Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 AFI Dallas International Film Festival)
Directors: Mark Birnbaum and Manny Mendoza
Starring: Ben Bradlee, Bob Kaiser, Marty Baron, Anders Gyllenhaal, Bill Bastone, Jim Brady, Paul C. Tash, David Carr, Ken Auletta
With the L.A. Times buy-outs being covered daily by media watchdogs, and 4,000 print journalists laid off or bought out since 2000, Stop the Presses accepts that the epitaph is being drafted for the grave of the great American newspapers. But what this doc also does is plant the flowers in the headstone from which will grow the future of journalism - whatever form that takes.
Directors Birnbaum and Mendoza cover a huge scope of subjects surrounding the printed press - loss of classifieds to Craigslist and other online community noticeboards, the pressures inherent in being publicly listed versus private media entities, the constitutional debate as to whether the future of print and the freedom of press endanger our very notions of democracy - and ask the right questions in consideration of where and from whom we will continue to be fed our news. The film also does a fine job of introducing the history of the newspaper while reiterating the physical dexterity of paper as the ultimate portable media device.
And, while we can debate whether the brands will survive online when and if the presses stop printing, and whether roving reporters and newshounds will be forced to become manipulators of multi-media in the blogosphere or elsewhere, it does seem clear that the future power of journalism will remain in the hands of those who have the articulate ability and marketing finesse to get their words read, or opinions heard, wherever those thoughts appear.
The directors make full use of their computer software (and some music more often associated with the porn industry than documentary filmmaking) that entertainingly (for the first hour at least) tells a tale that may have been delivered dry in less capable hands. Adding to the cinematic value of their talking head subjects, the directors have cut the film with clips from classic cinema - His Girl Friday, Deadline USA, All the President's Men, Citizen Kane and TV's "Lou Grant" - as well as some contemporary culture in "The Sopranos" and, of course, the greatest of all social commentary, "The Simpsons."
With a collection of mouthpieces as varied as those listed as "Starring" above, the filmmakers have created a work of inherent value to mediamakers and academics, and have raised such a great range of topics for discussion that they, themselves, will contemporaneously create worthy journalistic discourse. So, while the printing of a paper may be hanging on a precipice (or press-ipice, if you will), journalism, and journalists, may well be competing for screen time instead. After all, content is king, is it not? For tickets and screening times, check in with the official sites of the festival and the film:
www.afidallas.com/
www.stopthepressesdoc.com/
Image of Ed Asner (TV's Lou Grant) courtesy of End of Story Films. |
