A capacity crowd gathered in the Emmaus Theatre on Wednesday, September 25th for a special screening of a new film.
The film "War Game" imagines what it would be like if an event like the January 6th insurrection happened again in 2025.
The film follows a bipartisan group of U.S. defense, intelligence, and elected policy makers spanning five presidential administrations as they participate in an unscripted role play exercise. Portraying a fictional President of the United States and his advisors, they confront a political coup backed by rogue members of the U. S. military in the wake of a contested 2024 presidential election. Like actors in a thriller, but with profound, real world stakes, the players have only six hours to save American democracy.
Governor Josh Shapiro opened the event with an on stage conversation with one of the executive producers, Jonathan Steinberg. Their conversation focused on election integrity and the efforts to ensure free and fair elections in Pennsylvania.
"You should be mindful of the fact that there are people who want to attack our democracy and who want to use the good people of Pennsylvania to satisfy their political aims. You should be concerned about that, but you should be mindful that we're doing this work every day and that we're prepared to, again, have a free and fair, safe and secure election."
The event was organized by Wesley Barrett and Sarah Stauffer, owners of Wesley Works, and one of the film's producers, Mark DiCristofaro, an Emmaus graduate.
Barrett explained how it all came together:
"Whenever you have a unique opportunity, you gotta seize it, and Mark DiCristofaro, the producer of the film, was an employee of mine when he was in high school, a little bit 20 years later, Mark tells me, he calls me up, he's like, 'Hey, I'm working on a project that you'd probably be interested in.' He and I chat a lot. And he says, 'it's called War Game, and it's kind of about January 6th, I can't tell you much more.' I said, 'oh, yeah, okay.' So then it gets to the point of production, and he says, 'You know, we can actually get an event together for this. Do you have any interest?' And I said, 'oh, absolutely. This is perfect.' He says, 'Well, you know, it's going to be at places like Harvard, New York City, L.A. Would Emmaus fit in the schedule?' And I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you need from us, we're going to make this happen.' So yeah, we connected a bunch of dots and it all came together."
Producer Mark DiCristofaro has had award winning films at the Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, and Sundance, where this film premiered earlier this year. He explained his journey from Emmaus to Hollywood and his role in producing this film.
"So, you know, after Emmaus High School, I went on to Boston University to study film and I went right out to Los Angeles and after 16 years I found myself really working a lot in documentaries, and this documentary came along about two years ago and I just couldn't pass up the offer to work on something that felt really important in an important election year."
After the viewing, the audience was treated to a panel discussion from some of the participants moderated by Vet Voice Foundation's Janessa Goldbeck, who was leader of the simulation. Co-director Tony Gerber summed up his feelings about the message of the film.
"I think we're living in a circle the wagons moment that whether we're Republican or Democrat, I think there are various issues and various aspects of our democracy that we should be able to all agree are precious and worth fighting for. And that, to me, is the takeaway."
Barrett reached out to clubs at Emmaus High School to see if there was interest in helping with the logistics of the night, and the young Democrats and their advisors joined in acting as ticket scanners, advertisers and ushers for the almost capacity crowd of 380 people.
Tom Warnke, a former teacher of DiCristofaro, reflected on the importance of the film.
"Well, one of my ex-students from many years ago is one of the producers of this film. And from what I understand, I think it's something that needs to be seen by an awful lot of people."
Governor Shapiro's closing remarks captured the relevance of the film at this moment.
"And so I just want to salute all of you for being here tonight, for giving a damn about this republic that they worked so hard to create 248 years ago, and we've been working to keep it every year since. I care so deeply about this, and I care so deeply about civic engagement, and you all being here tonight demonstrates your engagement in that process."
"We may have different political views, we may have different choices for candidates, but the fact is we're all in common purpose. As Americans who love our freedom and cherish our democracy in this country, and we're gonna keep fighting for all that together. I'm grateful for all of you here in Emmaus tonight, and I'm grateful you're here tonight."
War Game is now streaming on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video
