'Fahrenheit 9/11' to play on campus
Geoffrey Ritter
Daily Egyptian
With little more than a week to go before the presidential election, the
controversial documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" will play in two separate
venues on the SIUC campus, something the film's director would
undoubtedly approve.
"Fahrenheit 9/11," filmmaker Michael Moore's stinging indictment of the
Bush administration, began its campus run Thursday night and will play
at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights at the Student Center
Auditorium. Tickets for the screenings, which are sponsored by the
Student Programming Council as part of its yearly schedule of films, are
$4 to the general public or $3 for students with an ID.
In addition, a free screening of the film, co-sponsored by the Global
Media Research Center and the Southern Illinois Peace Coalition, will
take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday in room 1032 of the Communications
Building.
Kyle Dare, coordinator for the SPC Films Committee, said he hopes the
timeliness of the film will help to get people in the seats this weekend
and provoke some conversation.
"It's still controversial," Dare said. "I want people to come see it
and, whether or not they love it or hate it, come to their own
conclusions. It's already out on DVD, but I figure with the election so
close, we can still do well."
The divisive film, which was released last summer as a follow-up to
Moore's 2002 Academy Award-winning documentary "Bowling For Columbine,"
has become one of the most-discussed films of the year and became the
first documentary to top the $100 million mark at the box office.
With talk of more Academy Awards now circling around Hollywood, Moore is
currently on his own campaign through the election's hotly contested
states as part of his "Slacker Uprising Tour."
Moore has also promised to unleash a fleet of cameras in Florida on
Election Day to monitor the voting process.
John Teresi, president of the SIUC College Republicans, said he has not
seen the film and has no plans to. He said the documentary is so filled
with twisted truths that it cannot be taken as a credible source of
information.
"The information definitely skews the facts against Bush and the
Republican Party," Teresi said. "The facts [Moore] uses are completely
wrong."
Teresi said the College Republicans are planning to present a screening
of "Fahrenhype 9/11," a response to Moore's film by Utah filmmaker Jeff
Hays that is narrated by former Clinton adviser Dick Morris. Although
Teresi said no concrete date has been set, he would like to see the film
publicly screened before the election on Nov. 2.
Dare said he hopes to see strong attendance at this weekend's SPC
screenings.
"I'm showing movies to get people in the theater," Dare said. "I'm using
controversy to get butts in the seats."
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