MEADVILLE, Pa. -- Partisan temperatures are rising in Meadville in the wake of a decision by a nonprofit community theater to cancel a screening of the controversial documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11."

The movie, which director Michael Moore acknowledges is intended to sway voters against President Bush, was scheduled to open the annual film series of the Academy Theatre, a restored 1886 showcase for performing arts and for independent and foreign films.

But executives of the foundation that runs the theater started getting calls from donors threatening to pull their funding if the movie went ahead as scheduled.

The board decided to postpone the scheduled screenings on Sept. 4 and 5 until after the Nov. 2 election. But the committee that runs the film series felt the movie would lose so much of its impact because of the delay (and the fact it will be released Oct. 5 on DVD) that it canceled the booking altogether.

Now, people protesting the cancellation of the movie are saying they will withdraw their financial support of the theater.

"They've upset hundreds of small donors and supporters. I go to the events and I contribute money to the theater, and I will not if this happens," said Meadville resident Jean Jones, who teaches political communication at Edinboro University and supports Sen. John Kerry, Bush's opponent in the presidential race.

"No matter how you look at it, it smells like censorship," Jones said. She saw the movie when it played in Erie, about 40 miles away, and had planned to see it again in Meadville.

The documentary never made it to four-screen commercial theater in Meadville, the county seat of Crawford County. It has grossed $115 million, more than five times what any previous documentary had grossed, and is one of the summer's major hits.

"We're caught in the middle," foundation president Ted Watts said. "All I can say is I hope we survive it. This has really polarized our community, and that's really unfortunate."

Don Goldstein, chairman of the theater's film series committee, said "Fahrenheit 9/11" was "far and away the most requested title" among the 650 people on its mailing list.

"From a programming point of view, it made a lot of sense to start the series with it. We knew we would do well with it financially, driven by the intense political interest in the movie," said Goldstein, an Allegheny College professor who acknowledges that he is "personally very active in the Kerry campaign in Crawford County."

Watts said the foundation board typically does not get involved in booking films at the theater. When members learned in late July that "Fahrenheit 9/11" would be shown, "we knew it was successful at the box office and that's pretty much what we looked at. The content matter was never really discussed."

At first, he said, complaints centered on the proximity of the screenings to the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Other people told him the movie reflected negatively on America and its soldiers.

"Not everything was accurate, but we came to realize there was some merit to some of the things we were hearing," said Watts, an attorney.

The discussion also turned to the propriety of a nonprofit community theater organization showing a film with a political agenda.

The theater has shown controversial films in the past, including "The Magdalene Sisters," which is critical of the Catholic Church, and Moore's gun-culture documentary "Bowling for Columbine," apparently without protest.

"Our mission is to enrich the culture of the community. It is not to take political postures," he said.

The charge of censorship doesn't bother him, Watts said.

"Censorship is when a governing body prevents someone from expressing his opinion. We have to look out for what's best for our theater and community. We're not censoring, we just think the timing's lousy."