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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

>>> In Jackson Heights

IN JACKSON HEIGHTS (Frederick Wiseman). 190 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (November 20). See listings. Rating: NNNN


In Jackson Heights, documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s latest direct-cinema examination of society in microcosm, opens at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in the wake of the horrific attacks in Paris and the loathsome racist tub-thumping that inevitably follows such bloodshed.

This is exactly the right time for a movie like Wiseman’s, which immerses us for more than three hours in the diverse Brooklyn neighbourhood. Jackson Heights is proof that multiculturalism can work in America: dozens of languages are spoken, thousands of lives intersect from moment to moment, and the biggest menace to the population is a looming threat of gentrification.

This movie’s relevance won’t end any time soon. Like virtually every film Wiseman has made, In Jackson Heights stands as a record of a specific institution. In this case, it’s America itself. 

Wiseman brings his camera into meeting halls, concerts, naturalization classes, coffee shops and bodegas, calmly observing interactions, negotiations, distractions. He drops in on a church and a synagogue. (He also visits a butcher’s shop, so take that under advisement.)

In scene after scene of people educating and helping one another, In Jackson Heights reveals a community taking in new members and making itself stronger, rather than a melting pot seething with differences and isolationism. The next time your dickhead uncle blathers on about refugees on Facebook, direct him to this movie. 

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