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High School
Plot Synopsis by Bhob Stewart

In 1991, the National Film Preservation Board selected High School (1969) for inclusion in the National Film Registry. Richard Schickel, writing in Life, called this a "wicked, brilliant documentary about life in a lower-middle-class secondary school." Acclaimed filmmaker Frederick Wiseman roamed freely through Philadelphia's Northeast High School to document a continual clash of teens with administrators who confused learning with discipline. At 75 minutes, this is one of Wiseman's shortest documentaries, yet the impact is just as memorable as in his three-hour films. Both facts and social values are transmitted from one generation to another, and such social conditioning is seen in a series of formal and informal encounters between teachers, students, parents, and administrators. One disciplinarian lectures a minor offender: "We are out to establish that you are a man and that you can take orders." Wiseman went back to school 25 years later to film more successful student-teacher interactions and progressive teaching methods at an alternative high school in New York's Spanish Harlem, seen in his much longer (220 minutes) High School II (1994).

Similar Works
28 Up  (1984, Michael Apted)
Saturday Morning  (1971, Kent MacKenzie)
Hoop Dreams  (1994, Steve James)
Titicut Follies  (1967, Frederick Wiseman)
Hospital  (1970, Frederick Wiseman)
Canal Zone  (1977, Frederick Wiseman)
Meat  (1976, Frederick Wiseman)
Belfast, Maine  (1999, Frederick Wiseman)
Go Tigers!  (2001, Kenneth A. Carlson)
Facing the Music  (2001, Bob Connolly, Robin Anderson)
Other Related Works
 Is followed by:    High School II  (1994, Frederick Wiseman)
 Is related to:    Aspen  (1991, Frederick Wiseman)
   Missile  (1987, Frederick Wiseman)
   Blind  (1986, Frederick Wiseman)
   The Store  (1983, Frederick Wiseman)
   Ballet  (1995, Frederick Wiseman)
   Central Park  (1989, Frederick Wiseman)
   Deaf  (1986, Frederick Wiseman)
   Adjustment and Work  (1986, Frederick Wiseman)
   Multi-Handicapped  (1986, Frederick Wiseman)
   Manoeuvre  (1979, Frederick Wiseman)
   Elephant  (2003, Gus Van Sant)
 Influenced:    Jesus Camp  (2006, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)