'The Post' to come to Va. Shore with real-life editor, reporters
Locals will get some special insight into the movie “The Post” this weekend with their own cast of real-life characters.
Steven Ginsberg, Onancock native and National Editor at The Washington Post, will join other Post reporters at the Roseland Theatre for a Q&A session following “The Post” screening by nonprofit group Roseland Cinema and Entertainment Center at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10.
“The event is one of the biggest nonprofit group Roseland Cinema and Entertainment Center has hosted to date," said Kitty Croke, a founding member.
Tickets cost $10 and are available starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Roseland box office, 48 Market St. in Onancock.
There will be no pre-sales for the event by nonprofit group Roseland Cinema and Entertainment Center.
“I always think it’s important to come home and I’m thrilled that people there are interested in this movie and excited to see it,” said Ginsberg.
“It’s basically my two favorite things: my hometown and The Washington Post,” he said.
Like many, Ginsberg sees Steven Spielberg’s take on the 1971 Pentagon Papers case as a timely frame to discuss U.S. journalism.
“It’s no secret that the country’s kind of split between people who think journalists are more necessary than ever and people who think journalists are contributing to the decline of America,” Ginsberg said.
“The movie ‘The Post’ takes us back to a similar moment where there was this fight over the Pentagon Papers and whether the public had the right to know,” he said, “and it was journalists from The New York Times and The Washington Post that fought for it.”
Joining Ginsberg for the Q&A session are Post reporter and Onancock native Emily Heil; National Security Reporter Devlin Barrett, whose family is from Machipongo; and Ginberg’s wife, Amy Joyce, who is editor and writer for The Post’s parenting blog.
Washington Post Chief Correspondent Dan Balz also will bring decades of experience to the Onancock talk.
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“He will talk about what it was like during that era at The Post and what it’s like now,” Ginsberg said.
Ginsberg has been at The Post since 1994, when he joined the newsroom as a nightside copy aide running papers from the press room to reporters.
He graduated from Broadwater Academy in 1990 and said his childhood in Onancock laid the foundation for his career.
“I’ve always been interested in journalism and politics. A lot of that was kindled for me with my nightly dinner table in politics,” he said.
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“A couple of specific teachers — Mrs. (Sara) Goffigon, who was my major political teacher, was a major influencer on me,” he said.
“My math teacher Chris Gordon was also an influence in that he liked to talk about politics,” Ginsberg said.
After graduating from the University of Virginia, Ginsberg moved to Washington, D.C.
He and the other Post staff will join a sold-out reception before the movie Saturday, said Kitty Croke, a founding Roseland Cinema and Entertainment Center member.
“It’s just so exciting that the Eastern Shore has such deep roots at The Post,” Croke said.
“We’d love to fill up the theater because I think this is an exciting opportunity,” she said.
Ginsberg invites all to attend the Saturday showing and ask questions.
“I hope that people who are skeptical of journalists, particularly The Washington Post, also come. I love to engage people about what we do, why we do it, how we do it,” he said.
“I think it’s crucial to democracy … to always try to figure out what your government is doing, no matter who’s in charge of it,” Ginsberg said.
Tickets cost $10 at the door and will not be available for pre-sale, Croke said.
Roseland Theatre will also play “The Post” Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, Feb. 11, 13 and 14, according to its website, although the Q&A session is unique to Saturday’s showing.