Traverse City Film Festival To Connect Audiences Around The World With Screening Of "1971"

By Krysta Amber Loftis on August 1, 2014

Image via http://tribecafilm.com

Academy-Award winning director Michael Moore (“Roger & Me,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “Bowling for Columbine”) delivered on his promise for something special in honor of the 10 year anniversary of the film festival he founded and presides over.

He has selected the documentary “1971″ to screen simultaneously in theaters all over the world on Friday, August 1.

Moore, who started the festival in 2005, conceived the idea to bring a great movie to multiple continents at the same time in order to, in his own words, ”take the TC Film Fest beyond its borders and see what kind of a global village we can create around watching a great, thought-provoking and discussion-stimulating movie.”

“And the movie I chose to do it with has powerful resonance given today’s headlines about whistleblowers like Assange, Manning and Snowden,” Moore said.

Directed by Johanna Hamilton (“Pray the Devil Back to Hell”) and executive produced by Academy-Award nominee Laura Poitras (“My Country, My Country”), “1971″ is a true story of a courageous group of ordinary citizens who risked their lives to expose the massive, unlawful surveillance program by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI at the height of the Vietnam War.

Pulling the audience in with compelling reenactments and archival footage, “1971″ plays out like a great heist movie. The “Citizen’s Committee to Investigate the FBI” confess on camera for the first time ever to breaking into an FBI field office, confiscating thousands of secret files (which were leaked to the press), and ultimately revealing a large-scale FBI spying operation of political activist and civil rights leaders known as COINTELPRO.

The brave activists were subject to the largest manhunt in FBI history and were able to remain anonymous until coming forward for this film.

Moore turned to social media to find venues around the world to participate in the screening. The TCFF Around the World screening venues include PictureHouse UK in England, the Sun Theatre Yarraville in Australia, and the Cinemateket USF in Norway. More screenings are available in Beijing City, China; Runway Bay, Australia; and Blantyre, Malawi.

Live screens will allow audiences worldwide to see and hear each other as the film is introduced. After the screening, audience members are invited to partake in a live discussion with the filmmakers and audiences overseas will be able to ask questions via twitter.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format