SOUTH PORTLAND (AP) – Activists staged a demonstration Monday at the Regal Clarks Pond 8 Cinema near the Maine Mall to protest a film that they said promotes violence against the homeless.

About two dozen advocates for the homeless objected to a scene in the newly released “Date Movie” in which a young couple on a date yell “Bumfight!” and attack a homeless man.

“It’s a hate movie, not a date movie,” the protesters from Portland’s Preble Street Consumer Advocacy Project chanted as they sought unsuccessfully to meet with the theater manager.

The group, which at one point took the demonstration into the theater lobby, called for a boycott of the movie, which reviewers described as a spoof on the romantic comedy genre.

A message left at Regal Entertainment Group’s offices in Knoxville, Tenn., was not immediately returned.

“We are appalled that this movie, marketed primarily to teens and young adults, blatantly makes light of the national trend of violent assaults against homeless people, as popularized in the despicable Bumfights’ video series,” said Steve Huston, an organizer of the protest.

Huston noted that the release of the movie follows the murder of a homeless man in Florida and coincides with the beating and burning of a homeless man in Boston this past weekend.

The Preble Street activists cited a number of violent attacks on the homeless in Maine. They said the assaults have prompted the Maine Legislature to consider a pending measure to protect homeless people from hate violence.

AP-ES-03-06-06 1519EST