22 December 2014
Newsdesk
To protest against the attack on freedom of expression that the threats against screenings of The Interview represents, Secret Cinema staged a special one off Secret Screening event of Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’ on Sunday 21st December in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Rome with at least £11,500 (US$18,000) of proceeds across 5 cities going to global free speech charity ARTICLE 19.
Secret Cinema chose ‘The Great Dictator’ as one of Hollywood’s greatest films which truly demonstrates the need to create art without censorship. Art must challenge and parody any political figure it so wishes. Secret Cinema feels passionately about enabling an environment in which filmmakers can make bold and challenging work without fear.
Charlie Chaplin’s famous portrayal of fictitious dictator Adenoid Hynkel, a thinly-veiled version of Hitler, made waves around the world when he premiered the 1940 comedy. The film was Chaplin’s highest grossing film at the box office and was nominated for 5 Academy Awards. Banned in Nazi Germany, The Great Dictator would not have been made or receive distribution today.
Over 2000 audiences across 5 global cities dressed sombrely in dark suits and came together to show solidarity and to protest censorship through live Poetry, Music, Short Films and Live Jazz. Secret Cinema would sincerely like to thank its distribution partners: MK2 for overall rights Juliette Schrameck & Elisha Karmitz, and in the UK Steve Lewis for Artificial Eye/ Curzon & MK2, in Italy Cineteca do Bologna: Rossana Mordini & Gian Luca Farinelli as well as cinemas: Videology and Spectrum in New York, Troxy in London, Teatro Centrale in Rome, Great Star Theatre in San Francisco and CineFamily in Los Angeles who all made this special event happen at short notice.
The infamous final speech from ‘The Dictator’ will be broadcast live via Secret Cinema’s facebook page today: https://www.facebook.com/SecretCinema
To show support please post #freedomtocreate
NYC
Venues: Videology (Brooklyn) and Spectrum (Manhattan) in collaboration and special thanks to the National Coalition Against Censorship
www.facebook.com/ncacorg
https://twitter.com/ncacensorship
ROME
Teatro Centrale: http://teatrocentrale.it/
Special thanks to: Sabina Guzzanti and Benedetta Ruffini
SAN FRANCISCO
Great Star Theatre
LONDON
Troxy Cinema, East London
http://www.troxy.co.uk/
LOS ANGELES
CineFamily www.cinefamily.org
[The Red Chapel film was screened in place of The Great Dictator]
