This past weekend at New York City’s Anthology Film Archives a pretty amazing film had it’s theatrical premiere. Frederick Wiseman’s State Legislature doesn’t have a very sexy subject matter, but it does deal with something we should all be a little more familiar with. - how government works.

The film takes place in Idaho and

The filmmaker and his pared-down crew unobtrusively wander the Capitol’s halls and rooms, peering behind doors where legislation is introduced and debated. Behind one such door ” marked “Judiciary, Rules & Administrative Committee,” “Revenue & Taxation Committee” and “Health & Welfare Committee” ” a lobbyist argues for the Idaho Common Sense Consumption Act, a bill that would protect a miscellany of special interests (cattle, sugar beet) from civil liability caused by weight gain or, as the bill put it, “the long-term consumption of food.”

It’s a fairly simple, straightforward scene, one that in its implications ” think of all the bills introduced and fought by Big Tobacco ” says a great deal about how this country is run, by whom and for whom. This is democracy in action from the ground up, wholly unheroic and absolutely mesmerizing. [The New York Times]

Beyond it’s theatrical appearance this past weekend, the film aired on Public Television last June. Coming in at 217 minutes, the film really studies what happens and doesn’t sidestep the little things. This is typical of Wiseman’s documentary style, the famed documentarian has made a career of studying institutions and systems. So , watch one of his films and become a more informed about the world around you.

Also take a look at the second half of the video below for Charlie Rose’s interview with Wiseman (I would watch the entire show though, the first half is with the great Catherine Deneuve)