For the past 35 years, Frederick Wiseman has meticulously documented a unique and penetrating view of American social relations and the institutions that try to mediate them. In Domestic Violence, also screening this year at MIFF, he turned his perceptive eye on police responses to brutal abuse calls and women and children being counselled at a shelter. The follow-up, Domestic Violence 2, concentrates on couples and individuals trying to seek resolution through the courts, where judges attempt to devise permanent solutions to problems that have been perpetrated for generations.

Filmed in Tampa, Florida, this southern US city serves as a microcosm for an issue that transcends country borders. Employing his trademark style, eschewing narration and allowing the camera and editing to reveal the repercussions of his daunting subject. Wiseman further cements his status as one of the world's preeminent documentarians.