InformationTiticut
Follies is the first major, full-length documentary by Frederick
Wiseman, generally considered to be the most successful independent
filmmaker in the United States. Titicut Follies (the title of the film
is taken from an annual talent show produced by inmates and staff) was
filmed at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater,
Massachusetts, a sprawling facility of four divisions with four distinct
populations. Of the two thousand men warehoused there in the 1960s,
only fifteen percent had ever been convicted of a crime, yet the
institution was administered by the Department of Corrections rather
than the Department of Mental Health--units representing very different
and contradictory goals. At the time of the filming, there were only two
psychiatrists and one trainee caring for the six hundred men in the
hospital section.
Wiseman believed that public awareness of the
terrible conditions at Bridgewater would create a demand for reform and
improvement, and he gained unlimited access to the facility by
representing the project to administration and staff as educational. The
result is a bitterly critical, shockingly brutal documentary account of
the prison hospital, and despite giving Wiseman permission to make the
film, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts quickly moved to ban its
release. In September 1967, just days before it was scheduled to be
screened at the New York Film Festival, the attorney general filed an
injunction that would permanently forbid Wiseman from showing the
documentary to any audience. In 1969, the Massachusetts Supreme Court
permitted limited use for doctors, lawyers, health-care professionals,
social workers and students, and in 1991, the courts finally allowed its
release to the general public. Titicut Follies is the only American
film whose use has had court-imposed restrictions for reasons other than
obscenity or national security.
Wiseman's films are both artistic
experiences and social documents. Titicut Follies is firmly placed
within a documentary tradition driven by a desire for social justice,
and its unflinching view of the inhumane conditions at Bridgewater
proved successful in ultimately getting the facility closed.
Related Documentaries
Mental: A History of the MadhouseHow Mad are YouRethinking PedophiliaThe Farm: Life Inside Angola PrisonBehind BarsAlcatraz: Living HellTourettes And Other DisordersColonies of the Condemned
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