Welfare

Welfare (1975, Frederick Wiseman)
The degree to which the film is rewarding is partly based on the inherent drama of people in dire circumstances. Some are irritable, some are manipulative, some are defeated, some are confused, some are driven insane, and some are simply content making conversation while waiting. (The "waiting" aspect is brought poetically to the fore when one subject invokes Godot.) And while Wiseman may not make clear points about his feelings, his subjects often do, as with one white client asking a black security guard why blacks, who account for ten percent of the population, are responsible for sixty-three percent of the crime. We see many immigrants and minorities in the welfare office -- but so too do we see a great number of black security officers. We see a lot of legislative rules that prevent people from getting money NOW, which could be cynically seen as an act to kill off the needy, or push them to the limit so as to get help elsewhere first.

In a world pre-computer, the office is filled with a lot of paper and slips and ultimately disorder, resulting in clients repeating their stories over again, and with increasing urgency they often have a hard time being clearly understood. The officers who work at the welfare office are snippy, evasive (mentioning things to get clients to focus attention elsewhere, like continually suggesting they "come back tomorrow"), some are concerned, and some are interested primarily in their position in the office hierarchy. You would hope that new computerized systems would increase efficiency, transparency, and bring different offices together without endless telephone calls and letter writing, but the human drama -- the way people behave and interact to get what they want -- remains stark, complex, and unobstructed.