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Past Film/Video | Documentaries
Followed by a conversation with the filmmaker and Mayor Martin Walsh
Stream | Columbus Premiere
STREAM ONLINE $12 via Eventive
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation such as captioning or ASL interpretation to participate in this event, please contact Accessibility Manager Helyn Marshall at accessibility@wexarts.org or via telephone at (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
Catch the Columbus premiere of City Hall, the latest project by legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. The film captures the efforts of Boston city government to provide essential public services while revealing the ways its policies address racial justice, affordable housing, climate action, and more.
Although city government touches almost every aspect of our daily lives—taking care of sanitation and safety—it can be easy to take for granted the many activities necessary to support a local population: veterans affairs; parks and recreation maintenance; record keeping of birth, marriage, and death.
One of our country’s greatest living filmmakers and the force behind more than five decades of documentaries that investigate how our institutions work, Wiseman explains that “I made City Hall to illustrate why government is necessary for people to successfully live together. City Hall shows a city government offering a wide variety of important and necessary services to a major American city whose population exemplifies the history of diversity of America. The Boston city government is designed and strives to offer these services in a manner consistent with the Constitution and democratic norms. Boston’s city government is the opposite of what Trump stands for.”
Wiseman visited the Wex in 2006 for a retrospective of his work and received an Honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2016. (275 mins., digital video)
Keep watching after the film for a conversation between Wiseman and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh.
• Critic’s Pick: “’City Hall’ Review: Frederick Wiseman, for the People,” New York Times • Critic’s Pick: “’City Hall’ Review: America Would Be a Better Place If Everyone Watched Wiseman’s 4.5-Hour Epic,” Indiewire
Image courtesy Zipporah Films
MADE POSSIBLE BY Greater Columbus Arts Council American Electric Power Foundation L Brands Foundation The Columbus Foundation Ohio Arts Council Institute of Museum and Library Services Huntington Bank Nationwide Foundation
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Kaufman Development Cardinal Health Foundation
Past Film/Video
City Hall
