Two venues for film aim to give students viewing before election

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.”