The rhetorical structure of Frederick Wiseman's<i>primate</i>

Abstract

Frederick Wiseman's film Primate is a rhetorical documentary about the implications of human curiosity in an institutional setting—a primate research center. Wiseman uses comparison, sequence, and sound‐image relations to employ and transcend filmic and rhetorical genres, enabling him to engage the viewer in a reflective exploration of human being. Primate demonstrates how facts can be recontextualized into complex meanings, and how audiences can be actively involved in the process of constructing meanings.