Advance Screening of Ali Benefits Kodak/Howard Bingham Scholarship

Here’s your chance to see one of the most anticipated motion pictures of the year—well before it arrives in theaters. Kodak Professional, a division of Eastman Kodak Co., and Rochester Institute of Technology sponsor an advance screening of Sony Pictures Studios’ movie Ali, starring Will Smith.

Showtime is at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 21, inside Eastman Kodak’s Theater on the Ridge, 200 Ridge Road West. Doors open at 6 p.m.

The movie, which chronicles the life of legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali, will officially be released in movie theaters on Dec. 25, Christmas Day. World-renowned photographer Howard Bingham is responsible for bringing the advance screening to Rochester. Bingham, a long-time friend of Ali’s, spent years photographing the professional boxer’s career. He is also an executive producer of the Ali film.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Kodak/Howard Bingham Scholarship at RIT, an annual award established for minority students in the bachelor of fine arts program at RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. The scholarship is made possible by an endowment from Kodak Professional. This 2001 scholarship winner is Celeste Holt-Walters, a fourth-year advertising photography major from Kingston, Mass.

Tickets for the Dec. 21 screening are limited and can be purchased for $25 each at Campus Connections, located in the Student Alumni Union on RIT’s Henrietta campus. 

Anyone purchasing four tickets or more will be invited to join Bingham and a surprise guest from the cast of Ali for a reception prior to the screening.