Moviegoer went to see documentary showing positive side of Trump — then things got weird

Filmmaker Christopher Martini set out to help show Americans a different side of President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election with a documentary titled "The Man You Don't Know." Hawaii resident Kathy Forti was among the moviegoers around the country who joined the Republican president in checking out the film in its opening week.

Forti later notified Martini that while the film was informative, the moviegoing experience was altogether puzzling.

Forti, a psychologist, alleged that upon arriving at the Regal Maui Mall 30 minutes prior to the 12:15 p.m. showing on Oct. 26, she was informed that all of the seats in the theater save for those in the front row had been sold — a claim apparently reinforced by a digital seating chart that a theater employee showed.

'From their coordinated efforts, it felt planned.'

"We reluctantly purchased the two unsold seats in the front row, consoling ourselves that at least the seats were recliners and it couldn't be that bad," Forti wrote to Martini in a statement obtained by Blaze News. "However, upon entering the show close to starting time, we found the theater was completely empty."

It wasn't empty for long, though.

"Two women entered after us and sat further back," Forti's statement continued. "We wondered if perhaps a group had bought all the tickets and they were late arriving."

According to the psychologist, the two other women in the theater did their best to disrupt the showing, "hissing, laughing, and shouting such things as 'liar,' 'not true,' and other derogatory comments." The provocateurs allegedly stood in front of the screen at one point, then later sprayed an unidentified aerosol in another apparent provocation.

Despite the intervention of an usher, Forti indicated that the provocateurs remained until the end of the film.

Forti told Blaze News, "I believe the two women intentionally tried to intimidate us and drive us out of the theater. From their coordinated efforts, it felt planned."

Afterward, Forti claimed that she pressed the ticket desk for answers about the seating arrangements, only to discover that only four tickets had ultimately been purchased, which dispelled her previous suspicion that the seats had been bought up to preclude people from seeing the film but left her with even more questions.

'It feels like somebody is deciding for the country what they see and what they cannot see.'

"They never explained the sold-out vs. non-sold-out ticket screen we saw," said Forti. "Had we not gone back after the documentary to say something, we would never have known about the change in ticket screen seating chart."

"My friend and I turned to each other, wondering if we had just entered the Twilight Zone," the psychologist wrote to Martini.

Blaze News reached out to Regal Cinemas for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

When speaking about Forti's theater experience, Martini told Blaze News that his producer and co-writer, Joshua Macciello, has "been getting a lot of similar stories."

"This film could actually influence the election," said Martini. "I have a lot of people coming to me with similar stories to Kathy's. ... It makes one wonder if there's some sort of concerted effort on somebody's part to suppress this movie about Trump, which is being released right before an election across the country."

Martini's suspicions are heightened on account of "awful locations and screening times."

Macciello, the president of Global Ascension Studios, recently expressed his frustration to Dan Ball of "Real America" over the apparent refusal by certain theater circuits to screen the film.

"I mean, what's going on there?" said Macciello. "This is not a political movie. ... This is a movie about a man. It gives you an insight into him. And he happens to be in politics and running for president."

"In the present-day United States of America, it's very bizarre. It feels like somebody is deciding for the country what they see and what they cannot see. And clearly, somebody does not want [them] to see a film about President Trump right before the election," said Martini.

The documentary — billed as a "balanced, deeper portrayal of Trump as a scholar, successful entrepreneur, man of faith, and devoted family man" — features interviews with various people in Trump's orbit, including Lara Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Eric Trump, his granddaughter Kai Trump, Hulk Hogan, and Kyle Forgeard of the Nelk Boys.

Trump attended the premiere on Saturday with friends and members of his family.

When asked about his objective with the film, Martini indicated that the media has almost exclusively advanced negative depictions and narratives about Trump, which is troubling because "the truth always lies somewhere in the middle."

"Our goal with this was to show the other side," said the director, "coming from the people that he made a positive impact on."

Despite the apparent desire by leftist organizations and activists to keep the film content in theaters ideologically uniform, Martini indicated that intellectual diversity is ascendant.

"I think that there's very few people making the kinds of movies that right-leaning people, conservative-leaning people, you know, God-fearing people want to see," said Martini. "But all of that's changing."

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