I discovered the Filmschool podcast some time ago, and have been slowly catching up on old episodes. In one episode back in December of 2006 Nathan and Mike interviewed reknown documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. I was struck by the sheer amount of useful tips and knowledge dispensed by the director, and it dawned on me that this single podcast is more than just an intriguing interview…it is in fact an excellent tutorial on the basics of what it takes to be a documentary filmmaker. Wiseman is a wealth of insight and experience, and he shares freely. If you have a documentary bent, this particular podcast episode should be required listening. You can download the MP3 directly via this link, and I recommend subscribing to their podcast feed for more great content. A description of the episode follows:

December 19, 2006 - THE DEAN OF AMERICAN DOCUMENTARIES
An interview with Frederick Wiseman — award-winning producer of thirty feature length films. One of the greatest living documentary filmmakers, Wiseman is noted for his ability to capture the nuances of life in American institutions such as prisons, hospitals, welfare offices, and high schools. He started out in 1963 by producing a fictional feature film, The Cool World, an examination of the lives of Harlem teenagers. Titicut Follies, his first documentary, is an exposé of life in a prison for the criminally insane. His four subsequent documentaries were all exposés of other tax-supported institutions designed to show the ineffectiveness of the bureaucracy that not only threatens to destroy them, but also dehumanizes the people they were meant to serve. His films are never narrated, allowing viewers to make connections between the sequences themselves. “Documentaries, like theatre pieces, novels or poems are forms of fiction,� claims Wiseman.

You can learn more about Frederick Wiseman on his website, www.zipporah.com. And as of December 1, his films are available for sale to the general public.