Trailer

City Hall

Runtime
4hrs 32mins
Directed by
Frederick Wiseman
Featuring
Marty Walsh
Body

Through our Virtual Screening Room, you can rent films curated by the Coolidge team, while helping to support the Coolidge during this unprecedented time.

Following your rental, keep watching for a pre-recorded conversation between director Frederick Wiseman and Mayor Marty Walsh, moderated by The Boston Globe's Ty Burr.

City government touches almost every aspect of our lives. Most of us are unaware of or take for granted these necessary services such as police, fire, sanitation, veterans affairs, elder support, parks, licensing of various professional activities, recordkeeping of birth, marriage and death as well as hundreds of other activities that support Boston residents and visitors.

City Hall, by Frederick Wiseman, shows the efforts by Boston city government to provide these services. The film also illustrates the variety of ways the city administration enters into civil discourse with the citizens of Boston. Mayor Walsh and his administration are presented addressing a number of their policy priorities which include racial justice, affordable housing, climate action, and homelessness. City Hall shows a city government successfully offering a wide variety of services to a diverse population.

watch now

Due to the length of this film, viewers will have 30 days to begin watching after renting, and 7 days to complete the film once they hit play. Having technical issues? Visit our FAQ page here.

Reviews
Review Text

More than anything, Wiseman is showing us that we are not only watching Bostonians, but Americans, too.

Review Author
Jordan Mintzer
Review Publication
Hollywood Reporter
Review Text

90-year-old documentary legend Frederick Wiseman delivers another sprawling and enlightening work at the way society is supposed to work.

Review Author
Eric Kohn
Review Publication
IndieWire
Review Text

The result is both sober and inspiring: an urban progress report taking into account a plethora of government services, scutinized by Wiseman's patient but unblinking eye.

Review Author
Guy Lodge
Review Publication
Variety

This Week

  • The new film from filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer, Inception).

    Showtimes
  • The movie ACME didn't want you to see!

    Showtimes
  • The feature debut of director Padraic McKinley, starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe.

    Showtimes
  • From the creators of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run

    Showtimes
  • Director Poh Si Teng will join us for post-film discussions following our 7:15pm screenings on 9/17 & 18.

    Showtimes
  • From director Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie), starring Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers). 

    Showtimes
  • Will Poulter and Noah Centineo deliver pitch-perfect performances as brothers Cody and Jack Parsons, each navigating a court-mandated drug rehabilitation program in a pocket of rural Ohio hit hard by the opioid epidemic. 

    Showtimes
  • Award-winner Sandra Oh plays the title role in this razor-sharp reimagining of Molière’s classic dark comedy. 

    Showtimes
  • Join us for an outdoor double feature at the historic and beautiful Mount Auburn Cemetery.

    Showtimes
  • Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark cyberpunk classic, the definitive anime masterpiece! 

    Showtimes
  • Dr. FeldmanHall will share insights on the neural basis of social behavior like trust, altruism, & reciprocity.

    Showtimes
  • It's hard to be cool, when your dad's Goofy.

    Showtimes
  • Documentarian John Wilson applies lessons from a Hallmark movie writing workshop to pitch a documentary about concrete.

    Showtimes
  • A film by Josef Kubota Wladyka, starring Rinko Kikuchi.

    Showtimes
  • The debut narrative feature from Lance Oppenheim, starring Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen.

    Showtimes
  • Legendary composer, orchestrator, and conductor Maestro Fabio Frizzi returns to the Coolidge with his Frizzi 2 Fulci project.

    Showtimes
  • Beyond death... Beyond Evil... Beyond the dreaded gates of hell.

    Showtimes
  • cannibal holocaust

    The mother of all cannibal films.

    Showtimes
  • Another film completely different from some of the other films which aren't quite the same as this one is.

     

    Showtimes
  • Taught by poet, film curator and essayist Tova Gannana.

    Showtimes
  • There's something in the air. It might be love... but it isn't.

    Showtimes
  • Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath

    Showtimes