Frederick Wiseman's MONROVIA, INDIANA Opening theatrically in NYC/LA after Venice, TIFF and NYFF bows
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- Published on Sunday, 19 August 2018 21:03
On the heels of the recent announcement of Frederick Wiseman's MONROVIA, INDIANA making its world premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, the film will also play at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
Zipporah Films is pleased to announce that the documentary will open theatrically on October 26 at New York's Film Forum as it begins a national theatrical rollout. Los Angeles will open November 2 with additional top markets to follow in November and December.
Located in mid-America, Monrovia, IN (population 1,063), founded in 1834, is primarily a farming community. The film is about the day-to-day experiences living and working in Monrovia, with emphasis on community organizations and institutions, religion and daily life in this farming community.
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Forty-six million Americans live in rural, small town America. These towns were once the backbone of American life. While their number and populations have shrunk, the importance of rural America as a formative center of American politics and values was demonstrated in the 2016 presidential election.
To understand more about American life, it is important acknowledge the unique and important contributions small towns make to American character and culture, in addition to providing most of our food, raw materials and drinking water.
The film explores the conflicting stereotypes and illustrates how values like community service, duty, spiritual life, generosity and authenticity are formed, experienced and lived. The film gives a complex and nuanced view of daily life in Monrovia and provides some understanding of a rural, mid-American way of life that has always been important in America but whose influence and force have not always been recognized or understood in the big cities on the east and west coasts of America and in other countries.
On his inspiration for the film Wiseman stated: "I thought a film about a small farming community in the Midwest would be a good addition to the series I have been doing on contemporary American life. Life in big American cities, on the east and west coasts, is regularly reported on and I was interested in learning more about life in small town America and sharing my view."
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Since 1967, Frederick Wiseman has directed 42 documentaries—dramatic, narrative films that seek to portray ordinary human experience in a wide variety of contemporary social institutions. His films include TITICUT FOLLIES, HIGH SCHOOL, WELFARE, JUVENILE COURT, BOXING GYM, LA DANSE, BALLET, CENTRAL PARK, BALLET, LA COMEDIE FRANCAISE, CRAZY HORSE, AT BERKELEY, NATIONAL GALLERY, IN JACKSON HEIGHTS, and EX LIBRIS - THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY. He has directed one fiction film, THE LAST LETTER (2002). His films are exhibited in theatres and broadcast on television in many countries.
A full list can be found here: www.zipporah.com/films.
Frederick Wiseman received his BA from Williams College in 1951 and his LLB from Yale Law School in 1954. He has received honorary doctorates from Bowdoin College, Princeton University, and Williams College, among others. He is a MacArthur Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has won numerous awards, including four Emmys.
He is also the recipient of the Career Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Society (2013), the George Polk Career Award (2006), the American Society of Cinematographers Distinguished Achievement Award (2006) and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Film Festival (2014). In 2016, he received an Honorary Award from the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was a Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University in 2018.
ABOUT ZIPPORAH FILMS
Zipporah Films, Inc. is the distribution and production company of Frederick Wiseman's films. Located in Cambridge, MA, the company oversees the theatrical, festival, broadcast, DVD and film releases and supports the production of each Wiseman film. www.zipporah.com.
MONROVIA, INDIANA
Documentary/ Feature/ Running time: 143 minutes
Production funding for the film is provided by:
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
JustFilms / Ford Foundation
Public Broadcasting Service
Pershing Square
LEF Moving Image Fund
Utah Film Center
