Brookline, Mass. – On Thursday evening at the screening of “Steal This Story, Please!”— the new documentary on journalist Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! fame—at the Coolidge Corner Theater, I got to briefly chat with Tia Lessin, one of the two award-winning documentarians who directed the film.
Noticing that I was sticking to the table her PR folks had kindly offered the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism during the show (to make sure I didn’t miss any opportunities to sign attendees up for the BINJ.News newsletter list), she offered to send along links to a screener of the film I could watch online, along with press materials. And I said I’d do a writeup encouraging our audience to attend the additional screenings running for the next several days.
True to her word, one of Lessin’s staffers got me those materials within the hour. However, I only carved out time to watch the film tonight. And now it’s only showing at the Coolidge for like four more days. And my forty years as a journalist and democracy activist mirrors Goodman’s career at several key points (I was in the West Bank and Gaza as an independent reporter and human rights observer during the First Palestinian Intifada just after she was, for example).
So I quickly realized I could easily write a couple of thousand words about the film and all the world-shaking events it made me flash back to, but then I wouldn’t finish the piece for another day. And I’d take too long to get to the point of my writing this dispatch—which is to say: Get over to the Coolidge Corner Theater and see “Steal This Story, Please!”
Here’s the link to the schedule for the remaining showings (until May 7): https://coolidge.org/films/steal-story-please/.
Jason Pramas is editor-in-chief of BINJ.News and executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism
