Page One

This afternoon I attended a preview screening of Page One, Andrew Rossi's newsroom documentary about the New York Times. Besides giving us an affectionate look at work inside the Times's offices, the film questions the survivability of the paper in the age of digital media. The film touches a lot of subjects, including the Pentagon Papers, WikiLeaks, the Judith Miller scandal & the new paywall. There's even an amusing snippet of Gizmodo's Brian Lam purchasing an iPad. We witness story meetings, a down-sizing & a going-away party. Mr. Rossi keeps it all very human by making characters out of the newsroom staff. Reporter Brian Selter is a blogging, tweeting wunderkind. Editor Bruce Headlam remains unflappably wry under pressure. The raspy-voiced David Carr is lovably old-school. He is the paper's bulldog & the film's star.

The preview was held in a small screening room downtown that also houses a life-size Kung Fu Panda. One of the PR people eagerly asked us for our immediately reactions as we left. Page One will be released on July 1st. It will also play at the San Francisco International Film Festival on Friday, April 29th & Sunday, May 1st.

§ Page One: Inside the New York Times
A film by Andrew Rossi