Orwell Rolls in His Grave (Sag Harbor Basement Pictures)
Remember reading George Orwell's 1984 in high school? The book offers a bleak vision of a future in which an all-knowing government employs pervasive and constant surveillance of its people, blatant propaganda, and brutal control over its citizens. The book inspired such new vocabulary as Big Brother and double speak. On September 23 Lestat's West will offer a free screening of a documentary that takes its cue from the author of 1984, Orwell Rolls in His Grave . Director Robert Kane Pappas serves up a critical examination of the media and asks whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth.
Pappas seeks out Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity; Vincent Bugliosi, former L.A. prosecutor and legal scholar; film director and author Michael Moore; Rep. Bernie Sanders; Danny Schecter, author and former producer for ABC and CNN; and Tony Benn, former member of the British Parliament. Schecter tells us, "We falsely think of our country as a democracy when it has evolved into a mediacracy - where a media that is supposed to check political abuse is part of the political abuse."
The press notes for the film state: "1984 is no longer a date in the future." Orwell Rolls in His Grave screens at Lestat's West Showroom (3343 Adams Avenue) on September 23 at 7pm.
