With great regret and a heavy heart we have taken the decision to postpone Global Roots Film Festival: The Reporter until the Fall when it will be recreated as a high profile showcase within the Vermont International Film Festival (Oct 23 – Nov 1).
Directed by Peter Raymont
Canada | 1988 | 59 mins
Co-sponsored by Peter and Betsy Clavelle; Burlington-Puerto Cabezas Sister City Program
Followed by Q&A with Peter Raymont, Jake Bernstein, Anne Galloway, moderated by Mitch Wertlieb
The World is Watching is a political film about the moral issues surrounding news gathering and newsmaking in the electronic age. Who decides what constitutes the news? How do they decide? And what about the men and women who report from the field. Are foreign correspondents allowed to tell all that they see? Or is their first loyalty to their employers? Do they merely serve as mouth-pieces for an invisible editorial line? The film examines these complex issues by focusing on several international journalists in Nicaragua as they cover the negotiations surrounding the Arias Peace Plan in November 1987. With unprecedented access to the inner workings of ABC News, what follows is a unique portrait of a news crew in the field, as it interacts with the editorial process in the newsroom in New York City.