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The Conspiracists: Noelle Cook and Liz Smith
Join us on August 21 at noon/PT as we welcome director Liz Smith and producer Noelle Cook to discuss their new documentary film, The Conspiracists, in which a January 6th insurrectionist takes a British filmmaker and an American researcher on a road trip and attempts to convert them to her world of conspiracy theories. We recommend watching the film before the presentation on 8/21; you can rent it here for $4.99, check your local library catalog, or watch for free (with ads) on Roku.
Watch here.
Three women set off on a road trip across America. One of them is a MAGA supporter and conspiracy theorist. She has just been sentenced to 30 months in prison for her role in the storming of The US Capitol. They meet other “patriots” along the way and as the journey unfolds she leads her travel companions deeper into her labyrinth of conspiracy, determined to open their eyes to what she sees as the real truth. By the trip’s end will she have converted them to her “5D world”?
Noelle Cook is an ethnographer and researcher examining how identity, belief, and belonging shape women’s participation in conspiratorial and right-wing movements. She is the author of The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging and is featured in the documentary The Conspiracists.
Liz Smith is an award-winning British documentary filmmaker. Her work is centred around human rights. The films she makes at Page 75 Productions are the outcome of years of study on the issues driving the rise of populism and the erosion of our democratic rights. However, researching the issues can only go so far. Her approach of spending time with affected communities on the frontline delivers a much deeper understanding of the forces driving these trends.
Her recent feature documentaries include I Am Gen Z, The Line We Crossed and The Conspiracists. I Am Gen Z investigates the impact of digital technology on the first generation to grow up with mobiles in their pockets. It premiered at CPH:DOX in 2021 and won Best Feature Film at the Lower East Side Film Festival.
The Conspiracists explores the profound and unsettling impact of conspiracy theories on individuals and society and won the award for Best Documentary Feature at The Miami Women Festival 2025. The Line We Crossed exposes the alarming erosion of the right to protest in the UK and had a successful theatrical release in the UK in 2025 as well as winning the award for Best Feature Film at the Environmental Film & Screenplay Festival.
She is currently completing the feature documentary, The Humanitarians, about the right to asylum and the rise of anti-immigration sentiment across Europe. She is also in the early stages of production of an investigative documentary about the growing anti-rights movement in the UK and writes about human rights issues in her Substack.
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