Movie Posters with 2016 Obama's America at a Virginia Theater, image dailylife.com
The Documentary, 2016 Obama’s America, by scholar, Dinesh D'Souza, surprised the film industry this weekend, by coming in 8th overall for the weekend, against the blockbusters, films playing in over 3000 theaters, to the current and expanding 1091 theaters showing the documentary. In addition, it easily surpassed the all-time record breaking political films by Michael Moore. (Deadline: Hollywood). The Los Angeles Times on Friday suggested that the film could see 6 million in sales for the weekend(*LA Times) - the weekend total: 9.4 million (*Deadline Hollywood).
My husband and I decided to see the film after reading a review at CBS Local Boston, entitled: “’2016: Obama’s America’ Movie Is Disturbingly Necessary” The review suggests that the author was not inclined to put much stock in the documentary because hard right commentators such as Sean Hannity appeared to promote the film. He changed his stance once he saw the film.
We decided to see the film during a convenient Saturday afternoon showing yesterday, at the Rave Motion Pictures in West Springfield, MA. The thinking was that it was unlikely the film would be crowded, as it was a documentary and the day was pleasant and sunny. At first that appeared to be the case – as we entered the theater there were only 4 to 5 individuals at the showing. Again, Saturday afternoon showings of feature films hardly fill the theaters, let alone a documentary. It was 5 minutes before show time, previews were running and the theater began to fill - with families, single movie goes, old, young, and most importantly, diverse. Needless to say, we were both somewhat surprised.
The Movie itself was an eye-opener, as I personally felt I knew enough background to form an opinion, and had written about a few of the elements contained in the film – I was wrong - D’Souza’s research was impeccable, and the approach of the film was one of a curiosity seeker and not overly partisan, although counting the fact that D’Souza speaks about being a conservative in the film, does not quantify him as a “hard-right partisan” – he negates that by utilizing fact.
As the movie came to an end, the packed theater erupted into applause. That was the most shocking element of the film. A group of 100 (estimating what a full theater might hold), diverse individuals, applauding a documentary, was a first experience. In times past, popular films of fiction might elicit that response, but a documentary? Hardly. This is especially intriguing since this documentary was playing in the heart of Western Massachusetts, the most left of center area of the Bay-State, outside of Cambridge. My husband quipped, “These are voters”. My thoughts on that, if an individual was not intending to vote, and was of an age to vote, this movie is a game-changer.
If one has not seen the film, and wants to experience the theater (rather than wait for the DVD release), locations and ticket times can be found at http://www.fandango.com/2016obamasamerica_157117/movietimes
The movie trailer is below:
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