Taping television for 24 hours a day for over 30 years, Marion Stokes creates an archive that shines a light on how our histories have been shaped by and in the media.
Civil rights activist and independent archivist Marion Stokes videotaped 33 years of the 24-hour news cycle on 70,000 VHS tapes. In an effort to protect the truth, Stokes created an archive of U.S. history through media, starting with the Iranian Hostage Crisis and ending with Sandy Hook. In some cases, Stokes’s recordings are the only ones in existence as networks disposed of their own copies and the collection is now being digitized by the Internet Archive for future use. [87 min; documentary; English]
"This documentary shows Stokes to have the fanatical energy of a hoarder, the zeal of an evangelist and the intensity of a visionary." — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, which is skillfully directed by Matt Wolf, is an example of the type of documentary that can be a true hidden gem." — Carla Hay, Culture Mix
"Stokes is a fascinating, elusive protagonist—she was a recluse who enjoyed daily martinis and felt a kinship with Steve Jobs. Yet Wolf treats her archive with reverence, rather than writing her off as an eccentric." — Simran Hans, The Observer
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