Thursday, October 4th, 2018, at 7:00 p.m.
The John W. Kluge Center and the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division at the Library of Congress present a screening of Hospital (1970), preceded by a Q&A with Alan Gevinson, Kluge Staff Fellow 2018, and Kluge Center Director John Haskell.
HOSPITAL (Osti Films / Zipporah Films, 1970). Directed by Frederick Wiseman. (84 min, black & white, 35mm).
Frederick Wiseman’s Emmy-winning observational documentary on New York City’s Metropolitan Hospital goes behind the scenes of an overburdened institution, offering an unblinking look at the various roles the general hospital plays in modern society serving its mostly poor clientele. Without narration or interviews, Wiseman’s embedded camera captures highly dramatic interactions, heroic staff interventions, bureaucratic frustrations, and even bits of absurdist comedy coloring life-and-death situations. “I have a very strong feeling that it gets very close to ‘telling it like it is,’” Patricia Perrier wrote in American Anthropologist. “Hospital” was inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1994. Preserved in 2015 by the Library of Congress Packard Campus Film Preservation Lab from 35mm duplicate picture and track negatives in the Zipporah Films Collection.
Reception: 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Q&A: 6:30 – 7:00 pm
Screening: 7:00 – 8:30 pm.
Seating is on a first-come first-serve basis.
For more information on our programs, please visit the Mary Pickford Theater website.
The Mary Pickford Theater is located on the 3rd floor of the Library of Congress James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, DC, 20540.