Today, I’m sharing one of the most powerful interviews I’ve done, my conversation with Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck about his extraordinary new film ORWELL: 2+2=5.
Peck, whose earlier works include I Am Not Your Negro and Exterminate All the Brutes, takes us inside George Orwell’s writings and shows why they matter more than ever. Orwell wasn’t a prophet, he was an analyst of power. And the patterns he warned about: propaganda, surveillance, doublethink, are no longer distant threats. They’re our lived reality.
Watching the film, I found myself doing a lot of self-reflection. Having spent nearly two decades in government and having worked directly under an authoritarian-minded presidency, Orwell’s warnings are not abstract to me. They’re experiences I’ve lived firsthand—the manipulation of words, the bending of truth, and the creeping erosion of democratic norms from the inside.
In our conversation, we covered:
Language as a weapon: how terms like “democracy” and “freedom” get twisted until they mean their opposite.
The courage to say “2+2=4”: in a world of lies, why insisting on truth is an act of defiance.
Civil society’s power: why history only changes when ordinary people organize, ally, and act.
Surveillance and control: from Palantir to biometrics, how today’s technologies risk becoming tools of authoritarianism.
Peck’s reminder was stark:
“History doesn’t function with hope. If you want change, you need to act upon it. In hard times, we need to have the courage to say: two and two equals four.”
That’s the heart of this film, and of this moment. Authoritarianism doesn’t always arrive overnight—it creeps in, through propaganda and the erosion of truth, until people stop noticing. The real question is not whether Orwell was right. It’s whether we’ll find the courage to act before it’s too late.
If you can, go see ORWELL: 2+2=5, brought to you by Neon, when it opens in theaters. It will be on a limited release on October 3rd, with a much broader circulation beginning on October 10th.
Thank you to everyone who joined us live for this conversation. These discussions only matter if they move beyond the screen; into our lives, our communities, and our choices. I hope this one inspires you, as it did me, to find the courage to act.
Until next time,
Olivia
