Robert Fitzpatrick was a follower of the late radio evangelist Harold Camping, and he spent $140,000 of his own money warning New Yorkers of the impending Rapture. We Will Forget documents Fitzpatrick’s journey to Times Square on his predicted doomsday, where he awaits the end of the world amid just a few fellow believers, and an onslaught of cameras, reporters and amused onlookers. Crafted with sympathy, the US filmmaker Garret Harkawik’s portrait of Fitzpatrick is an engrossing and affecting glimpse of the strange moment when misplaced certainty meets reality.
What happens when the Rapture fails to come as scheduled?
Director: Garret Harkawik
14 May 2015
videoThe future
What’s the healthiest way to handle a creeping feeling that the world is ending?
15 minutes
videoSubcultures
In a remote town near Area 51, UFO believers and locals contemplate the beyond
12 minutes
videoSocial psychology
How does a city process tragedy? Ordinary people’s first raw responses to 9/11
8 minutes
videoFairness and equality
When does US news ignore a terror plot? When the target is called Islamberg
30 minutes
videoDeath
In 2009, a man arrived in an Irish town with a plan to disappear forever
19 minutes
videoFilm and visual culture
Why do we crave the awful futures of apocalyptic fiction?
5 minutes
videoIllness and disease
At 60, Mark decides that the best way to face cancer is to start chasing tornados
20 minutes
videoHistory
What would American fascism look like? A 1939 New York rally offered more than a hint
7 minutes
videoMeaning and the good life
Coffer traded his condo for a log cabin decades ago, and he hasn’t looked back
6 minutes