Alternative Reel recently placed Frederick Wiseman’s groundbreaking 1967 cinema verite doc Titicut Follies at the number 2 spot in their list of the Top Ten Banned Films of The 20th Century (what made number 1? Why, Cannibal Holocaust, of course!). The film, which offers a cold and often disturbing look at the lives anf treatment of criminally insane patients at a mental hospital inside a Massachusetts prison, was unavailable outside of educational use for 25 years, after the state Supreme Court declared it violated the patients’ rights to privacy. It’s now widely available––so widely available, in fact, that after about four seconds of digging, I found the film in its entirety on Google Video (see above). It’s an upload from a VHS tape, so it’s not perfect quality, but it’s adequate. For a wider screen, go directly to the Google Video page.

More on Titicut Follies:

Reverse Shot

Senses of Cinema

Bright Lights Film Journal