Titicut Follies

Titicut Follies is a black and white 1967 documentary film by Frederick Wiseman about the treatment of patients at Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The title is taken from a talent show put on by the hospital's inmates. (The talent show was taken from the Wampanoag Indian name for the nearby Taunton River). Titicut Follies is widely considered to be a masterpiece of the direct cinema form in documentary film, portraying the existence of occupants of Bridgewater, some of them catatonic, holed up in unlit cells, only periodically washed down with a hose and taken out in order to receive force feeding. It also portrays the indifference and bullying on the part of the institution's staff. As such, it makes an implicit statement about the power of authority and total institutions. The stark black and white photography and unflinching cinéma vérité presentation, make this film a particularly powerful experience. The film's release was banned (outside the field of education) in the United States from 1967-1992 by a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that, since it was filmed in a hospital, it violated the patients' rights to privacy.[1] Wiseman, the film's director, however, has pointed out that he received permission from all of the people portrayed in the film or else their legal guardian, in this case the superintendent of Bridgewater. He believes that the Massachusetts Government, feeling concerned that it portrayed a state institution in a bad light, took the film out of circulation to protect their own reputation. In 1992, it was allowed to be shown on PBS. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has ordered that "A brief explanation shall be included in the film that changes and improvements have taken place at Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater since 1966."[2] The film is now legally available through the distributor (Zipporah Films, Inc.), for purchase or rental on VHS, DVD and 16mm film for both educational and individual license. Zipporah Films released the DVD of the film to the home market on December 3, 2007 (information from wikipedia.org).