Spotlight

Date: 21/06/2016 Times: 7:30 pm - 9:45 pm

Spotlight tells the riveting true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions. When the newspaper’s tenacious “Spotlight” team of reporters delves into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world.  Directed by Academy Award-nominee Tom McCarthy, Spotlight is a tense investigative thriller, tracing the steps to uncovering one of the biggest cover-ups in modern times.

The Spotlight team are a quartet of crusading investigative reporters asked by the paper’s new editor (Liev Schreiber) to follow up on a story concerning allegations surrounding a local priest and his abuse of young boys. Led by Michael Keaton’s veteran reporter, the tenacious team (Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James) gradually realise this is just the surface of a very disturbing phenomenon.

Dealing with issues of complicity, blaming even the Globe itself for never following up earlier stories of abuse, McCarthy and his co-writer Josh Singer do an admirable job of showing how such horrific crimes can be allowed to carry on, as the Church wields huge influence over Boston society.  Forensically written and directed with restraint, it’s a film of huge social importance, never sensationalistic, always spot on.

The film has won numerous awards, including Oscars for Best Film and Original Screenplay in 2016.

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Venue: William Loveless Hall