Saved events

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project (#)

Cinema On Demand

an image of marion stokes on an old fashioned TV

A fascinating documentary about Marion Stokes, who secretly recorded television twenty-four hours a day for thirty years.

It started in 1979 with the Iranian Hostage Crisis at the dawn of the twenty-four hour news cycle. It ended on December 14, 2012 while the Sandy Hook massacre played on television as Marion passed away. In between, Marion Stokes recorded on 70,000 VHS tapes, capturing revolutions, lies, wars, triumphs, catastrophes, bloopers, talk shows, and commercials that tell us who we were, and show how television shaped the world of today.

Before “fake news” Marion was fighting to protect the truth by archiving everything that was said and shown on television. The public didn’t know it, but the networks were disposing their archives for decades into the trashcan of history. Remarkably Marion saved it, and now the Internet Archive will digitize her tapes and we’ll be able to search them online for free. This is a mystery in the form of a time capsule.

US 2020 Dir Matt Wolf 90 min

This rental is only available within the UK.  

From purchase, you have 48 hours to start and finish watching the film.

The b&w logo for the BFI Film Audience Network
Supported by the Mayor of London

How to watch

Please note this rental is only available within the UK

1.    Choose the film you want to watch.
 
2.    Add to basket and proceed to purchase.

3.    If you already have an account, you can log in during the purchase. If not, create an account as you buy. 

4.    Once your purchase has gone through, you can click on the button to click to ‘Watch your films', or click on the link in your email, or go to your account.
 
5.    Start watching your video. From purchase, you have 48 hours to start and finish watching the film. Enjoy! 

If you have any issues, please contact our Box Office team via [email protected] between 9.30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.