Frederick Wiseman. Photo: Antoine Yar/Wikimedia Commons.
* 1. Januar 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts
† 16. Februar 2026 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
One of my most admired directors passed way. I believe that I have watched at least 70 percent of his films. And I am still afraid to watch his "Near Death"(1989). It is darkly funny that this title coincides with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the near death of global socialism. In any case my favorites are "Missile"(1987) which is also in a certain way a film about near death. And "The Store" (1984) and "Meat" (1976) about the cruelty and the violence of global capitalism.
He will remain together with maybe Robert Kramer the most important cartographer of the modern post Shoah world. So much sadness and mourning in his world. He already saw America dying -- decades before it happens right now before our own eyes.
