Program Note
Centering on “the satanic panic” of the 1980s, sparked by a now discredited memoir Michelle Remembers, Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor’s truly gripping documentary is a stark reminder that today’s battle with misinformation is nothing new.
Told through archive footage and an array of interviews with law enforcement, journalists and relatives of psychiatrist, Lawrence Pazder, and his patent, Michelle Smith, who were behind the book, it examines so-called “Satanic ritual abuse” and questions many of the book’s claims. It also makes parallels with today, when conspiracy theories and misinformation continue to undermine the search for the truth. (Jason BECHERVAISE)