Black & White And Read All Over

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times is a documentary that had its East Coast Premiere at the Miami International Film Festival on March 8th at the Regal Cinemas South Beach.

The documentary follows a group of reporters who cover the media business for The New York Times. It’s an interesting peak into how reporters their interviewing sources, and ultimately put out a piece that is Page One material.

All people see is the end product – an inky piece of news – but what people do not see is everything that occurs before the paper goes to press.

The main idea that Page One tries to get across is that the newspaper business is well aware that their industry is slowly fading, yet, they still have so much more to offer.

David Carr, Bruce Headlam, Brian Stelter, and Richard Perez-Pena are among the writers and editors featured in Page One who really bring the film to life. Their interactions and conversations are so rich, you just can’t write dialogue this good.

One issue that the film does an excellent job of addressing is the harsh reality that print media is soon to be a thing of the past. Reporters today are working in an industry that might not be there tomorrow. With all the online news websites emerging, it is making it easier and faster for people to get their information.

Old-fashioned journalists like David Carr have to get used to the idea that people are turning to a new medium to get their information: social networking. Like Carr says in the film, the message doesn’t change, only the medium we use.

Director Andrew Rossi originally wanted to make a film about the different outlets for social media, but in an interview with long time friend Carr, he thought it would be much more interesting to document what goes on in The New York Times for a year.

In the end, the film was stunning. It was the perfect combination of information and visual aid. Rossi was able to bring out the color in an otherwise black and white industry.