities and noble goals that need to be discussed, however messily, to be achieved.

Unrated / 4 hrs 32 mins.