ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE

Year: 2003
UK: ICA Projects
Cast: Charles Lewis, Robert McChesney, Mark Crispin Miller, Bernie Sanders, Danny Schechter, Vincent Bugliosi , Jeff Cohen, Mark Lloyd, Michael Moore, Greg Palast
Director: Robert Kane Pappas
Country: USA
UK: 103 mins
UK Release Date: 19 November 2004 (Limited Release - London)

Synopsis

Could a media system controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to overwhelm all competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth? This is the question asked by this searing documentary that examines a mainstream news media, increasingly subordinate to corporate control, resulting in important issues being misrepresented, spun to suit particular interests or ignored outright.

With Orwell's 1984 and Joseph Goebbel's theories on propaganda as starting-points, director Robert Kane Pappas takes aim at an increasingly corrupt institution that used to be one of the main proponents and defenders of democracy. Along the way, it charts a move towards the 'deregulation' of America's news outlets that began in the Reagan years and gained steam in the form of the Telecommunications Act.

Passionate voices include Tony Benn, Charles Lewis, a former 60 MINUTES producer who offers clear-eyed and incisive comments, and Michael Moore, who conducts his effective rabble-rousing before a live audience. In whatever form the information is presented, Pappas gets his important, chilling points across loud and clear.

ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE reminds us that 1984 is no longer a date in the future.