Probably the first “real” documentary I can remember watching as a kid was Fred Wiseman’s “Titicut Follies.” The movie was made in 1967, almost 30 years before I first discovered it on VHS. It’s a stark, bare bones document of life in an insane asylum. Certain images and moments from that film have burned their way into my psyche. Anyone wishing to become a filmmaker should watch this film and learn from Mr Wiseman’s technique. The following review sums it up well-

TITICUT FOLLIES is a great work, a near-masterpiece not just of the documentary form, but of moviemaking in any category. It’s a film that transcends the time and place of its manufacture, and it should be seen not just by documentarians and film students but by anyone interested in the movies as a medium capable of powerfully presenting the human condition.

–Ray Greene, Village View