Nearly 200 movie theaters worldwide are protesting President Trump today by screening 1984


Nearly 200 movie theaters across the world are screening the film 1984 on Tuesday in protest of President Trump, The Independent reports. "No one is suggesting that we're living in [George] Orwell's world," co-organizer Dylan Skolnick of the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island, New York, told Al Jazeera. "But the road to that world is people just becoming disengaged and allowing their government to do whatever it wants."
The film is an adaptation of Orwell's book by the same name, and it was released in (you guessed it) 1984. At the time of its release, it was praised by Roger Ebert as "brilliant," earning three-and-a-half stars out of four.
April 4 was chosen as the date for the movie theater protest because "it's the day George Orwell's protagonist Winston Smith begins rebelling against his oppressive government by keeping a forbidden diary," the organizers write. Screenings are being held everywhere from Gold Town Theater in Juneau, Alaska, to locations across the U.S., U.K, Canada, Croatia, and Sweden. In New York City alone, the movie will be shown 12 separate times throughout the day.
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The organizers say the screenings are particularly well-timed, as President Trump has proposed eliminating the budget for the National Endowment of the Arts. Many of the theaters participating plan to donate proceeds to community organizations, or are showing the film for free.
"This is really designed to get people to be talking and discussing and active in the political conversation that is happening in America right now — and throughout the world, it turns out," Skolnick said.
Find a participating theater near you here, and read more about revisiting 1984 in Trump's America here at The Week.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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