Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

Greetings again from the darkness. Yes, many of us still use the word "taping" when referring to recording a TV show, movie or something else. Nomenclature changes slowly, even if technology progresses quickly. In the mid-1970's, when Marion first started recording TV programs ... initially news reports before also spreading to other topics ... taping was her only option. VHS and Betamax tapes. This was long before TiVo became a common gift, and certainly prior to most cable services including a DVR with their bundles.

Director Matt Wolf takes us back to a time, not so long ago, when the term "fake news" had not yet become a familiar phrase. Marion Butler-Metelits-Stokes was a Philadelphia librarian and socialist/communist/activist who spent many years, up until her death, recording TV broadcasts. This resulted in more than 70,000 VHS tapes documenting how the daily news was presented to us. The real mystery here is "why"? Why did Marion feel the need to do this religiously for 35 plus years? It's the "why" where the movie's approach is a bit stretched. Through interviews with her son, and the kids of her second husband, we are led to believe Marion was some type of crusader for the truth, and concerned that crucial information was being purposefully omitted from broadcasts.

Her son, Michael Metelits, inherited the tapes and donated them to the Internet Archive, which has been methodically digitizing them ever since with the goal of making the information searchable and available for research. Through interviews with Michael, as well as her second husband's daughter, we come to realize that Marion was more focused on recording than on raising kids. When she married John Stokes, they shared a world view, and his family money provided her a chauffeur and secretary, as well as multiple houses and storage units. Yes, not only was Marion obsessive about her recordings, but she was a world class hoarder. When she died, she had nearly 50,000 books, plus a massive collection of newspapers, magazines, and even Apple Macintosh computers.

Since Marion never recorded her own story or what motivated her, we can only marvel at what she left behind. It's clear that her mission shifted into high gear with the Iran Hostage Crisis, which led to the development of "Nightline". We see clips of a very young CNN host named Kellyanne Fitzpatrick (better known today as Conway), and a young attorney named Jefferson Sessions up for a judicial appointment. There are many other snippets of the big stories through these years, but it's the 4-way split screen of CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC on the morning of September 11, 2001 that will stick with you. We watch in real time as CNN shows the first tower and then the slow progression as the other networks catch up. It's still devastating to watch.

We will never know if Marion was a crusader of curiosity or obsessed due to paranoia. What we do know is that her collection leaves a treasure trove of TV news that might one day be properly studied to determine if it's the foundation for today's fake news.

When Marion Stokes passed away in 2012, her death made the news briefly due to one odd quirk: She had obsessively recorded TV on VCRs for 32 years, virtually around the clock, amassing a collection of some 72,000 videocassettes*. Director Matt Wolf tries to, somewhat successfully, dig behind the odd news story and find out more about Stokes and her unusual 'project'. We find out that Stokes was an adopted child and a Librarian. She became a Socialist, and briefly, a Communist. She married another leftist, Melvin Metelits, a white teacher. Their mixed race son, Melvin, is interviewed extensively in the Doc. Other than her posthumous fame as a Videotape archivist, Stokes' only public fame was a Philadelphia public affairs program which she co-Produced and co-Hosted in the late 60s. It was there that she met her then future husband, John Stokes Jr, a white married man of means. Both shared progressive viewpoints.

But, it was introduction of VCRs in the mid- to late-70s that changed her life. She started recording TV programs, but it was two twin events that really sparked her future lifelong compulsion: 1979's Iran Hostage Crisis (particularly ABC's Nightline coverage) and the launch of CNN in 1980. Stokes was compelled to 'document' how the News covered events. She also, correctly it turns out, believed that the various Networks and Local TV networks would do a poor job of keeping their broadcasts for posterity. So, for the rest of her life, she recorded and recorded and recorded, enlisting her Husband, Son and basically anybody who was around to help change the tapes out. We also see snippets of some of the recordings that Stokes made.

All of this is quite fascinating, but, it makes up only about a third of the Documentary. West spends most of his time trying to get at who Stokes was. Unfortunately, she was a very private woman. Outside of the three years of her television show, she didn't leave much of a record. Her first Husband, Melvin, can only speak to the events of her young adult life. Her second, John, passed away 13 years ago. And, her son, Melvin, confesses that he spent many years estranged from his mother, and even when they were in contact, the relationship was frayed. So, it's left to three personal assistants to tell the story, but, they hardly give much insight. And, for an ex-librarian, Stokes did a very poor job of archiving her recordings. Mostly, she would just slap on a post-it note with the date of the recording and the channel recorded. Other than having her assistants put on proper labels, there is no testimony that she ever bothered to even watch the tapes, let alone catalog their contents.

It all makes for a rather confounding viewing experience. Director Wolf's montages of Stokes' footage isn't fully satisfactory, either. Mostly, just a few excerpts of the 'greatest news hits' of the era - Iran/Contra, Clinton's Impeachment, 9/11 and, finally, the Sandy Hook school shooting. Worse, Owen Pallet's droning score over the clips steps all over them. It's not until towards the end when the Internet Archive's Roger Macdonald tries to put the importance of the 'Project' in perspective. A more thoughtful and deeper dive into the recordings would have helped make RECORDER more than just a curio.

* Stokes also horded books and magazines (not surprising), but also Apple Computers (the most valuable part of the collection)!

Antenna Documentary Film Festival is back with a schedule full of cutting-edge and thought-provoking documentaries from around the globe. 'Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project' is just what I needed, to get pulled into this doc-lovers paradise.

In 'Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project' we get to meet Marion Stokes, a former TV producer and activist turned recluse. As a form of activism, to seek out the truth and check facts, she started recording everything that happened on television. This all started with her obsession with the Iranian hostage crisis back in 1979, which eventually became an event everyone was watching 24/7 and gave the idea to start a non-stop news channel - CNN. She noticed that important information started to change while the story developed and wanted to make sure the truth would never get erased from the public eye. For three decades - until her death in 2012 - she secretly recorded TV channels in America, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Over 70,000 VHS tapes hold footage on wars, catastrophes, talk shows, commercials and lies, shaping the world we live in today. This documentary gives us an in-depth look at who Marion Stokes was and bares the question many would ask: "Why did she do it?". Director Matt Wolf interviews Stokes' family, friends and colleagues, who emotionally look back at Marion's behaviour and career. There's also an aspect in the documentary that dissects how she became the old reclusive lady in that New York apartment. Not only collecting everything that happens on her many tv's, but also identifying herself with Steve Jobs - adopted, hard on people and smarter than most of us - and buying 'Apple'-shares. She loved technology, because it would unlock people's potential.

What I really appreciate in this documentary, was the personal feelings brought forward in how Marion treated the people closest to her, not always putting her in a good light. As her own son Michael says: "She had unrealistic standards in how people should behave with each other." Yes, she did great work on screen and behind closed doors to move herself forward. But in doing that, she was at times cruel to her son and loved ones, to the extent of pushing them out of her life. This made me connect to the interviewees and pulled me in even more. Every one of these people, helped her change the tapes on a daily basis. Marion knew exactly when a tape would stop.

The facts are all there - Marion was a very intelligent woman of colour and at the forefront of equal rights for everyone. Her mission was crazy, but ends up being a gift to the modern world, archiving footage that might otherwise have been lost throughout time and space. We can only thank this woman for what she has accomplished and be grateful, without judging her personal shortcomings in life. Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project is fascinating in many ways, flipping from interviews to important footage that define the modern world, not shying away from the hard truth and truly identifying what is right in front of us.

This film bothered me. It was opaque, meandering, and as didactic & strident as the subject itself. Marion was an interesting cat, in a way, from her early political views, not for her being an OCD news junkie in the last 30 years of her life. I wish I had these 90 minutes back. It didn't provide any type of a meditation on life or whatever it was seeking through her 'collections.'

Like the fiercely private and recluse Marion Stokes, I doubt her hard work and analyses will ever see the light of day, other than this documentary. She is a stunning woman, and sharp. She set up with her second husband a tv program called Input. With a social justice bent, Marion and her husband John would invite other activists or religious figures to discuss current affairs.

However she is known for her eccentricities as well. She has taped everything on her tv recorder. Whatever was on, it was taped. News stories that altered their perception, just ever so slightly manipulating their viewers. I just wish she made this documentary to point out all the discrepancies she has reviewed. We would have much from her.

My only complaint was the "score." Whoever decided to add Charlie Brown-esque music over war scenes just threw me out of it. The music is too "bouncy." I haven't finished the documentary yet.