THE MOVIEHOUSE JOINS ART HOUSE THEATERS NATIONWIDE FOR A SPECIAL SCREENING OF NINETEEN EIGHT-FOUR (1984)

Directed by Michael Radford, and starring John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, and Gregor Fisher, Orwell’s portrait of a government that manufactures their own facts, demands total obedience, and demonizes foreign enemies, has never been timelier as many believe the clock is already striking thirteen.

The organizers – Art House Convergence –  have chosen this date because April 4th is the day George Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith begins rebelling against his oppressive government by keeping a forbidden diary. The endeavor encourages theaters to take a stand for our most basic values: freedom of speech, respect for our fellow human beings, and the simple truth that there is no such thing as “alternative facts.” By doing what they do best – showing a movie – the goal is that cinemas can initiate a much needed community conversation at a time when the existence of facts and basic human rights are under attack

Through nationwide participation and strength in numbers, these screenings are intended to galvanize people to come together at the crossroads of cinema and community to foster communication and resistance against current efforts that undermine the most basic tenets of our society.

Leading the discussion & Q&A for this event will be Professor Roger Berkowitz, the academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College.

Berkowitz has been teaching political theory, legal thought, and human rights at Bard College since 2005. He is an interdisciplinary scholar, teacher, and writer. His interests stretch from Greek and German philosophy to legal history and from the history of science to images of justice in film and literature. He is the author of The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition; co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics; editor of Revenge and Justice, a special issue of Law, Culture, and the Humanities; and a contributing editor to Rechtsgeschichte. Roger Berkowitz received his B.A. from Amherst College; J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley; and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He is currently leading an international Virtual Reading Group on Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism.

Johanna “Hannah” Arendt (14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German-born Jewish American political theorist. Though often described as a philosopher, she rejected that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with “man in the singular” and instead described herself as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact that “men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world.”

She escaped Europe during the Holocaust, becoming an American citizen. Her works deal with the nature of power and the subjects of politics, direct democracy, authority, and totalitarianism. The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College is the world’s most expansive home for bold and risky humanities thinking about our political world inspired by the spirit of Hannah Arendt, the leading thinker of politics and active citizenship in the modern era.

Participating theaters will be donating a portion of their proceeds from the event to local charities and organizations, and The Moviehouse has chosen The Hannah Arendt Center as its beneficiary.
http://hac.bard.edu/

Trailer: https://youtu.be/52wis_sLT1I

Tickets: $14 / Members $12
Available at the Box Office or online at themoviehouse.net