The Dryden will screen Monrovia, Indiana (Frederick Wiseman, U.S. 2018, 143 min., DCP) as part of the Rochester Premiere series.

After the 2016 election, renowned documentarian Frederick Wiseman trained his lens on the rural town of Monrovia, Indiana, for his continuing meditation on contemporary American life. True to Wiseman's style, the film forgoes interviews in favor of patient and dispassionate observations of public life. The daily rituals in the small town of a thousand residents encompass town council meetings, school band performances, weddings, funerals, and the local diner. By holding the complexities of community and spiritual values together with the lived contradictions inherent to daily life, the film allows a nuanced picture of Monrovia to emerge that both embraces and surpasses stereotypes. According to Wiseman, the film explores "the importance of rural America as a formative center of American politics and values." Although politics are not overtly discussed, the film can't help but be political in a time of intense ideological division.

[source: George Eastman Museum calendar, 2019-Mar-11]