
State Legislature
(Frederick Wiseman / USA / 2007)



Two weeks ago, I was at the Human Rights Film Festival which takes place once every two years in Nuremberg. I didn't have much time and money, and I chose only two films to watch out of the comprehensive range of movies. I would have liked to have seen some more, for example Rithy Pan's latest Le papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise (Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers / 2006), or Sergej Loznitsa's "silent" account of Stalingrad during WWII, Blokada (Blockade / 2005). But you can't always get what you want. Luckily I got plenty from the two films I chose to watch. 

The first was a screening of Frederick Wiseman's State Legislature (2007), which I had already missed at this years Berlin Film Festival, because I wasn't able to find the cinema (see my fragmentary accounts of the 57th Berlinale). I had heard and read great things about the film so I was very excited when I headed to the cinema at ten in the morning. Unfortunately I hadn't slept more than four hours during the previous night, but I figured there would be some solution for this. At the entrance I was delighted when I met two fellow cinastes and co-workers from my cinema but surprised when I found out that we would apparently be the only witnesses to the screening. It seems that nobody else had ventured out to watch a three and a half hour movie at ten thirty in the morning at a public holiday during the week (in fact it was the 3rd of October, the day of the German Reunification). But at least we were bound to find out that some additional lost souls would join us during the screening. Anyways, as the lights went out and the movie commenced I forgot about everything else and found myself immersed in a very interesting and pleasing experience for the next couple of hours.

The film is an account of the inner workings of the Idaho state legislature at Boise, USA in the way I appreciate most in documentary movies. Without adding any comment or additional information of his own, Wiseman has shot one of his typical observational movies that tries to give us an understanding of people and their circumstances through their exposure on film. Wiseman has somehow gained permission to film various deputies at work in the main government building of the state and that's exactly what we get to see. Most of the time these are discussions about yet another bill that should or shouldn't be passed on, but the interesting thing is that they seldom felt like routine work (at least not to me). It seems that most people there are working with a fervor and enthusiasm that really speaks for the ideals of democracy. Although I'm not into politics anymore and don't consider myself a democrat, I found myself pleasently reminded of the more productive discussions during my time as a somewhat active party member. But what was realy new to me, was to see such an active involvement in democratic culture and values, something one might only dream about here in Germany. Of course the usual trappings and shortcoming are also evident in Idaho. Although the politicians aren't professionals (or most often don't consider themselves as such) there is still a lot of formality in conversations that sometimes fail to adress what lies at the core of the matter. On funny moment comes when you find yourself listening to a lengthy discussion, at the end of which you still don't really know what it was actually about. My guess was same sex marriage, but my fellow viewers had different interpretations to offer. The other problem is that the system is still structured pretty much in a hierarchical fashion, despite the aura of freedom most of the delegates are spreading and contrary to outward appearances which the Americans like any other nation in the world are still happy in displaying. The virtue of Wiseman's direction lies in his ability to show us the conflicts and discrepancies inherent in the system and its people without compromising anyone or anything and especially not his art. The respect he shows towards his subject is also expected from the viewer of his film. Wiseman isn't out to explain anything in the traditional sense but instead tries to make us see and understand while we are drawing our own conclusions. His technique in this movie consists of various long takes that show us people behaving in their environment and in contrast to this a mise-en-scene that has learned much from the montage theories of the Soviets (Eisenstein and Peleshian come to my mind). If you haven't the patience for such kind of filmmaking it may become a difficult film to view. Personally I found it dcompletely engaging and could have immediately taken another four hours. To see a filmmaker who displays faith in his audience' ability to think is always delightful to me. After the movie I had the feeling that I really understood some of the things that were happening in the film because I had gone through the experience together with the protagonists. Wiseman was able to deliver lived experience on three levels. First of all I had the feeling of seeing a master at work, a director who knows exatly what he is doing. Out of this there developed a feeling that you were really with the director and his subject all of the time, and the intimacy created between the spectator and the procedure gave me the feeling I had participated in the events on screen. Overall I left the theater with the most satisfying feeling I can get from movies. I had the impression that I had spent a very productive time at the cinema and I was agitated enough by what I had seen to think further about the film and my life. I'm afraid I can't put it any better at the moment but I hope you get what I mean. Maybe I should add that State Legislature works like a gift from a dear friend who has given you something that enriches your life through opnening up new ways of experince. 

An interesting observation came from a fellow reviewer at imdb. It could be said that the people in the movie practice their job like a religion. Unfortunately it often seems like they are only aware of one possible way of doing so, the western, "christian" way. This implicit criticism can be seen in Wiseman contrasting two similar scenes at the beggining and the end of his films that speak in different ways about the same thing. But maybe it's just the old saying that you are wiser afterwards. The film was shot on 16mm and is surprisingly viewable and intimate. By that I mean that you could mistake the material for 35mm, without losing the positive aspects of 16mm. Maybe my choice of words is still irritating, so I'll just say it was a treat to watch.