The Cinematheque

“Wiseman gives us fault lines, derangement, sanctity … [He] knows that there is as much honour as absurdity in the skirmish.”

Matt Morrison, Film Comment

Just two years after his magnum opus Titicut Follies and decades before hospitals became a popular site of procedural and reality television, Wiseman turned his panoramic lens onto one of society’s greatest collective institutions. Set in the bustling Metropolitan Hospital in East Harlem, Hospital documents numerous emergency encounters of patients suffering from a range of medical and psychological ailments, including states of extreme intoxication. A sense of the frenetic setting in which on-call psychiatrists carry out their responsibilities—still present to this day—emerges. So too do their myriad responsibilities, including their advocacy (not always successful) for the social services needed by psychologically vulnerable patients. Seamlessly shifting between wide and close shots, Wiseman employs a unique reportorial style showcasing the intensity of the seemingly mundane—an approach that continues to inform his observational craft, revealing the drama, personalities, and social concerns of life and death scenarios.

“Despite the many undeniably unpleasant sights in the film, Hospital avoids sensationalism … To powerful effect, in its conclusion Hospital returns the cultural and social issues the film raises to the spectator, as Wiseman has frequently done in his work.” Barry Keith Grant, Library of Congress

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Bradley Locke, clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at UBC.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, series director.