Can anyone ID this documentary / series of documentaries?

Back in the mid- to late-nineties or possibly early 2000s on PBS (would have been either WNET-13 i or WLIW-21 in here NY), I remember seeing a documentary, or perhaps a few of them, by a director whose name I unfortunately can’t remember. Yeah, I know, that’s real helpful, huh? Okay, more details:

The hallmark of these films was that the director would basically set up a group of cameras throughout a U.S. town, IIRC either rural, remote (e.g. up in Maine or New Hampshire), or perhaps one dominated by a single industry (such as coal mining or textile mills) – and basically just shoot God-only-knows how many hours of film to produce a multi-hour documentary without any voiceover or narrative. It was basically similar to a bird’s eye view of life in this particular town, except not bird’s eye, more like… mailbox’s eye.

I seem to recall this director did a few of these films, and I also remember that despite the utter lack of a particular POV (aside from whatever the director chose to include in the film, which obviously did impose somewhat of a narrative or perspective), the unvarnished, simple story of life in this town was fascinating.

For a while I thought I might be thinking of David Sutherland, director of The Farmer’s Wife and The Country Boys for Frontline. I’m watching the latter on PBS’s website now for the first time; the Farmer’s Wife doc isn’t available, unfortunately, but it was incredibly powerful tale about the hardships of a smallish farm relying on bank loans that always seemed to be coming due, and a wife’s attempt to keep the family fed and together while the husband seemed – IIRC – always reaching too far for his abilities or past their means.

But Sutherland does impose narrative and does interview his subjects, so as much as I love his work, he’s not the guy I’m thinking of.

The doc might have shown up on Frontline, like the Sutherland films, but all I remember is watching it late at night, mesmerized by the tiny day to day moments of a town very far removed from my own urban and suburban experiences.

Does anyone know whom I mean?

I’m raising this post from the dead because I realized I never did get an answer to it. Maybe three years later someone will know/recognize the documentarian’s style?

Edited to add: I just noticed the timestamps and dates of both posts. I see that in three years, my ridiculous insomniac hours haven’t changed! :smiley:

I don’t know the specific one you are looking for, sorry, but in addition to Frontline, PBS has another documentary series called POV and this may have been part of that.

Frederick Wiseman, perhaps?

Oh my gosh, I think that’s him! I’m guessing the films I saw were Aspen and especially Belfast, Maine, both of which were made for PBS. Belfast was from 1999, so that would pinpoint the time accurately. Plus I remember the locale being somewhat hard-up, financially, and I don’t think Aspen sounds right for that!

Of course it doesn’t look as if either are particularly easy to find, but I’ll try my darnedest. I didn’t realize Wiseman was the man behind Titicut Follies, which I’ve heard of but haven’t seen.

And people say zombie threads are useless! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dewey Finn!

You’re welcome. Your description sounded like cinéma vérité and he was famous for his use of the technique (although I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of his movies).

Bumping a zombie: This thread popped up while I was posting something else, and this does indeed sound like the work of Frederick Wiseman. His docos generally have extremely long running times (“Belfast, Maine” was about 3 1/2 hours, and a more recent one called “Berkeley” was over 4 hours) and are best watched in segments.

“Titicut Follies” is more of a standard running time, around 1 1/2 hours, and it may be on YouTube.