Photos credit: Janet Donovan
For three days, Washingtonians were treated to a series of investigative films shown at The National Portrait Gallery. The Double Exposure event showcased the best films inspired by investigative journalism with a symposium for working journalists and filmmakers across a variety of genres and platforms. The timeliness of the event comes on the heels of difficult circumstances in current newsrooms as regards the rights of journalists and visual storytellers who are challenged on nearly every level—legally, financially, logistically and in terms of safety. “And despite their common ground, journalists and filmmakers often remain strangers to each other. They tend to operate in distinct silos within their own ecosystems, missing out on the critical opportunity to interact and engage in an exchange of ideas, resources, and best practices.” Double Exposure
Hollywood on the Potomac previously reported on one of these films from the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in Canada so we won’t go into much detail other than to bring you an interesting discussion of “All Governments Lie” – LIE being a word that is no longer acceptable in newsrooms.
The documentary is about I.F. Stone who combed through government records to find his scoops and expose falsehoods behind government scandals in the 20th century. Today’s adversarial journalists in the film include Amy Goodman, Matt Taibbi, Jeremy Scahill, Glen Greenwald of Intercept, Michael Moore, Jeff Cohen, media critic and also a producer of the documentary and author Myra MacPherson, on whose book the film was based. There are both chilling and hilarious scenes of mainstream fawning and shallowness. One clip shows a famous TV commentator cutting away from an interview for a “Breaking News” bulletin—something about teen idol singer Justin Bieber.
The panelists in the below discussion:
