RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT Portrait

Beginning with the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979, Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day at a time when networks did not systematically archive the news. Stokes was a fierce activist, motivated by truth and freedom, and after she began working in television, she quickly recognized the influence media had on society. As she aged, she became a wealthy reclusive archivist, recording over 70,000 VHS tapes in an effort to protect truth and check facts long before “fake news” became a catch phrase.

In contrast to the crude news images running non-stop in Stokes’ apartment, filmmaker Matt Wolf’s brilliantly stylized and layered approach creates a riveting portrait of a complex, private woman who preserved a valuable time capsule of America’s modern TV age.