Welfare

Frederick Wiseman's 1975 documentary takes place in a welfare centre in New York and shows the complexity of the system as it is. Housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, the elderly: all of it in the same waiting room. Wiseman's method is as severe as always; no narration, no music, no interviews, only the camera and what happens. The film's strength is that it blames nobody in isolation: the caseworkers are caught inside the system too, the rules are nobody's responsibility, and everyone is referred elsewhere. The runtime past three hours is deliberate; the exhaustion of bureaucracy can only be conveyed at that length. Waiting is both the subject and the form. Who it's for: viewers interested in observational documentary, institutional criticism and the history of American social policy. Who it's not for: anyone unable to take a runtime past three hours and a structure without explanation, or who wants narrative and resolution.