Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.... (Full plot summary below)
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Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.
Leave your thoughts about Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project.
| RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyIs the human brain built to absorb so much of "the world"? How do we filter anything? Matt Wolf's new documentary, Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, is an interesting meditation on these ideas, as well as a character study of a fascinating news-junkie with a mission. |
| CineVueChristopher MachellIn a way, Michael is an audience surrogate, informing our own understanding of her; his – and the film’s – refusal to pin Stokes down as either a genius or crank (as if they are binary) speaks to her own project’s attempt to capture the totality of a thing and the noble futility in such an endeavour. |
| The Observer (UK)Simran HansStokes is a fascinating, elusive protagonist – she was a recluse who enjoyed daily martinis and felt a kinship with Steve Jobs. Yet Wolf treats her archive with reverence, rather than writing her off as an eccentric. |
| The GuardianPeter BradshawHaving watched this documentary, I now think the project could also be seen as a gigantic adventure in conceptual art, and this is not to denigrate it in any way. |
| Film ThreatMatthew RoeWolf’s directorial command when selecting material to showcase and contextualize the anecdotes spun throughout the film further affirms his mission to paint the most compendious picture possible, and he succeeds quite admirably. |
| Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleWolf’s strange, sad and finally exhilarating portrait is one of radical consumerism turned into a searchable legacy — the viewer as activist. |
| IndieWireKate ErblandThe results are fascinating, weird, and often quite moving. |
| The PlaylistJonathan ChristianThankfully, ‘Recorder’ salvages its lack of narrative control with enough emotional weight to earn its memorability. |
| Little White LiesRogan GrahamThere is always an issue of sensitivity with documentary filmmaking, but the final film is wanting. Wanting more Marion, and wanting more interrogation of the role public news plays in American life. But that doesn’t mean this documentary isn’t worth your time, Marion was an actionable inspiration and contradictory genius. |
| VarietyOwen GleibermanMatt Wolf directs “Recorder” with a lot of lively skill. He presents the eccentricity of Marion Stokes’ personality with supreme sympathetic understanding, or maybe you could say a bit more romanticism than it deserves. |
