Brief comment: Wiseman's HIGH SCHOOL is a nasty little hatchet job on a rather ordinary mid-60s high school (Northeast H.S., Philadelphia); the kids are dolts, the editing is snotty, and the critics have never seemed concerned with whether HIGH SCHOOL bears **any** resemblance to the high school. The film is a preview of Wiseman's favorite technique of distortion, which he used rather adroitly for a number of years and films; he's mellowed a bit with his later efforts. He uses a "mosaic" format (Bill Nichols' term) of bits and pieces, put together with an apparent randomness that breaks from conventional documentary formatting in such a way as to disorient the majority audience and forced them (the need for closure, right) to "jump to the nearest available conclusion"--which Fred the Elf has carefully prepared for them. The worst example, to me, is PRIMATE; the most neutral of the early films is HOSPITAL. Some of the later films--THE STORE, MISSLE, NEAR DEATH) are more mature; fewer cinema-antics. He gets truly great material (with the unacknowledged contributions of his cameramen), but watch the editing. ROGER AND ME is a great film; the best bad example I've found. I use it to illustrate everything--self aggrandizement, irrelevancy, critical blindness. It's got it all. PJO