Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore needs help next month for his Traverse City Film Festival. He just posted this on Facebook:
“This is a note to fellow cinephiles and movie lovers who live outside the U.S.:
“Each summer I put on a film festival in my home state of Michigan. This summer is its 10th anniversary. To celebrate I thought I would invite the rest of the world to join us. So, on one day of the festival (August 1), people in 7 theaters — one each on all 7 continents — will join us in Traverse City, Michigan watching the same film we’re watching at that same exact moment. And when the film is over, all 7 audiences will be beamed up onto all 7 screens where we can see each other and have a live discussion and a live Q & A with the filmmakers.
“I’ve got the film picked out — it’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen this year, entitled “1971” — but I don’t have all the cinemas. So this is where you come in. Do you run or work at a movie theater that you think might like to be part of this grand experiment? I need one for each continent. Can you help me out? My goal is that by sometime tomorrow I’ll have all the cinemas I’ll need for to pull it off. (This request is also an experiment — to see if social media can immediately make something like this happen! I think it can and will.)
“Contact your local cinema — you know the one, the one that shows mostly the cool, smart films. All they have to have is the ability to project digitally and have a good internet connection in the theater.
“What do you think? Can I show this movie to you and your friends on August 1 in your town? Let me know! Just post your message to me here and I’ll check it out.
“Btw, you’ll love this movie. It’s about a group of people breaking into an FBI office and stealing the records that exposed the government’s secret domestic spying program — over 40 years ago. Some things never change. But the cool thing about this group of protesters is that not a single one of them were ever caught. They reveal themselves for the first time in this movie.
Thanks for helping me — and I hope to see you from the Traverse City Film Festival on August 1st.
