Frederick Wiseman: Local Legend

Frederick Wiseman is not a man of many words.

When the Cambridge-based, seventy-year-old documentarian does speak, however, his words are intelligent and thoughtful. He stops his car at a red light and signals that he wants to turn left.Then he turns in his seat and says, “I think ordinary experiences can be as dramatic or as funny or sad as great literature, and since technology exists to make movies about ordinary experiences, there is a lot of fresh material.”

Wiseman was at the Brattle Theater last Friday to showcase his newest film, Boxing Gym. While driving from the Brattle to his next speaking engagement at the Coolidge Corner Theater, Wiseman answered some questions about his newest film, documentary film making, and his long and illustrious career.

In Boxing Gym, Wiseman and his camera captures the ins and outs of an old boxing gym in Austin, Texas, following the patrons as they train each day to achieve their personal best in the ring. As in all of his other works, Wiseman has eschewed title cards, voice-over narrations, interviews and even music. What this does, according to the director himself, is to “bring the viewer closer to the experience. It puts the viewer in the middle of what is going on and asks them to think through their own relation to the experience.”

And so it is – what is captured in the documentary is the gritty world of what it takes to become a boxer. Every thump of the boxing glove against a punching bag, every drop of sweat dripping from a forehead, every thwack of a skipping rope against the floor is immediate and real, and surprisingly captivating to watch.  Despite the lack of music in the film, the sounds of the boxing gym itself makes up the documentary’s soundtrack. The primal grunts of exercise is much more effective than anything a musical score can contribute. For a moment, the audience forgets that there is a barrier between celluloid and reality. The documentary is so unobtrusive that Wiseman’s explanation proves true– it’s like being there yourself.

Surprisingly, it’s not a man’s world in the boxing gym. Men and women of all races, ages and sizes descend on the gym to try their hand at boxing or to just get a good workout. Under the tutelage of the owner, Richard Lord, they are able to beat and sweat their way to their boxing dream. Lord himself is an interesting character, obviously knowledgeable about the sport and caring about his boxers. His approach to a violent sport is surprisingly non-violent. At one point in the film, he takes a teenage boy who had gotten into a fight under his wing. Instead of telling him that he should use his new found skills to beat up his enemies, Lord tells the boy that he is there to learn the art of boxing, and nothing else.

Dispersed within the film are snippets of conversations between the boxers themselves, and the boxers with Richard Lord. One woman says that she is enrolling her husband at the gym as a fortieth birthday present to fulfill her husband’s dream of becoming a boxer. There is a conversation about proper mouth guard maintenance (“Boil it for 20 seconds or it will melt!”). We even hear about a girl named Christine being shot in Virginia – right then we realize that the documentary was filmed in 2007, and that the girl must have been shot in Virginia Tech Shooting. These sobering conversations help to ground the film, firmly planting it in the real world – this is what Wiseman strives for in his films, and he succeeds brilliantly.

When asked why he wanted to do a film about a boxing gym, Wiseman’s answer was simple: “ I liked the look of the gym and I liked Richard Lord. I have been interested in boxing for a long time and thought Lord’s Gym would be a good place to see how it is taught.” However, somehow Mr. Wiseman manages to take the aggression inherent in boxing and turn it into a beautifully lyrical documentary. One detail that reoccurs throughout the film is the focus on the feet of the boxers – while their hands are punching and hitting things, their feet are incredibly light and bouncy, quick and agile. One scene depicts a man and a woman with their fists up, practicing their jabbing skills. They leap around the boxing ring, almost as if they were dancing with each other. But the camera focuses on the tap-tap-tap of their feet– one minute they move together in harmony while at other times they beat out their own rhythm amidst the squeaking of the boxing ring.

There is a strong connection between Boxing Gym and Wiseman’s last film, La Danse, about the Paris Opera Ballet. He says he does “see a link [between the two films]. Both boxers and dancers require complete control over their bodies. Each activity requires many years of training, discipline and perseverance.” It also took a lot of discipline and perseverance to make the movie. Wiseman was on location for six weeks, capturing 90 hours of film. When asked about editing, Wiseman explained that he did not use digital editing software, but instead used a Steambeck editing machine, feeding the film through and making changes individually. “The editing took about 9 months. It required analyzing the significance and implications of each sequence and then arranging the selected sequences in a narrative structure.”

Back at the Brattle, Mr. Wiseman took questions from the audience. One person asked if he ever had boxing lessons. Mr. Wiseman jokingly replied that he had “boxing lessons for 10 days as a kid” and that he stopped because he “realized [he] couldn’t be a Contenda.” Did he try boxing during the filming? “No,” he replied. “I was too busy, and I got rusty after 67 years.”

Wiseman might be rusty at boxing, but he certainly isn’t rusty at making documentaries. As he pulls his car into a parking spot outside the Coolidge Corner Theater, his next destination for the night, Wiseman speaks of the future. “I will make movies as long as I am physically and intellectually capable,” he says. Let’s hope Wiseman keeps his promise, because his documentaries are wonderfully understated, something that is rare in a world full of overly-exaggerated films.

For more information about Mr. Wiseman and his films, click here.