Event

At Berkeley

Legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman (Titicut Follies, High School, La Danse) turns
his eyes to higher education in this mesmerizing and comprehensive portrait of the University of
California at Berkeley, the oldest and most prestigious member of a ten campus public education system
and one of the finest research and teaching facilities in the world. The film shows the major aspects of
university life with particular emphasis on the administrative efforts to maintain the academic excellence,
public role, and the economic, racial and social diversity of the student body of America's premier public
university in the face of drastic budgetary cuts imposed by the State of California. At Berkeley shows
how a major American university is administered and suggests the complex relationship among its various constituencies students, faculty, administrators, alumni, the City of Berkeley, the State of California and the federal government. In a more abstract way, the
film looks closely at Berkeley's intellectual and social mission, its obligation to the state and to larger ideas of higher education as well as illustrates how decisions are made and implemented by the administration in collaboration with its various constituencies.
USA, 2013, 244 min., Color, DCP | Director: Frederick Wiseman | 2013 Toronto Film Festival