Lowell Thomas: Voice of America
Directed by Rick Moulton
VT | 2018 | Documentary | 85 min
Filmmaker in attendance
Lowell Thomas helped determine how America saw the world in a century when America dominated the world. Creative, entrepreneurial and technologically savvy, Thomas helped create 20th century American journalism: mostly male, nonpartisan, sober, portentous, cosmopolitan — and mildly xenophobic. A swashbuckling adventurer, Thomas took American audiences with him on the radio and in newsreels, and in the process helped established personality-driven journalism. The man who helped invent this way of reporting and telling the news was the Indiana Jones of journalism: crashing planes, falling from horses, staring down rifles — but always coming back with the story. Journalism worldwide continues to follow his model: aggressive, entrepreneurial, unabashed and technologically advanced. Thomas’ stories, both beloved and belittled for their grandiosity, shaped 20th century America’s knowledge of the world and influenced foreign policy. Voice of America tells the story of its genesis. With narration from Robert Siegel, longtime host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”