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Dir. Frederick Wiseman, 1994, USA, 220 min.
Frederick Wiseman's long anticipated follow-up to his sophomore feature, High School (1968), saw the bard of verité turn his attention from the Keystone State to New York City, where his subject, Central Park East Secondary School, had been founded just a few years prior to serve the youth of Spanish Harlem according to the principles of the nascent Small Schools Movement.
A masterful examination of the clash between the folly of youth and the weight of institutions, High School II gives us a front row seat to hours of PTA meetings, student government assemblies, and messy experiments in multilateral conflict resolution, while also inviting us into the lives of a few dozen young people, who—despite centuries of systemic disadvantage and institutional inertia—manage to keep their dreams alive and their spirits uncrushed.
This September, Low Cinema joins Union Docs, the Museum of the Moving Image, Spectacle Theater, and Anthology Film Archives in celebrating Wiseman's chronic obsession with New York City. All related programs can be found on Union Docs' series page.
-CB
Special thanks to Zipporah Films.
All sales are final; no refunds or exchanges. Five minutes after the listed showtime, any unused tickets will be considered no-shows and released to standby customers.
High School II
Upcoming Showings
FRI SEP 4
Dir. Frederick Wiseman, 1994, USA, 220 min.
Frederick Wiseman's long anticipated follow-up to his sophomore feature, High School (1968), saw the bard of verité turn his attention from the Keystone State to New York City, where his subject, Central Park East Secondary School, had been founded just a few years prior to serve the youth of Spanish Harlem according to the principles of the nascent Small Schools Movement.
A masterful examination of the clash between the folly of youth and the weight of institutions, High School II gives us a front row seat to hours of PTA meetings, student government assemblies, and messy experiments in multilateral conflict resolution, while also inviting us into the lives of a few dozen young people, who—despite centuries of systemic disadvantage and institutional inertia—manage to keep their dreams alive and their spirits uncrushed.
This September, Low Cinema joins Union Docs, the Museum of the Moving Image, Spectacle Theater, and Anthology Film Archives in celebrating Wiseman's chronic obsession with New York City. All related programs can be found on Union Docs' series page.
-CB
Special thanks to Zipporah Films.
All sales are final; no refunds or exchanges. Five minutes after the listed showtime, any unused tickets will be considered no-shows and released to standby customers.
