SCHOOL DAYS: A still from Frederick Wiseman’s film “High School,” which was shot at Philadelphia’s Northeast High School in 1968. The film is among the highlights of the upcoming “Real Life, Reel Representation” symposium at Rider University.

By Anne Levin

Since 2007, Rider University’s Department of Media Arts has been producing a film festival focused on specific themes. This year’s event, on February 28 and 29, is titled “Real Life, Reel Representation: The Art and (Personal) Politics of Nonfiction Film.”

Screenings and panel discussions are devoted to work by students and professional filmmakers, including the award-winners Ross McElwee, known for such features as Sherman’s March and Photographic Memory; and Frederick Wiseman, who created High School, City Hall, and numerous other works. McElwee is a guest speaker.

“This is a little more ambitious than most years, because we’ve been fortunate enough to have Ross McElwee join us,” said Rider Professor Cynthia Lucia, who will moderate many of the panels. “We’ve kind of been building up since the pandemic, when we had a little slowdown. I’m really looking forward to McElwee, because he is such an important documentary filmmaker. Sherman’s March was named by the Film Preservation Society as one of the top films to be preserved, and it was chosen by the Library of Congress National Film Registry, which is really huge. I’m very excited for the students to have the opportunity to meet him. We’ve been studying his work.”

Photographic Memory will be screened at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 28. The filmmaker will speak the following evening at “An Evening with Ross McElwee and his Landmark Documentaries.” A professor of practice in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University, McElwee’s approach to the autobiographical/personal essay documentary is said to have influenced the work of such filmmakers as Michael Moore (Roger and Me, 1989), Nathaniel Kahn (My Architect, 2003), and Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me, 2004). McElwee will present portions of Remake, his newest work in progress, during his talk.

Wiseman, who is still making fly-on-the-wall-style films at age 90, won’t appear in person. But his work will be discussed. “His movies are fully observational,” said Lucia. “He simply goes into various institutions and records. Of course, he shapes an impression. But there is no narration. There are no written titles. He simply throws viewers into these environments.”

Wiseman’s High School, which was filmed at Northeast High School in Philadelphia in 1968, will be screened Wednesday prior to the 6:30 talk “Voyages of Discovery: The Cinema of Frederick Wiseman” by Barry Keith Grant, professor emeritus of film at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. Grant recently wrote a book of the same title, and is the author of several other publications about Wiseman.

Among the other films to be screened and discussed during the symposium are Basic Training (1971), Six O’Clock News (1996), Hoop Dreams (1994), Grizzly Man (2005), Land Without Bread (1933), and Prom Night in Mississsippi (2009). Several student entries are also scheduled.

“Film is very popular at Rider,” said Lucia. “Every year we have more students as film and TV majors. The strength of our program is that all of our production students must take a certain amount of film studies courses. We believe for young people to make good movies, they need to have some background in film history. And I think they really appreciate having their film horizons broadened. I recently showed my students The Crowd from 1928, a silent film about a young man who has this American dream and encounters alienation. They were amazed by that movie, because it felt so contemporary.”

Visit rider.edu for a complete schedule.