“Who controls the past… controls the future – who controls the present controls the past.” — Orwell, 1984.   Using quotes from George Orwell’s novel, 1984, the documentary film, Orwell Rolls In His Grave, written, directed and edited by Robert Kane Pappas explores the role of media in today’s world. It is a prophetic documentary conveying a message that seems even more urgent in 2011 than when the film was made in 2004.  Orwell Rolls In His Grave asks controversial questions about a number of issues concerning the political and corporate control of the public’s need to know. Pappas, aided by a number of knowledgeable individuals, deconstructs events in recent history that bring to light the Orwellian world we live in today.

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Are we living in a “media-ocracy?” Has the media become the authority for what news and information reaches the public?  Is “news” about events or marketing for viewership? These and many other topics are looked at in more than the Fox News fake “fair and balanced” format. Orwell Rolls In His Grave includes clips of Michael Moore speaking, interviews with Representative Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity, Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Vincent Bugliosi, former L.A. prosecutor and legal scholar, and many others.

Interviews in Orwell Rolls In His Grave are combined with graphics, narration, news clips, statistics, quotes and archival film and photographs to create a narrative that appears to have come true in real life, today, right here in the Unites States and perhaps the world. Aside from ominous dramatic music underscoring quotes from Orwell and other scenes, the film does not try to manipulate the audience. It presents facts, asks questions and clearly supports a point-of-view that is difficult to dispute given the evidence presented.

One of the topics explored in Orwell Rolls In His Grave is how the media rolled over in the 2000 election during the dispute over whether Al Gore or G.W. Bush had won Florida. The film asks why the media has not looked into issues concerning the huge raise in wealth for a small number of Americans as the vast majority of citizens have seen a decrease in earnings.

“If you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it.” –  Joesph Goebbels

Orwell Rolls In His Grave presents facts that every American should consider.  Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, said: “…what you want in a media system [is] ostensible diversity – that conceals actual uniformity.” The film examines media today in this context and others. If all the newspapers, television, radio, and cable systems are owned by a small number of corporations how much diversity is there?  The myth of the ‘Liberal Media” is examined in the context of the reality that the media is owned by corporations with conservative interests. While individual reporters or writers may harbor progressive thoughts,  do those ideas reach a mass audience?

Orwell Rolls In His Grave is a social, historic and advocacy nonfiction statement.  It asks questions, and explores issues using an objective reality format that presents actuality in a way that makes you think about the world you live in today. This documentary removes the foggy eyeglasses issued by indifference and spin to reveal a world that would make Orwell Roll In His Grave.

J R MARTIN – AUTHOR – CREATE DOCUMENTARY FILMS, VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA – REAL DEAL PRESS

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 ORWELL ROLES IN HIS GRAVE – 2004 – 105 MINUTES – DIRECTED BY Robert Kane Pappas – Go Cart Films and SAG HARBOR – BASEMENT PICTURES

Tags: Bernie Sanders, Documentary, documentary film reviews, Fox News, George Orwell, Iraq, mass media, Media, Michael Moore, News, propaganda, rupert murdoc, war is peace

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