Cinema Lab will close out this year's series of films and lectures, organised by the Faculty of Communication of the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU), and sponsored by the US Embassy in Latvia, with the film All the President's Men (dir: Alan J. Pakula). As usual, the film will be preceded by a discussion to which lecturer and film theorist Dita Rietuma has invited Chad Twitty, the press and cultural attaché of the US Embassy in Rīga, and Elīna Vrobļevska, a political science lecturer at the RSU Faculty of European Studies. The screening will take place on 3 December at 17:00 in RSU Great Hall.

This political thriller is based on a documentary investigation by two journalists from The Washington Post that uncovered one of the biggest political scandals in 20th-century US history. The film is based on a book by the same name by the two journalists, Karl Bernstein and Bob Woodwood. The 1976 film has become one of the most significant examples of the political thriller genre and went on to receive several Academy Awards.

Bernstein and Woodward were assigned to investigate the corruption scandal for The Washington Post shortly before President Richard Nixon ran for a second term in office. The political scandal, the infamous Watergate scandal, and both journalists’ investigation contributed to Richard Nixon’s resignation as president in 1974.

‘Each character in All the President's Men follows a specific prototype. The creators of the film did not get carried away by focusing on pretentious Hollywood-like suspense, instead using saturated and fact-based dialogue. Brilliant actors Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford play the two main roles portraying the now legendary journalists. Redford is also one of the film’s producers,’ explains Dita Rietuma, who is the creator of the RSU Film Lab series.

From the perspective of media history the film provides an insight into the role of investigative journalism in our democratic processes, the behind-the-scenes of journalism, and a complicated period of US history.

The event will take place in English.

The film lecture series Cinema Lab will continue in 2020.