At Berkeley

At Berkeley (2013)

Runtime: 244 minutes (not a misprint)

Directed by: Frederick Wiseman

Starring: This is a documentary about the University of California at Berkeley

From: Zipporah Films

I explain below in my Letterboxd review why I was glad I saw a 4 hour long documentary in one sitting, and why I wish I could track down more Frederick Wiseman movies... you can get them directly from his production company but it'd be pricey to get even a few of them: 

While it was years ago that I first heard of the once-banned documentary Titicut Follies, it wasn't until a few years ago that I learned about its director-Frederick Wiseman-and how he is not only prolific but he still does documentaries today and he's in his mid 80's. I understand why low-budget filmmakers would prefer to sell their work personally on their website rather than have it streamed (especially if they do this sort of work) but I still wish there was that option, as I feel documentaries should be more accessible due to the potential impact they could have. Anyhow, I was able to find a copy of this so I watched all 244 minutes in one setting; Wiseman typically does lengthy movies so this isn't too excessive compared to his norm.

Berkeley refers to the University of California at Berkeley, a public school that is world-renowned for its extremely high standard of education. It covers several aspects:

* Many different classrooms or workshops are attended, and you see a wide variety of different subjects taught. The workshops include a device that helps a paralyzed person walk. The talks in class sometimes revolve around such subjects as race relations, stereotyping how good a student is just based on appearance & the color of their skin, and economic inequality.

* The higher-ups of the school are seen discussing the subject of fiscal trouble. I know that the people who follow me scan literally across the world, and I know that in many places higher education is paid for by the government. Not in the United States. Even compared to when I went to a university in Illinois back over a decade ago, the cost of tuition and room & board has skyrocketed. That is mainly due to a decrease in funding from state governments; I don't want to get political here as I don't want any giant arguments but that is sadly a fact, and even a prestigious school like Cal has to deal with such issues.

* Maintenance is shown, from the sweeping of stairs to the mowing of lawns.

* Various activities are presented on campus, from violin concerts and Greek rush to hippie festivals and the ROTC.

* Oh, and public protests also. That has to be noted as in this sprawling documentary, the one big event is a huge student protest against the high cost of going to Cal Berkeley. This is shown from both the students and the faculty.

There's a wide variety of opinions heard here and just from listening to those people talk about their lives and social issues while in the context of discussion during class or talk by faculty about the school, you get to learn a lot about how America is currently, inequality, and how difficult it can be to live or just go to school in this society. This goes along with just how engrossing and vibrant a college campus can be; that's what I remember from my days and with this particular institution, you get to see that the student body is quite diverse. This has plenty of people speaking for lengthy amounts of time but even if it's about topics I wasn't too interested in, I still listened to what they had to say and I certainly did learn new things.

The documentary has such a large scope that it really could have been even longer than it was, but in those 4 hours you still get a great sense of what a college campus is like and all the different things that can take place in a short amount of time. I presume it is a Director Trope that none of the people were ID'ed with any sort of graphics (only the few main people at the school were credited at the end) but I can it could also be because it fits into the “fly on the wall” nature of this, where the director lets everyone speak for themselves and it is up to the viewer to decide what they think about everyone... or, it shows that the experiences at Berkeley could happen at any campus of higher learning all across the country.

After viewing this, I definitely will try to track down more Wiseman to watch in the future.