In 1974, a White House transcriber finds the only copy of the infamous 18½-minute gap in Nixon’s Watergate tapes, but her attempts to leak it to the press run afoul of hippies, swingers, and nefarious forces.
18½ is a thriller-comedy and historical fiction feature film with an award-winning run of twenty film festivals. This week, see it on Hopewell Theater’s big screen.
To this day, no one knows who erased the 18½-minute gap in the Nixon Watergate tapes or why they were erased. Once the gap was discovered, Nixon’s presidency quickly unwound.
The film 18 ½ is historical fiction. None of the main characters seen in the movie ever existed. That said, the 18 ½-minute tape heard in the film are based on contemporaneous Nixon tapes and the historical record since that time. Sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
The film’s cast includes Willa Fitzgerald (Reacher), John Magaro (First Cow), Vondie Curtis Hall (Harriet), Catherine Curtin (Stranger Things), Richard Kind (Argo), Sullivan Jones (The Gilded Age), as well as the voices of Ted Raimi (Spider-Man), Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) and Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) as President Richard Nixon.
18½ screens this Tuesday, October 11 and Thursday, October 13 at Hopewell Theater. Thursday’s screening is followed by a live Directors Talk with filmmakers Daniel Moya and Dan Mirvish!
Prior to directing 18½, award-winning filmmaker and author Dan Mirvish made the critically-acclaimed features Bernard and Huey, Between Us, Open House, and Omaha (the movie).
He’s the author of The Cheerful Subversive’s Guide to Independent Filmmaking (Focal Press), frequent film school guest lecturer and cofounder of the Slamdance Film Festival. A former speechwriter for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, Dan has a master’s degree from USC film school, is a member of the Directors Guild of America, and has guest lectured at more than 50 film schools and universities.
Daniel Moya is a writer, director, producer, and actor from Long Island. After studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute for ten years, he graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Film/Television Production.
Daniel has made four independent feature films including Rental, Killer Kate!, and Scroll Back. Most recently, Daniel wrote the screenplay for and produced (p.g.a.) the acclaimed Watergate-era dark comedy 18½.
Get tickets for 18 ½ at Hopewell Theater Tuesday or Thursday here.
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