So I see there are only two people who've reviewed the film not including mine. One of the reviews fixates on the fact that this film does not discuss the Berkeley of the 60s, which is true, of course. Wiseman has never, and will never make a documentary like that. His films are in real time, connecting scenes with only the last sounds of the previous scene, for only a few seconds, then goes to the next which is often completely unrelated to the scene directly before. In a way, his movies deliberately are non-narratives, and our friend here from Ireland who went to UC Berk in the 60s completely misses the point of why this film was made. Most people who have the stamina to sit through four hours of a film most likely know about the protests and action of the 60s, which by the way, was not the sole possession of Berkeley. Columbia, Harvard, etc., dozens of other campuses had cultures of student and faculty protests too. What the film does do is it shows you snapshots of many talking heads from the student body, faculty, and the administration. There are also some celebrity pop-ups who teach or guest teach such as an awesome one by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. That being said, make yourself available to see this over several days rather than binging....
Review of At Berkeley
