Meat

For his first film about private enterprise, Frederick Wiseman steps into one of the biggest consumer blind spots: the slaughterhouse.

For his 10th feature film as director, Frederick Wiseman pivots away from the public institutions that have defined his career, choosing to focus instead on a private company. The Monfort Meatpacking Plant is a facility that buys livestock, fattens them up and then sends them through to the abattoir to be processed.

What Wiseman then reveals is something that most consumers choose to ignore.

Curator’s Note
Process is key. After building a career of showing viewers how our public institutions work, Frederick Wiseman surprised audiences by focusing on the inner workings of a private enterprise. The company he chose was one that isn't deliberately secretive, but certainly one where consumers choose not to see.

From livestock saleyards to the phone rooms where salespeople manage incoming orders, there’s much to delve into on the human side, but before long, viewers are taken through the abattoir doors and along the meatpacking line. What unfolds is a cavalcade of horrors, each more harrowing than the last. At one point the cow carcasses resemble ghosts, lined up, draped in white cloths and swinging gently on hooks.

Viewers, beware. The film refuses to look away, and once the processing begins, the only way out of Meat is through Meat.