High School (1968 film)

High School
Directed byFrederick Wiseman
Distributed byGrove Press[1]
Release date
  • November 13, 1968 (1968-11-13)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

High School is a 1968 American documentary film by Frederick Wiseman that shows a typical day for students and faculty at a Pennsylvanian high school during the late 1960s. It is one of the first direct cinema (or cinéma vérité) documentaries[citation needed] . It was shot over five weeks between March and April 1968 at Northeast High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The film was not shown in Philadelphia at the time of its release, because of Wiseman's concerns over what he called "vague talk" of a lawsuit.[2]

The film was released in November 1968. High School has aired on PBS. Wiseman distributes his work (DVDs and 16mm prints) through Zipporah Films, which rents them to high schools, colleges, and libraries on a five-year long-term lease. High School was selected in 1991 for preservation in the National Film Registry.[3][4][5]

In 1994, Wiseman released High School II, a second documentary on high school, based on Central Park East Secondary School in New York City.

  1. ^ "Frederick Wiseman talks "Titicut Follies"". April 18, 2016.
  2. ^ "Long-delayed debut of "High School," 2001". Current. Archived from the original on November 20, 2010. Retrieved November 2, 2010.
  3. ^ "High School (1968) - IMDb". IMDb.
  4. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
  5. ^ Kehr, Dave (September 26, 1991). "U.S. FILM REGISTRY ADDS 25 'SIGNIFICANT' MOVIES". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved June 24, 2020.