Special LABOR DAY Screening
Monday, September 7, 2026 • 7:00 PM • Arena Theater • 214 Main Street
Tickets: $15 General • $12 Arena Theater Members • Under 21 Free
Michael Moore’s groundbreaking 1989 documentary Roger & Me is a funny, angry and deeply human look at what happens to a community when the economic decisions affecting thousands of lives are made far away from the people who must live with the consequences.
The film follows Moore through his hometown of Flint, Michigan, after General Motors closes several automobile plants and eliminates thousands of jobs. As unemployment rises and the community struggles with poverty, foreclosures and displacement, Moore sets out on a seemingly simple mission: to get an interview with General Motors chairman Roger Smith.
What follows is part documentary, part satire and part portrait of an American community in crisis.
More than three decades later, the story feels strikingly familiar. Communities across America continue to wrestle with factory closures, automation, jobs moving elsewhere, rising housing and living costs, and a widening divide between corporate prosperity and the economic security of working families. The circumstances have changed, but many of the questions raised by Roger & Me—about work, dignity, community and who benefits from economic change—remain very much with us today.
Film Details
Director: Michael Moore
Release Year: 1989
Running Time: 91 minutes
Rating: R
Genre: Documentary
Country: United States
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Why Roger & Me?
In his 1941 State of the Union address, President Frankl
in D. Roosevelt described four fundamental freedoms that he believed people everywhere should enjoy.
One was Freedom from Want.
Roosevelt described it as an economic understanding that would provide every nation with “a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants.”
Nearly fifty years later, Roger & Me asked what happens when that economic security disappears.
The film explores questions that remain relevant today: What happens to a town when its major employer leaves? What responsibility does a corporation have to the community that helped build it? What does the loss of stable work mean for families, neighborhoods and local institutions? And how much economic security is necessary for people to truly be free?
Roger & Me does not offer simple answers. Instead, it uses humor, uncomfortable contrasts and the experiences of Flint residents to invite audiences to consider what Freedom from Want means in American life.
The Four Freedoms
On January 6, 1941, with much of the world already at war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Congress that the future should be founded upon four essential human freedoms:
Freedom of Speech and Expression
Freedom of Worship
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear
Roosevelt deliberately described these as freedoms for people “everywhere in the world.”
The Four Freedoms later helped shape international discussions about human rights and inspired Norman Rockwell’s famous series of paintings illustrating each freedom.
More than eight decades later, the questions behind the Four Freedoms remain remarkably current.
About Freedoms on Film
Freedoms on Film uses great movies as a starting point for exploring Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms and what those ideals mean today.
Each screening approaches one of the freedoms from a different perspective. The films are not intended to provide a single political viewpoint or a definitive answer. Instead, they invite us to watch, think, discuss and consider how ideas articulated more than eighty years ago continue to intersect with American life.
2026 Series
September 7 — Freedom from Want
Roger & Me
September 21 — Freedom of Worship
Inherit the Wind
October 12 — Freedom of Speech
All the President’s Men
October 26 — Freedom from Fear
The Great Dictator
November 2 — Democracy
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Five films. Four freedoms. One democracy.
