SXSW Film

Page One: Inside the New York Times

Festival Favorites
D: Andrew Rossi

As we watch the scrimmage between New Media vs. Old play out on our iPads, Page One takes us – fly-on-the-wall and with talking heads commentary – into the inner sanctum of the Newspaper of Record, for a look at the stakes for capital "J" journalism as the paper struggles to maintain its historical franchise. Guided by the raspy-voiced Media reporter David Carr – whose conversational bon mots are every bit as pithy, witty, and wise as the ones he types – we get just a glimpse of what goes into what the Times does so well. The ultimate issue is whether readers (and advertisers) will pay for what it takes to ferret out the most trustworthy daily version of the facts. The film attempts to cover so much ground and introduces so many tangential, if fascinating, players and issues in the battle for the readers' rapidly diminishing attention spans, that after 89 minutes we're left panting. Still, it was a good ride.

---

Thursday, March 17, 11am, State