Movie theaters around the world will take part in a protest of President Trump Tuesday by playing the dystopian film “1984” based off of George Orwell’s 1949 book of the same name.
“In particular, this undermining of the concept of facts and the demonization of foreign enemies [by the Trump administration] really resonate in ‘1984,’” said Dylan Skolnick, one of the event’s creators.
“There’s a central line from the book about the freedom to say that two plus two equals four, even when the government is telling you that two plus two equals five,” Skolnick, co-director of the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island, N.Y., added.
The event is scheduled for Tuesday because April 4 is the date in the film when the protagonist starts resisting the government.
“No one is suggesting that we’re living in Orwell’s world. But the road to that world is people just becoming disengaged and allowing their government to do whatever it wants,” he said.
“1984” depicts a totalitarian future society controlled by a single political party amid perpetual war and endless government surveillance.
Winston Smith, the story’s hero, begins resisting the Inner Party and Big Brother, its rumored leader, by keeping a secret diary on April 4.
Al-Jazeera added most of the cinemas participating in “National Screening Day” will donate part of their ticket sales to organizations working on civil rights or other issues important to their communities.
The Royal Cinema in Toronto, it said as an example, will give part of its profits to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which defends human rights and liberties across Canada.
The film version of “1984” was released in the same year as its title and stars actors John Hurt as Smith and Robert Burton as O’Brien, the story’s antagonist.
The film will play in nearly 200 theaters around the world. While most will be screened in venues across the U.S., “1984” will also be shown in Canada, Croatia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.