Personal Award: Frederick Wiseman

For nearly twenty-five years, filmmaker Fred Wiseman has focused an unblinking lens on American institutions and brought the results to public television. Wiseman’s films are documentaries in the truest sense of the word. Like all important documents, they preserve the public record with clarity and detail. Whether his subject is an intensive care facility (Near Death) or a public space (Central Park), Wiseman captures the full range of humanity and experience. If television holds a mirror to our society, Wiseman allows us to see through it as a one-way glass. For a mastery of television documentary destined to be studied through the ages, a Peabody Award for the work of Frederick Wiseman.