In At Berkeley, the great Frederick Wiseman continues his career-long project of documenting how our institutions shape human behavior. Wiseman and cameraman John Davey embedded themselves at the University of California, Berkeley—considered by many to be the country’s most prestigious public university—during the fall of 2010, a period of particularly contentious debates over tuition hikes, budget cuts, and state funding. The resulting film provides an eye-opening look at the inner-workings of a major university (not unlike a certain university right here in Columbus) while also capturing Berkeley’s unique history of free speech, student diversity, and cutting-edge research. Wiseman visited the center in April 2006 as part of a retrospective of his work. (244 mins., DCP)
