Program 6:30p

OFFSITE
Low Cinema
70-11 60th St
Ridgewood
NY 11385

We’re delighted to co-present a special screening of Frederick Wiseman’s High School II (1994) at Low Cinema! This event is part of our 10 day program,  Wiseman’s New York, where we invite participants into an immersive survey and set of seminars on Wiseman’s New York films alongside visits to the institutions, neighborhoods, and civic spaces they document.

Over the course of his six-decade career, the late, great filmmaker Frederick Wiseman returned to New York more than any single location. He made nine films in the city. In early works like Hospital (1969) and Welfare (1975), he addressed the plight of some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. Later films show a city in the midst of transition, including creeping gentrification in In Jackson Heights (2015) and a public library system redefining its purpose in an era of digitization in Ex Libris (2017).

High School II (1994) is a film about Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), a successful alternative high school in New York’s Spanish Harlem, 85-95% of whose graduates go on to four year colleges. The film illustrates the school’s emphasis on the “Habits of Mind” program (weighing evidence; awareness of multiple points of view; seeing connections and relationships; speculating on possibilities; and assessing values.) Sequences illustrating the school’s approach to learning include: classroom activities in the humanities and sciences; family conferences; discussions of race, class, and gender; faculty meetings; disciplinary problems; sex education; conflict resolution by students; and student council meetings.

Come through!

Program

1994, 220 MINUTES, COLOR

Bios

Genevieve Yue is an associate professor of culture and media at The New School. She is an independent programmer and the author of Girl Head: Feminism and Film Materiality (2020) and Trains, which will be available in fall 2026.