Titicut Follies

whitebone · Joined: 07 Jul 2004 Posts: 2833 Location: MINNEAPOLIS

Do you think it's available at the library? To lazy to check and call.
Netflix doesn't have it..

Vrooman · Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 4:06 pm Post subject:

Never heard of it before, but the imdb summary sounds like a horror movie.

Sonicfreak · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:18 am Post subject: Re: Titicut Follies

Sonicfreak · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:22 am Post subject:

This (from IMDB) make me want to see this:

I saw "Titicut Follies" over seventeen years ago. Thus, what I write is from fading memory. I can't remember all the details. I only wish I could forget about the details I do remember. I'll never shake the indelible anguish I was left with.

I saw it once. I never want to see it again.

Plot? There IS no plot. Scenes are beyond graphic.

This documentary represents the antitheses of Hollywood "airbrushing."

For as much as Hollywood values implausible shock, this shock is synthesized, and it will always pale in comparison to the jarring reality of Titicut Follies. Joan Miró, himself, on his best surrealistic day, from the abyss of his blackest subconscious, could not have captured the cruel absurdity these patients / inmates experienced. Cast in stark black and white, one is reminded of the daily austerity the inmates were faced with every day at the Massachusetts Institution for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater.

Humanity? There IS no humanity. The title of the film is eponymously borrowed from the name of the annual talent show in which the inmates participated, perhaps the only scintilla of happiness they had ever known.

Compassion? The documentary is rife with ridicule, while cruelty REPLACES compassion.

Massachusetts state government presumably went to extremes to censor this film. It was an embarrassment for bureaucrats and pundits alike. It was therefore banned from public viewing for twenty-five years. To this day, the costs of buying / renting this film are prohibitive.

Out of misery comes reform. Because of the genius of director Frederick Wiseman, state government was forced to take an honest inventory of the way it treats its wards, not only in Massachusetts, but also across the country. Reform did come, albeit slowly.

I'll spare the reader what graphic details I do recall. Suffice it to say that this documentary will alter the viewer's life in some small but significant way ... forever. Even the most hardened and jaded viewer will know empathy after watching it.

whitebone · Joined: 07 Jul 2004 Posts: 2833 Location: MINNEAPOLIS

Thanks for the info.. I know that several colleges have it, but it's hard to get from them. My friend saw it through St.Cloud state and another saw it at Stanford I think. If you dig around in the IMBD site, there are links that claim you can watch the movie, but that usually doesn't last very long. I will try getting it through a inter-library loan, if I don't just outright buy it. Everyone I know that has seen it says it's quite disturbing, so I'm only watching it once.

Vrooman · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:39 am Post subject:

I haven't watched it yet, but it is readily available via torrent s.

Jawknee · Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:00 am Post subject:

I think I saw this on PBS 15 - 20 years ago. It is SUPER disturbing. There was a guy who was totally sane being held against his will, over time he got more and more upset about it (understandably) and the doctor continued to diagnose it as "increased paranoia".

Mild Thing · Joined: 18 Sep 2007 Posts: 2460

Zipporah Films released the DVD of the film to the home market in December 2007.

gurkin · Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Posts: 2030

while there's a couple of very interesting scenes, this kinda disappointed me seeing that reviewers absolutely rave about how awesome in whatever way it is. i blame the proliferation of documentaries on just about everything nowadays.