WELFARE shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life. – Zipporah Films

“The psychology of poverty has rarely been so well depicted, along with the inadequacy of the bureaucracy itself: the ostensible objectivity of the law rests on the subjective judgments, even the good will, of the caseworkers.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“One of Frederick Wiseman’s strongest documentaries.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader