Protests Planned at Local Showings of “Zero Dark Thirty”

Protesters plan to stand outside theaters in West Hartford and New Haven when the new film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” opens this weekend.

The Oscar-nominated movie, by director Kathryn Bigelow, depicts the events leading up to the killing of Osama bin Laden. It has drawn criticsm for its graphic scenes of waterboading and other forms of torture during the hunt for bin Laden.

“The movie’s inappropriate – and dangerous – implication that the use of torture by U.S. authorities produced critical intelligence, including the finding Osama bin Laden, is inaccurate,” said Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

The group has organized a series of protests across the nation this weekenmd, when the film opens nationally. At a screening in Washington this week, activists in orange prison-style jumpsuits ffiliated with Amnesty International and other groups protested outside the film’s Washington D.C. premiere.

Volunteers in West Hartford, led by John Humphries, a local activist with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, will distribute leaflets on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to noon., in advance of the noon screening at Bowtie Cinema at Blue Black Square.

In New Haven, local acitivist Allie Perry will lead a similar protest on Sunday from 2:30-3:15 p.m., in advance of the 3:15 p.m. showing, at Criterion Cinema on Temple Street.