Please note: Frederick Wiseman regrets that due to legal issues, he has been forced to cancel all screenings of The Garden, the film previously announced for this evening's program.

Frederick Wiseman is one of the most important documentary filmmakers of our time, known for his incisive and wide-ranging explorations of American institutions. He shared insights with PFA audiences during a 2003 residency on the UC Berkeley campus. In tonight's special program sponsored by the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities as part of its Townsend Encore Series, Wiseman presents Central Park. "His film...is a fine medium for understanding New York itself, how it needs the park and how the park means different things to different people....It is a lab for bird-watchers, gardeners and dinosaur lovers....It is a public commons for ideas...and exiles...and artists....It is a huge repository for every imaginable sport: Wiseman peruses over remote-control boat racing, lawn bowling, tai chi, marathon races, cross-country skiing and acres full of tennis players."-Robert Koehler, Los Angeles Times