SubLunar Movie Night - The Leader (China's Karl Marx Anime)

Name: SubLunar Movie Night - The Leader (China's Karl Marx Anime)
Start: 2026-04-17T18:30:00-04:00
Location: 116 Spadina Ave, Downtown Toronto, ON, Canada, Ontario

Schedule

Fri, 17 Apr, 2026 at 06:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

116 Spadina Ave, Downtown Toronto, ON, Canada, Ontario | Toronto, ON

Please Join us for a SubLunar movie night, where we showcase films we find interesting, and followed up with an open group discussion.
This time we'll be showing "The Leader," an anime created by the Communist Party of China to inspire younger generations to take interest in Karl Marx.
While obviously a propaganda film, and problematic even from a Marxist perspective (because it serves to reinforce China's particular, skewed, understanding of Marxism,) it's animated nature, target audience, and portrayal of Marx as an anti-authoritarian figure (by an authoritarian government) make the film worth talking about:
𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭: Free
𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 116 Spadina Ave - Room 204
Buzz 0004 downstairs to get in.
𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: Friday April 17th, 6:30 - Screening starts at 7:00, ends at 10:00pm, with a 15 minute intermission. Discussion and hangouts after.
Despite the format, the anime is fairly dense, with a lot of philosophy crammed in. Feel free to take breaks and just hang out, we're not taking this THAT seriously. ;)
Snacks provided, drinks for sale.
𝐖𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
"The Leader (Chinese: 领风者; pinyin: Lǐng fēng zhě) is a 2019 Chinese donghua web series based on the life of German philosopher Karl Marx. Commissioned by the Chinese Communist Party, a production team was formed in 2016 which included propaganda departments, scholars of Marxism, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The series was announced in 2018 by the streaming service Bilibili as part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth. The seven-episode series was created to attract young people to Marxism, and it was streamed weekly on Bilibili between January 28, and March 4, 2019. A webcomic version was produced by Zhong Jun, the series' chief scriptwriter.
The series' announcement attracted international interest, and its promotional video had over 200,000 views on its release day. The series had a mixed response; the first episode had over 2.8 million views in one day, and the series as a whole had at least 5.5 million views. Although it was criticized for poor animation, propagandism, and its depiction of Marx, it has sparked a discussion on Marxism and labor rights in China."