When did I send that email? Here it is — March 2005, nearly three years ago, asking if Frederick Wiseman, the most artful documentarian of our time, was ever going to release his films on DVD. At the time you could rent the film reels or a really expensive VHS tape — yes, in 2005 — but no luck on the shiny discs.
A representative of Zipporah Films, Wiseman's production company, wrote back to say by the end of the year he hoped there would be good news. He was right ... he just had the wrong year.
Today, the online store at Zipporah.com is open and most of the Wiseman oeuvre is for sale, including the documentary that out-copped "Cops" before there was "Cops," the film called "Law & Order" (above) before there was a show "Law & Order," filmed right here in Kansas City with the approval of its police chief, later FBI director Clarence Kelley.
I expect that sales of "Titicut Follies" will go through the roof.
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