Featuring no narration to guide you, animated clips, graphics of factoids, or other tricks of the current documentary trade, veteran Frederick Wiseman prefers a far more immersive approach for his films. He chooses a setting or location, and then simply drops you into that world, with his camera acting as observer. His latest cinematic journey heads to the eponymous neighborhood in "In Jackson Heights," and a new trailer has arrived.
Venice Review: Frederick Wiseman’s Documentary ‘In Jackson Heights’
So what makes Jackson Heights so special? It’s one of the most diverse places on the planet, a New York neighborhood with 167 languages spoken within its radius of under half a square mile. It’s a location ripe for drama, so no wonder Wiseman turned his camera on the residents and officials there, tracking the changes at all levels that occurred over a couple of months in the summer of 2014. Here’s the official synopsis:
In Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, live many immigrants coming from South America, Mexico, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and China. The movie, shot in eight weeks in the summer of 2014, follows the lives of Jackson Heights people, their work, the centers of religious and political aggregation, their cultural and social lives, always hanging in the balance between the will to stay tied to their tradition and the necessity to adapt to the American lifestyle.
"In Jackson Heights" opens on November 4th. Watch below.