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NEW YORK – Escape is generally the domain of big budget shows, but two hugely successful documentaries have hung on the box office in the summer, in part because they are a respite from the headlines of today
Will not you be my neighbor? And the portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court "RBG" have each played in some of the most packed theaters of the season. In eight weeks, "RBG" has made $ 10.9 million, a huge sum for any documentary. Morgan Neville's movie "Do not be my neighbor" earned $ 4.1 million in three weeks, including $ 1.9 million last weekend in 348 movie theaters
. old justice and a Presbyterian minister who died in multiplexes alongside Spandexed superheroes and supernatural thrillers. Documentaries, often sober counter-programming for the summer months, instead provide the most powerful source of inspiration for the film season – especially for liberal film buffs.
"It's a leak of what they read daily in newspapers or online. These are both messages of positivity and how good character can overcome horrific situations. "Said Eamonn Bowles, president of Magnolia Pictures, who collaborated with Participant Media and CNN to distribute" RBG "
.This country is horribly dissatisfied," added Bowles. "RBG and Fred Rogers, their sensitivity lies in helping others. Our current administration seems to want to hurt people in need and not see beyond the greatest humanity involved. "
Rogers and Ginsburg both broke through in the late 1960s and early 1970s." M. The Rogers neighborhood made its national debut in 1968. Ginsburg gained importance four years later when she co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU. Both were modest, soft-spoken people, driven by a sense of empathy and a belief in the community.
"Fred told the 2 to 6 years old how to be people and how to treat others. And it seems we all need to be sitting down and learning this lesson again, "Neville said. "He has tried to teach us how to behave in a community and a society together, and the value of civility and the value of honoring this relationship with each other." And we live in times that do not exist. do not honor that at all. "
Both films come at a particularly tense time in American politics. On Tuesday, Ginsburg joined Sonia Sotomayor to create a scathing dissent at the 5-4 court ruling in favor of President Trump's travel ban for seven Muslim-majority nations. His reputation for tenacity was only heightened on Wednesday when his colleague, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, four years old, announced his retirement
"We're going to run all summer "said RBG's Bowles. Neville You wanted to do "Will not you be my neighbor" because he felt that Rogers' voice was missing from American culture.
My Neighbor "presents the powerful gestures of Rogers in the name of equality and his passionate advocacy for public television, but the documentary – as his Republican subject of a lifetime – seeks to avoid politics and focuses rather, about Rogers' humanistic and compassionate lessons.
"People have tried to politicize Fred many times, and he has always resisted." He never wanted to give a child or his parents an excuse for not I do not want to watch the show, and I want to somehow honor that, "Neville said," I'm trying to do everything in our power to find things we can agree on. "
That has been particularly difficult lately.As Neville's film hit the theaters, the indignant have puffed up on the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant children from parents who illegally cross the border. United States: A federal judge in California issued a national injunction on Tuesday temporarily stopping the policy.
"Fred would have been heartbroken over what was happening with children being separated from their families," said Neville. "Fred always thought first and foremost about the experience of the child and the child and the understanding of children's vulnerability."
What gave hope to Neville, c & # Is "Will not you be my neighbor"? alongside projections. The tales of moviegoers vanquished by emotion have been endemic. "Friggin," a guy, "comedian actor Kumail Nanjiani
said on Twitter." At a time when there is not much optimism about our community ties, this film shows me that people care about these things, says Neville. "It's this idea that kindness is not quaint and naive and old-fashioned, but that kindness is essential to getting ahead of it.And I think a lot of people feel like that. "
It happened, precisely, in part because of the film community's experience, something that would not have been possible if the two documentaries had been directly directed to Netflix. Bowles said that the backbone of the audience for "RBG" was "mothers, daughters and grandmothers."
"People are looking around and saying, We want shared experiences," said David Linde, CEO of Participant. "And these are real films made by filmmakers who wanted to see them in the movies, I'm not surprised that all people gather to see them at the movies."
Jake Coyle is an Associated Press writer.
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