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DOCUMENTARY DILEMMAS: AN ANALYTIC HISTORY OF FREDERICK WISEMAN'S "TITICUT FOLLIES" (FILM, CENSORSHIP, CONSENT)
Abstract
Titicut Follies, a documentary made at Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Bridgewater by Frederick Wiseman and John Marshall, is the only American film whose use has court-approved restrictions for reasons other than obscenity. A decree of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts limits its exhibition to individuals in various professional categories. This study traces how--and speculates on why--Titicut Follies came to occupy this sui generis status and, in doing so, comments on the general conundrum of conflicting rights among documentary filmmakers, subjects, and audiences. This study expands the criticism of Wiseman's work through a rhetorical analysis of his first film, develops the case study as a method of doing documentary film history, examines direct cinema as a film form with particular ethical burdens, and adds a full review of a unique legal decision to film censorship history. Each chapter, although chronological, is organized around a central dilemma. No chapter involves ethical dilemmas as named topic; every chapter concerns ethical problems. Chapter Two deals with the procedural dilemmas that confronted the non-sponsored filmmaker in 1965-66. The "politics of asking" and the myth of informed consent are analyzed. Chapter Three focuses on the construction of the film in 1966-67 and concentrates on the artistic dilemmas that result from working in the essentially paradoxical form of "reality fiction." Legal dilemmas are the central topics of Chapter Four, which emphasizes the especially active 1967-69 period, but also covers appeals for a review of Commonwealth v. Wiseman. Also discussed is the rush to judgment by legislature, press, and other publics during 1967-69. Chapter Five concerns the bureaucratic dilemmas of restrictive exhibition that have existed since 1969. The last chapter reviews the documentary dilemmas discussed and speculates on their inevitability. To understand the biography of Titicut Follies, one must understand the Zeitgeist of late 1960s America and, therefore, a chronology has been constructed. Included as "background" are events that significantly contributed to the (dis)spirit of the time and key events in the lives of major participants in the controversy. All "foreground" entries relate directly to the career of the film itself.
Subject Area
Motion Pictures
Recommended Citation
ANDERSON, CAROLYN MORICONI, "DOCUMENTARY DILEMMAS: AN ANALYTIC HISTORY OF FREDERICK WISEMAN'S "TITICUT FOLLIES" (FILM, CENSORSHIP, CONSENT)" (1984). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI8418872.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8418872