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"FAHRENHEIT 9/11" Producer To Speak At UW
- Green Bay
by Bob
Lowe
October 21, 2004
Controversial
author, filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore, whose
explosive documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," is the
largest grossing documentary of all time, will appear at the
Weidner Center on the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay campus
for two presentations at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday Oct. 23.
His
appearance is sponsored by Good Times Programming and the
university’s Office Student Life." Tickets, which
are in short supply, are $7 and can be secured by calling
the Weidner Center box office at 1-800-328-8587. Tickets are
limited to four per person.
Prior
to this appearance, Moore also will speak at the University
of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Multi-Activity Center at 1 p.m.
as part of his 60-city "Slacker Uprising Tour 2004 in
20 battleground states.
Moore has made no secret of the fact that his goal in producing
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is to defeat of President George
Bush on Nov. 2. The documentary presents a scathing review
of the Bush Administration’s war on terrorism in Iraq,
following the Sept. 11 airline attacks in New York and Washington,
D.C. by 19 terrorists, 15 of whom came from Saudi Arabia.
The film debuted at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where it
won the documentary category and was awarded the Palme d’Or
(Golden Palm), the festival’s highest award by an international
jury. As of October 2004, "Fahrenheit 9/11" has
grossed more than $120 million. It was released on DVD on
Oct. 5, with first day sales in excess of 2 million –
a record for this film genre.
The film contains numerous clips of graphic footage of military
and civilian casualties from the Iraq war, including dead
and mutilated bodies. Another portion of the films shows U.S.
soldiers with amputations or nerve damage and the agony of
parents who lost a son in Iraq. It also examines the Patriot
Act and profiled a soldier who said he will refused to go
to war to fight poor people all over the world.
Some claim "Fahrenheit 9/11" presents "a valuable
perspective on the last four years on the U.S. political scene"
(The Los Angeles Times) But "Fahrenheit 9/11" has
also been denounced by some critics as misleading propaganda.
Critics have said that the documentary’s claims that
the Bush Administration turned a blind eye on Saudi links
to terrorism and assisted some nationals from that country
to leave the U.S. after Sept. 11 has are unsubstantiated.
Calling himself "the original slacker" who never
used to vote, Moore said he has been responsible for registering
thousands of young voters. "I tell these slackers that
I understand and respect why they think politicians are not
worth the bother," Moore said on one of the many web
sites carrying his message. "I tell them I do not want
them to change their ways. Keep sleeping ‘till noon.
Keep drinking beer! Stay on the sofa and watch as much TV
as possible! But please, just for me on 11/2, I want you to
leave the house and give voting a try – just this once.
The stakes this time are just too high."
As an incentive, he has been offering clean underwear and
Ramen noodles to anyone who will vote in the upcoming elections.
This has led to the Michigan Republican Party filing criminal
charges with local prosecutors, claiming bribing people to
vote is illegal.
Local district attorneys have not taken the complaints very
seriously. One
of them noted that he is more concerned with people supplying
drugs than clean underwear and noodles.
"An Evening With Michael Moore" at UWGB will feature
a multimedia presentation whose focus also will be on promoting
voting. It will include clips from some of his films.
Moore first came to national attention in 1989 with the film,
"Roger & Me," which explored the impact of the
closure of General Motors’ Flint, Michigan plants on
the local economy. The title comes from Moore and his crew’s
repeated but unsuccessful efforts to secure an interview with
General Motors Chairman Roger Smith.
Since then, Moore has developed a trademark style of tackling
major issues with a sharp sense of humor while maintaining
a regular-guy attitude. The Yahoo! Movies website said Moore
has secured a reputation as "a razor-sharp humorist and
one of America’s most fearless political commentators."
Moore’s other films and documentaries include a short
follow-up of "Roger and Me" titled "Roger &
Me, Pets or Meat: A Return to Flint"; "Blood In
The Face," a documentary about extremist White Power
groups; "Canadian Bacon," a satiric comedy starring
John Candy about a U.S. president who fabricates a Cold War
against Canada (Candy died shortly after the film was completed);
"TV Nation," his first venture in to network TV
in 1994 that featured satiric news and commentary (NBC and
Fox both cancelled the program because of low rating).
In
1996, Moore wrote a book of political commentary titled "Downsize
This!: Random Thoughts From an Unarmed American." It
became a best-seller and Moore took his camera on the road
during the book tour and filmed scenes that were put into
another documentary titled "The Big One, "released
in 1998. It explored economic inequality in America.
Moore has also written two other books, "Stupid White
Men," and "Dude, Where’s My Country?"
In 1999, Moore returned to television with "The Awful
Truth," a blend of comedy and pointed political commentary
that was similar in style to TV Nation. In the fall of 2002,
Moore released his fourth feature film, "Bowling for
Columbine," a look at America’s obsession with
guns and violence in the wake of the fatal shootings at Columbine
High School in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. The
documentary won an Academy Award.
Moore was born to an Irish-Catholic family in 1954 in David,
Michigan, a suburb of Flint that was then the home of General
Motors’s largest manufacturing plants. He attended parochial
school until the age of 14. After transferring to Davison
High School, Moore developed an interest in student politics
that eventually led to his involvement in a lot of contemporary
social and political issues, such as job layoffs, the environment
and government subsidies to corporations. He served on the
Flint School Board at the age of 18, becoming one of the youngest
persons to occupy a public office.
He became active politically after becoming editor of the
Flint Voice alternative weekly newspaper. He continued his
career as a journalist, serving as editor of Mother Jones,
a leftist political journal based in San Francisco. He was
fired from the publication less than a year later for refusing
to run an article critical of the Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua
that he believed was both inflammatory and inaccurate.
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