Overview
- Wiseman died Monday at 96, peacefully at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to a joint statement from his family and Zipporah Films, which did not disclose a cause.
- The Boston-born, Yale-trained lawyer turned filmmaker produced and directed roughly 45 documentaries, from Titicut Follies (1967) to Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros (2023).
- He rejected narration, interviews and score, describing his approach as “reality fiction,” a style that influenced direct cinema through patient, observational editing.
- His debut Titicut Follies exposed abuses at Bridgewater State Hospital and faced decades of screening restrictions that were fully lifted in 1991.
- Honors included an honorary Academy Award in 2016, multiple Emmys and a Peabody; he is survived by two sons and three grandchildren, and his wife Zipporah died in 2021.