Frederick Wiseman spent 126 minutes watching strangers learn to tie shoes—and made it riveting.
This film shows the day to day activities of multi-handicapped and sensory impaired students and their teachers, dormitory parents, and counselors at the Helen Keller School. The primary mission of the school is to meet the total and living needs of deaf and/or blind children, some of whom also have other disabilities. The film presents situations involving personal hygiene, mobility training, concepts of time and money, self help and independent living, dormitory life, recreation, sports, vocational training, and psychological counseling.
Direction
Wiseman's invisible camera finds drama in the mundane.
Editing
No narration, no score—just radical trust in the viewer.
Director
Frederick Wiseman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Wiseman shot this over seven weeks in 1985, then spent a year editing 30+ hours of footage into this structure.
Part of Wiseman's 'Blind & Deaf Series,' this remains one of the few cinematic documents of disability that refuses inspirational pablum.
US
