GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Triplex Cinema announced a special election season screening series, Dying in Darkness: Journalism, Politics & Truth in Film featuring the acclaimed films "The Parallax View," "All the President's Men," "A Face in the Crowd, Medium Cool," and "Wag the Dog." 

 

The series is curated by Triplex Creative Director Ben Elliott, and a special speaker will introduce each film and discuss the continued relevance of its themes. This series explores the intersection of politics, journalism and democracy as represented in these critically acclaimed, provocative and award winning films. 

 

Tickets are available to purchase at the Triplex Cinema website, www.thetriplex.org

 

Released in 1974, "The Parallax View" is a political thriller starring Warren Beatty and directed by Alan J. Pakula. The film tells the story of a reporter, played by Beatty, who investigates a secretive organization called Parallax whose business is political assassination. 

 

The film will be introduced by Berkshire Community College's Chris Laney who will delve into the history of conspiracy theories, their evolution since Watergate, and their impact on today's political discourse. The "Parallax View" will screen on Oct. 17. 

 

On Oct. 20, "A Face in the Crowd," directed by Elia Kazan and starring Andy Griffith, will screen. Griffith, in his film debut, is supported by Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, from a screenplay by Budd Schulberg. The film, released in 1957,  tells the story of Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a drifter who is discovered by the producer of a small-market radio program in rural Arkansas, and who rises to great fame and influence on national television. 

 

The film will be introduced by Reo Matsuzaki, Associate Professor of Political Science at Trinity College who will discuss how governments utilize political performances to acquire and maintain their authority.

 

Also directed by Alan J. Pakula is "All the President's Men," starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, which screens on Oct. 24. Based on the investigative reporting and bestselling book by Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the 1976 film tells the story of the Watergate scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon. The film also stars Jason Robards (who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Post Editor Ben Bradlee) Hal Holbrook and Jane Alexander. 

 

The film will be introduced by Kevin Moran, executive editor of the Berkshire Eagle, who will discuss the role of print journalism in the current political process, especially at the local level. 

 

"Medium Cool" is a 1969 American drama written and directed by Haskell Wexler, best known for his work as an Academy Award winning cinematographer (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, In the Heat of the Night, and Days of Heaven). The film stars Robert Forster, Verna Bloom and Peter Bonerz and takes place in Chicago during the summer of 1968 and the Democratic National Convention, and is notable for Wexler's extensive use of cinema verite-style documentary filmmaking techniques, as well as for combining fictional and non-fictional content. Forster plays a television news cameraman who, after being fired by his news station, becomes a free-lancer at the Democratic National Convention. 

 

"Medium Cool" plays on Oct. 27, and will be introduced by Barbara Zheutlin, the author of "Creative Differences: Profiles of Hollywood Dissidents." 

 

The series ends with Barry Levinson's "Wag the Dog," an Oscar nominated comedy about political operatives who enlist the help of a Hollywood producer to fabricate a war to distract the public from an emerging sex scandal. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, and Anne Heche, this prescient satire shares striking similarities with the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, which broke shortly after its release in 1997. 

 

Bill Shein, the Founding Editor of The Berkshire Argus and winner of the National Press Club Award for Humor for his column "Reason Gone Mad," presents Wag the Dog on Nov. 3.