Saturday, June 19, 2004
Battling Efforts to Censor Documentaries
It's Saturday. Are you looking for a valuable project to start off your weekend? How about joining the email campaign to support the showing of Michael Moore's new documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11"?
"Email campaign?" you say. "Why would there need to be a campaign to distribute the movie?" Perhaps you believed that once Miramax settled issues with Disney (their corporate parent) about even allowing for the release of the movie, the battle was done; Miramax would simply distribute the film as summer movie fare.
The good news is that, for the most part, the movie will be distributed in an acceptable manner in late June. However, while the distribution is being hailed as "Nationwide", it is only opening in about 1000 theaters. Summer films typically open in more than 2000 theaters. "The Day After Tomorrow" opened in over 3400 theaters. In fact, the most recent movie I could find that opened in less than 1500 theaters is "Breakin' All the Rules" starring Jamie Foxx (Remember that one? I didn't think so). Or how about Bobby Jones, Stroke of Genius? Opening week is almost always the biggest week in a movie's box office tally, so the more theaters a movie opens in, the better chance it has to create a large box office turnout.
(As a footnote, a different documentary, "Super Size Me" about a man who eats nothing but McDonald's fast food for a month, is doing pretty good in its limited release of less than 200 theaters.)
In any case, some of the problems in getting Fahrenheit 9/11 into additional theaters is an email campaign that calls the movie "Anti-American". One such site that promotes writing letters to various theater points of contact is Move America Forward, which contains an email list of theaters planning to show the movie.
If you have some free time, please send a note of encouragement to these theaters for resisting the efforts to censor a movie prior to its release.
FYI, the addresses at National-Amusements have a spam filter, probably rejecting any emails with the term "Fahrenheit 9/11" in the subject line, and the address listed as "info@manntheatres.com" is no longer a valid address.
Below is a sample email you can use/modify to send to the theaters:
Subject: ~ ! Heartfelt Thanks ! ~ ...for Supporting Freedom of Speech
Content: Dear Supporter of American Freedoms,
You may be getting hundreds of disparaging comments about your theater's presenting the movie "Fahrenheit 9/11", but let me be one of the voices who say:
"Hurrah!" Congratulations on your support for a controversial movie! By keeping this movie in the theaters, we let the American people pass our own judgment on it, rather than censoring it prior to release. You have my utmost respect for resisting one of the largest censorship campaigns in recent history.
It's Saturday. Are you looking for a valuable project to start off your weekend? How about joining the email campaign to support the showing of Michael Moore's new documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11"?
"Email campaign?" you say. "Why would there need to be a campaign to distribute the movie?" Perhaps you believed that once Miramax settled issues with Disney (their corporate parent) about even allowing for the release of the movie, the battle was done; Miramax would simply distribute the film as summer movie fare.
The good news is that, for the most part, the movie will be distributed in an acceptable manner in late June. However, while the distribution is being hailed as "Nationwide", it is only opening in about 1000 theaters. Summer films typically open in more than 2000 theaters. "The Day After Tomorrow" opened in over 3400 theaters. In fact, the most recent movie I could find that opened in less than 1500 theaters is "Breakin' All the Rules" starring Jamie Foxx (Remember that one? I didn't think so). Or how about Bobby Jones, Stroke of Genius? Opening week is almost always the biggest week in a movie's box office tally, so the more theaters a movie opens in, the better chance it has to create a large box office turnout.
(As a footnote, a different documentary, "Super Size Me" about a man who eats nothing but McDonald's fast food for a month, is doing pretty good in its limited release of less than 200 theaters.)
In any case, some of the problems in getting Fahrenheit 9/11 into additional theaters is an email campaign that calls the movie "Anti-American". One such site that promotes writing letters to various theater points of contact is Move America Forward, which contains an email list of theaters planning to show the movie.
If you have some free time, please send a note of encouragement to these theaters for resisting the efforts to censor a movie prior to its release.
FYI, the addresses at National-Amusements have a spam filter, probably rejecting any emails with the term "Fahrenheit 9/11" in the subject line, and the address listed as "info@manntheatres.com" is no longer a valid address.
Below is a sample email you can use/modify to send to the theaters:
Subject: ~ ! Heartfelt Thanks ! ~ ...for Supporting Freedom of Speech
Content: Dear Supporter of American Freedoms,
You may be getting hundreds of disparaging comments about your theater's presenting the movie "Fahrenheit 9/11", but let me be one of the voices who say:
"Hurrah!" Congratulations on your support for a controversial movie! By keeping this movie in the theaters, we let the American people pass our own judgment on it, rather than censoring it prior to release. You have my utmost respect for resisting one of the largest censorship campaigns in recent history.
Comments:
Post a Comment
: political posts
: philosophical posts
: humorous posts
: posts on the life of DavidCyrus
: posts about family and friends
