Frederick Wiseman, the John Ford of modern cinema, works primarily on one major theme: US society, its development and how this is reflected in the most diverse forms and structures of coexistence. Wiseman has made films about: Small towns (Aspen, 1991, and Belfast, Maine, 1999), social (inter)spaces (Canal Zone, 1977, and Central Park, 1990, among others), the welfare state (Welfare, 1975, and Public Housing, 1987, among others) and the education system (High School, 1969, and High School 2, 1994).
At Berkeley belongs to both the former and the latter complex, approaching its subject from two sides at once: on the one hand, the everyday life of this time-honored teaching and research institution is examined, and on the other, its significance for the community, which is economically dependent on it. In the process, a picture of the USA as a state in crisis crystallizes: the university struggles with its demands and budgets, old-left administrators prove to be both demoralized and disillusioned by the course through the institutions, while the student body indulges more loudly and aimlessly in political actionism with no tomorrow. Sound familiar? Well, At Berkeley has an extraordinary applicability to local circumstances and conditions ...
