COOKEVILLE – WCTE and Independent Lens are excited to offer an “Indie Lens” virtual screening of “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project.” This allows you to come together in the comfort of your home and view this great story. Afterwards you will have the opportunity to chat with the film’s Director, Matt Wolf. This acclaimed documentary explores the strange life of a radical activist-turned recluse who videotaped everything on TV for thirty years in the name of truth.
Marion Stokes was dedicated to furthering and protecting the truth — so much so that she recorded American television 24 hours a day for over 30 years. Now, the critically acclaimed documentary “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project” peels back the curtain on her life, through a mix of Stokes’ own archive of recordings and interviews with those who knew her best.
Long before the term “fake news” entered the national conversation, Philadelphia-based activist Stokes recognized the shifting nature of the media and the importance of protecting the truth. Stokes worked in television in the late 1960s and believed in the power of the medium to inform or misinform the public. She determined that a comprehensive archive of national media would one day be invaluable. She began recording television broadcasts in 1979, starting with news broadcasts of the Iranian hostage crisis at the dawn of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, and continuing until her death in 2012.
WCTE will air the documentary on its main channel 22.1 Monday, June 15 at 10 p.m. It will be screened virtually Tuesday, June 16 at 6:30 p.m. Visit WCTE’s Facebook or WCTE.org/events for a link to the screening. WCTE encourages viewers to stay and have questions ready for the director after the show.
“Independent Lens” is an Emmy® Award-winning weekly series airing on PBS Monday nights at 10 p.m. The acclaimed series, with Lois Vossen as executive producer, features documentaries united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of independent filmmakers. Presented by ITVS, the series is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding from PBS, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more visit pbs.org/independentlens. Join the conversation: facebook.com/independentlens and on Twitter @IndependentLens.
WCTE has served the Upper Cumberland for more than 40 years as the region’s premier storyteller and is the only television station in a 75-mile radius of Cookeville, making it a strategic partner in education, health services, government, arts and music. WCTE is a 501(c) 3 and is owned and operated by the Upper Cumberland Broadcast Council. WCTE is one of only 350 PBS member stations nationwide.
