Monday, January 28, 2019

Mr. Jones



This is a film about a real-life journalist, written by Andrea Chalupa, co-host with Sarah Kendzior of the "Gaslit Nation" podcast.  It's currently in competition in Berlin.  I don't know when it will be out in theaters here.  Looks good.
“Mr. Jones” tells the little-known story of Gareth Jones, an ambitious young Welsh journalist who travelled to the Soviet Union in 1933, and discovered the appalling reality behind the myth of a communist “utopia.” What started out as a regular news investigation, soon turned into a life-or-death quest to uncover the truth about a government-induced famine in Ukraine. His efforts are frustrated not just by Soviet censors but other Western journalists who enjoy the patronage of Stalin’s regime, most notably Walter Duranty, the Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times. Jones’ story helped inspire George Orwell’s allegorical dystopian novel “Animal Farm.”

[...]

“The clash of Jones’ courage and determination against Duranty’s cynical opportunism and cowardice is still valid as well. Today, we don’t lack corruptible conformists and egoists; we lack Orwells and Joneses. That is why we brought them back to life.”

  Variety



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