The documentary film high school which we watched in class last week was rather odd. I feel like this film didn’t have a point to put across but just show us what the average day in a high school is. It takes place in a high school in Pennsylvania where director Frederick Wiseman quietly walks around a high school and observes teachers and students during their daily routines. In some scenes I feel like teachers or students don’t act like they normally do because they see that they are getting filmed. This film has no narration it just listens to students and teachers interact over a five week period. The one thing i realized that Wiseman did was zoom in on faces to capture reactions of people. This documentary shows us how different high school life was back in 1968. Way different from the high schools we have today. Back then they had more control of the kids and what they did. Also the students had more respect in the elders by respecting them while talking. Overall i enjoyed watching this documentary it showed me how life was back then and how different everything was.
You say this: the film “didn’t have a point to put across but just show us what the average day in a high school is.” This seems to me like a pretty good assessment of observational documentary in general. Wiseman very likely decides on a place/ institution as a subject, films, and then eventually figures out if he has a particular theme or argument about the subject. That theme must then inform some of his editing decisions. But overall, I agree with you. The film seems to just want to show an average day at that school at that time. I still wonder what the students who are featured in it or the teachers would say about how the school comes across to viewers.