Michael Moore: 'Capitalism is anti-Jesus'

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/22/news/economy/michael_moore_capitalism_love.fortune/

Michael Moore: 'Capitalism is anti-Jesus'
In a Fortune interview, the flame-throwing director explains why his new film brings his religion into the picture for the first time.
By Scott Cendrowski, reporter
September 23, 2009

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The title of Michael Moore's latest film, "Capitalism: A Love Story," may be ironic, but there's nothing subtle about the message, right from the opening scenes.

The two-hour documentary begins with footage of a family being evicted from their foreclosed home by a half dozen police officers. Then he presents more incriminating evidence: a bankrupt Chicago factory where workers are denied pay, a privately run juvenile prison that paid off judges to give convicts longer sentences, and last year's $700 billion bailout of the banking system.

Moore, 55, ends with this conclusion: "Capitalism is an evil and you can't regulate evil. You have to replace it with something that is good for everyone."

The writer-director-partisan, who rose to prominence after his 1989 takedown of GM in the documentary "Roger & Me" and his mainstream hit "Fahrenheit 9/11" in 2004, spoke with Fortune on the eve of his film's Wednesday opening in New York City and Los Angeles (it opens nationwide on Oct. 2).

Moore talked about how his Catholic upbringing influenced the film, why Corporate America still irks him, and how to fix his economically troubled home state of Michigan. Excerpts:

You've said you started filming "Capitalism: A Love story" a year and a half ago. Did the film change after Lehman went bankrupt and the stock market crashed?

I've thought about this for 20 years. Ever since "Roger and Me," I've felt the problem here is an economic system that is unjust and unfair. It's not democratic. And I keep making these films but I dance around the subject: it's General Motors here, the health-care industry there, and I started thinking, "Why don't I just name it?"

I started out wanting to explore the premise of capitalism being anti-American, and anti-Jesus, meaning it's not a Democratic economy. And it's not run with a moral or ethical code. But when the crash happened, it added a third plot line: not only is capitalism anti-American and anti-Jesus, it doesn't work.

[The wealthiest Americans] proved that the free market is something they really don't believe in, they don't believe in competition, they actually do believe in socialism, that we the people should use our tax dollars to keep them in their mansions and their yachts.

I think they exposed themselves to a lot of middle class people who did believe in their system and they showed everybody the Ponzi scheme that it is. It's set up like a pyramid, so that the richest 1% at the top have more financial wealth than the 95% beneath them.

But the trick here is to get the 95% believing that if they work hard and slave away, they would get to the top of the pyramid. Of course, as we know, only a few people can stand on top of a pyramid. The fact that this crash exposed our economic system as a corrupt scam was something I didn't intend on happening while I was making the movie.

How is this film different from your previous ones?

I talk about my religion, which I have never talked about. I think religion should be a private matter. But I thought it was important to this discussion. I'm not a proselytizer, but I do have very strong beliefs and these beliefs were formed not in the school of Karl Marx, but in the Catholic Church. Priests and nuns taught me these lessons of how we're to treat each other, how we're to treat the poor, and how we're to divide up the pie.

I'm one of the few people on the left who's been fortunate to have access to a mainstream audience. I'm always thinking about ways to communicate with them and stay true to myself, because I am them, and I come from Middle America. I have very conservative values that go contrary to the fictional character that's been created of me by Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and the Fox News Channel. I've been with the same woman for 30 years, I don't invest my money in anything but a savings account.

Has your view of corporate America changed since your first film, "Roger & Me," opened in 1989?

I've become all the more agitated, especially with what I've seen and with having a peak behind the curtain. Having the life I do, working in an industry that's owned by major corporations. [Moore's film is distributed by a unit of Liberty Media, whose CEO John Malone is a formidable capitalist.]

Just a couple weeks ago, the film was going to debut in the Toronto Film Festival in the Elgin Theatre. Visa sponsors the theater, so during the festival it's called the Visa Screening Room. So they had [the film studio] call me to ask, Is there any reference against Visa in the movie? And this is while they're still deciding whether to put the movie in the festival.

Are there any good things happening in American business?

I see very little support for the things we really need to be investing in. Where's the cure for cancer? Where's the bullet train to take us from New York to L.A. in 10 hours? Where are the alternative energy systems to save us when we run out of oil?

I wish these were the priorities. But when Wall Street sucks up our best mathematicians, physicists, engineers, when they should be working on these other things and instead they're working to create derivatives ... c'mon. We're in deep, deep trouble. We need the best minds working on these things.

You live in Michigan, where you were born and raised. How can Detroit be saved?

It revolves around good-paying jobs. We've allowed the middle class to be decimated over the last 30 years. We've allowed our industrial infrastructure to collapse. So instead of initially giving bailout money to a General Motors that was never going to change or to banks so they can cover losses from crazy betting schemes, this money should be going to helping to create jobs in places like Detroit. People need to work. There are so many things we need to build and create for the 21st century.

I would do what my friend Dan Kildee is doing in Flint, Michigan. He's the county treasurer and he's taken over 9,000 homes that have been abandoned. He's tearing them down and his idea essentially shrank the city in physical size. They restored neighborhoods by building parks, fields and woods.

For crime in Detroit: what is the chance, if the person down the street is making $50,000 to $60,000 a year, [that he would] break into your home to steal your TV?

You tried to get Hank Paulson on the phone in the film, but weren't successful. If you got him on the phone today, what would you ask?

If I had a chance to talk to him, I'd want him to come clean and tell me the truth about how he rigged this whole thing. Tell us what happened because we don't know the details. How did so many Goldman people end up in the administration? How is it that Goldman's chief competitors are left to die -- not bailing out Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns falls apart, Merrill Lynch is absorbed into Bank of America -- and look who's left standing: the company that's got all their boys inside the administration.

If capitalism is evil, what's the solution?

Some people say to me, democracy is not an economic system, it's a political system. My answer to that is, you think capitalism has nothing to do with politics?

Let's quit talking like we're back in Economics 101. Capitalism is not only an economic system that legalizes greed, it also has at its foundation a political system of capitalism that is, "We have to buy the political system because we don't have enough votes. We're only 1% of the votes. We have to buy the people, and we have to buy the people by convincing them if they work hard, they too can be rich one day." [Americans] have gone along with it for the last 30 years.

Q&A: Michael Moore

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/interviews_profiles/e3i85f38c299a3a459a9f350da8eb4a3674

Q&A: Michael Moore
By Matthew Belloni
Aug 18, 2009

Since bursting onto the documentary scene 20 years ago with "Roger & Me," a blistering critique of General Motors, Michael Moore has directed the highest-grossing documentary of all time (2004's "Fahrenheit 9/11") and become a professional populist provocateur. The Flint, Mich., native is now busy finishing "Capitalism: A Love Story," his take on the U.S. financial crisis, which will premiere next month at the Venice and Toronto film festivals ahead of its wide release Oct. 2.

The Hollywood Reporter: Your new film was announced in May 2008 as a follow-up to "Fahrenheit 9/11" that would look at America's role in the world. Then the economy tanked. Do you feel pressure to make movies that respond to the zeitgeist?

Michael Moore: That was our cover. From the spring of '08, we were always doing a film about capitalism and corporate America. But, as you've seen from the recent revelations about the health insurance industry's secret campaign to attack my last film (2007's "Sicko"), I have to be extremely dodgy in order to outsmart these corporate guys. I had no way of knowing in May of 2008 that the economy would crash four months later. We were right in the middle of this Wall Street movie when it happened.

THR: The conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that in tough economic times, moviegoers want an escape. Is there a big audience for a film that looks at the financial crisis?

Moore: I have no doubts that people will want to come to a movie that goes after, with humor and reckless abandon, those bastards who've made their lives miserable. They deserve a night out at the movies where the movie is on their side.

THR: Given your history with "Roger & Me," what was your reaction to the initial bailout of GM, its subsequent bankruptcy and the firing of CEO Rick Wagoner?

Moore: All my films, in one way or another, speak to my experience of growing up in the hometown of General Motors. As for GM's demise, I tried to warn people about that some 20 years ago. Nothing made me happier than seeing President Obama fire the head of GM. It was every Flint boy's dream come true. They arrogantly kept making lousy cars that few people wanted to drive. They fought every safety measure from mandatory turn signals to controls that would protect the melting of our polar ice caps. They fired tens of thousands of people over the years for the short-term benefit of making their balance sheet appear to be in profit. That was a fraud of major proportions, and to date, no one has yet to go to prison.

THR: You supported President Obama in the election. How do you grade his response to the financial crisis and the health care issue? How about congressional Democrats?

Moore: I'm still in a stupor of stunned ecstasy that Obama won. And I approve of most everything he's done, from apologizing to the Iranians for America overthrowing their democratically elected president in 1953 to appointing Kumar (actor Kal Penn of the "Harold and Kumar" movies) to a White House position. He is doing the best he can with the mess he inherited, and I and millions of others are counting on him never to forget that he came from the working class and that his people need him now more than ever. As for the congressional Democrats, what a bunch of losers -- weak, scared, stupid. They had better get a clue pretty quick or the Dark Forces will return.

THR: Bill Maher recently said that "America is stupid" and "too dumb to be governed." Do you agree?

Moore: Eight years ago I wrote a book called "Stupid White Men." In that book, I wrote a chapter entitled "Idiot Nation." I think that says it all. Sad, sad, sad.

THR: Have you ever considered leaving the U.S.?

Moore: Thank you for asking! I had never considered this idea until you mentioned it, and now that you have, it doesn't sound like such a bad idea! I guess if I were going to live outside the U.S., I would live in Texas.

THR: What's the No. 1 thing you want to teach your kids?

Moore: Never trust anyone from Texas.

THR: In your opinion, what's the single worst legacy of George W. Bush?

Moore: That he has yet to be arrested for committing the worst crime the leader of a nation can commit: lie to the people and convince them to invade another country and kill its people with absolutely no provocation. There are 8,662 parents who might better answer this question.

THR: Your films are big boxoffice draws, and you won an Oscar for 2002's "Bowling for Columbine," but you've always been considered an outsider to the entertainment community. Do you like Hollywood?

Moore: Yes. I've met only very nice people out here, and if I wouldn't miss the 20-below winters, I'd live here for sure.

THR: What's the last movie you saw? The last book you read?

Moore: A Norwegian film called "Troubled Water." Best drama I've seen this year. The last book was "The Coming Insurrection" (a French leftist call-to-arms manifesto that has been labeled a "manual for terrorism" by the French government). I'm also reading the daily newspaper religiously, considering how there won't be any to read a year from now.

THR: There were reports you were feuding with Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who executive produced "Fahrenheit," "Sicko" and "Capitalism." Will you work with them again?

Moore: In 20 years of knowing the brothers, I have had only one fight with them, and that was over who would get the last cannoli.

Review: 50 Reasons Not to Vote for Bush

From The Vault - Via GayWired.com:

Review: 50 Reasons Not to Vote for Bush

50 Reasons To Get Very Angry
by L. A. Vess

For some reason, my readers don't seem to like it when I rant about politics. I can understand. Politics is far less interesting than sex (though often dirtier), or relationship issues, or humorous happenings of gay life. Political rants, by their nature, tend to offend and annoy people. So unless you are a so-called 'political columnist' - it is usually best to just ignore the subject. Until, that is, you go stark-raving mad and just can't keep your mouth shut any longer...
I'm stark-raving mad.

This isn't to say that I've gone insane. No, I'm just so pissed off that I'm seriously in danger of having my own head spontaneously combust. I'm angry for so many reasons, and at so many people, that I feel like I'm flying to pieces in a zillion different directions. Mostly, however, I am angry at one person in particular - myself. I am mad as hell at my ignorant, complacent, turn-the-other-cheek, somebody-else's-problem American self.

In the past two weeks, my smug self-assurance that I was one of those Americans who was actually "educated" about politics has all come crashing down. There are three particular things that have sparked my near-incoherent rage at my own lack of political education. First, of course, Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11. Second, the wide, wide world of Blogs. And last, and most notably, a very provocative book entitled 50 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush.

Considering the wide spread media coverage of Moore's epic documentary on George Bush and all things Bush related - I won't go into detail on Fahrenheit 9/11. I will simply say that watching this film was one of the most disturbing experiences of my life. Hell, I'm a born and bred Democrat and I still found it difficult to believe that Moore wasn't making some of this shit up. I hate the Shrub with a personal passion I have never felt toward any human before in my life. Just hearing some of the words that came directly out of his mouth in clips from the film was enough to make me want to run to the bathroom to be sick. THIS man is our President? The President of the United States, land of the free, home of the brave and all that? This man, who sat frozen in inaction and idiocy, reading a book to a bunch of kids for almost ten minutes after being told that the World Trade Center had been hit by terrorists? This man is the leader of the free world???

Regardless of my gut reactions to the horrors of what I saw in the film, it wasn't until I actually did some heavy research - and found all the documented, hardcore evidence from multiple sources backing him up - that I really believed Moore wasn't just blowing things out of proportion. Once I figured out that this rather loony guy was telling the truth, even if in rather a one-sided manner, I got quietly angry.

While researching Moore's documentary, I found a number of new political-oriented blogs that I had not yet come across. Some of these were recommended to me as research sites by a friend of mine in Europe. One is http://www.cosmiciguana.com - a strange name for one of the most fear-provoking web blogs I've ever read. Reading the simple posts and related news stories that grace the pages of this site daily is enough to put terror into the heart of any freedom loving American. Then there is http://www.counterpunch.org/, which is kind of an online magazine/blog filled full of facts, figures and powerful stories of the "real" America - and the real people who run it. After spending a week running around these blogs, even taking everything with a heaping spoon of salt, I went from being quietly angry to loudly angry - very, very fast.

Then I received a copy of 50 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush, a book with a rather humorous cover all about why George Bush and pretty much the entire Bush administration are, well, quite simply evil bastards. After reading only a few pages, I transitioned straight to screaming mad. In fact, my partner had to excuse herself to run to Starbucks several times just to escape my full-volume tirades that exploded uncontrollably from my mouth every few pages. Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is more boldly provocative than any book, of course, and there is certainly nothing like the in-your-face realness of film. However, there is just something about having 201 pages full of documented information on the Bush administration’s greed, corruption and complete disregard for humanity that makes your blood boil like nothing else.

This very informative tell-all book by Robert Sterling of http://www.konformist.com/. Sterling's site is a mixture of humor and horror, conspiracy theories and shocking truths. Hell, most of Konformist's conspiracy theories probably are shocking truths. Sterling's book, however, is just cold, hard reasons to be very angry at the state of this country - and the Shrub's contribution to it. Fifty of them, laid out in a nice, neat and easily referenced format. Each and every "reason" he lists in this book why you should NOT vote for Bush - is also a reason why you should be extremely angry that Bush managed to get into the White House in the first place. But it isn't Bush that you should be angry at. You should be, like I am, stark-raving mad at yourself.

We should all be angry at ourselves for allowing this travesty to take place. We have a president in office who did not get elected. We have a president (and Vice-President) who uses his governmental office to gift his 'buddies' with seats of power and millions in blood money. We have a president who doesn't give a f*ck about any American who makes less than half a million a year - or less than a million if they don't contribute directly to his campaign fund. We have a President who took us to war over a commodity - and against the will of the United Nations. And we put him there. Those who voted for him are most guilty, those who voted for Nader have their own circle of shame, and even those who voted for Gore are guilty of not making sure their ELECTED PRESIDENT actually made it to Washington. We just sat back and let the founding Democratic process of our nation - the ability to elect the leader of this country - become nothing more than a pathetic mockery.

We marched on Washington for civil rights. We marched on Washington for gay rights. We marched on Washington for women's rights. But when the most basic of our rights as citizens was trodden underfoot like so much garbage - we stayed at home, threw up our hands and said "oh well, that's just how it is."

I say it is time we took the first step forward on that march that we should have had back in 2000. It is not enough just to say you'll vote against Bush in November. It isn't even enough to have John Kerry win that election (if that is even possible considering that our votes mean practically nothing to a rigged, Republican owned electronic voting machine). John Kerry may not be George Bush, but he is a similar creature. Yale bred, Skull & Bones raised, with money flowing through his veins - there is little that is better about John Kerry as President other than that he is not George Bush. If George Bush is the color red (appropriate I would say), then John Kerry is just a pale blush.

John Kerry is not the solution, he is merely a temporary stop-gap figurehead to slow this country from its swift demise into a capitalist dictatorship. Even if he is elected, little real change will happen during his reign. He is just too much like Bush, and too much like every modern president in the last century. Until this country can put real Americans - honest, hard-working, blue collar people in offices of power - no real change can happen. We have to take this country out of the hands of corporate money and put it back into the hands of the American people. As the now lamented former presidential candidate Howard Dean said - it is time to take our country back.

Michael Moore to tackle economy

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i85a08b80d9eabe09d311f7d0f6ef5a2d

Michael Moore to tackle economy
Next doc to have an end-of-the-empire tone, sources say
By Steven Zeitchik
Nov 13, 2008

When Paramount Vantage and Overture announced Michael Moore's long-gestating follow-up to "Fahrenheit 9/11" in May, executives stressed the film's foreign-policy scope. "This is going to tackle what's going on in the world and America's place in it," Paramount Vantage chief Nick Meyer said.

But as the political winds shifted in the months before the election -- and gusted after it -- Moore subtly began reorienting his movie. Instead of foreign policy, the film's focus now is more on the global financial crisis and the U.S. economy.

The untitled movie will contain an end-of-the-empire tone, say those familiar with the project, and Moore no doubt hopes that this will give it a more general feel that will untether it from a specific political moment.

But some political and entertainment experts wonder how much Moore's incredulousness and occasional pessimism about the state of U.S. policy, which served the filmmaker well during the George W. Bush years, will play in the current hopeful climate brought on President-elect Barack Obama.

"If Moore offers a prescription for how to improve things, he may indeed find an audience that at this moment is eager for change," said Craig Minassian, an entertainment consultant and former Bill Clinton aide. "But it's going to be hard for him. What this election shows is what's right with America, and sometimes what Michael Moore does is highlight what's wrong with America."

In the meantime, a focus on the collapsing markets brings its own risk, Minassian said. "The problem with the financial crisis is that it's changing so quickly. I'm not sure how relevant is going to be in six months, and I'm not sure if people want to hear it; my sense is they already have a pretty good idea of a lot of the people who are to blame for it."

An election favoring the Democrats would remove some of the factors that put Moore in vogue both in the U.S. and abroad during the Bush years -- and pushed his three theatrical movies during that time to more than $300 million in worldwide boxoffice.

It's worth noting that Moore famously shoots a lot of footage and makes many critical decisions later in the production process, so the tone could still shift; it's tricky to know what any Moore movie will ultimately look like before he completes the film.

Overture and Vantage declined comment.

Still, Moore is feverishly shooting, and the movie is expected to come out as early as this spring, with Vantage and Overture hoping to capitalize on the current high levels of political awareness.

Moore has also said that in some ways he sees the movie less as a sequel to the Middle East-themed "Fahrenheit 9/11" than as a bookend to "Roger & Me," the director's breakthrough nearly two decades ago. That movie featured the U.S. economy and the auto industry at its center, and that, if nothing else, could again prove a timely theme.

Slacker Uprising

Friends,

As you may have heard, I've decided to make my new film, "Slacker Uprising," available for free to everyone in the United States and Canada. It is the first time ever that a major feature-length film is debuting as a free download on the internet -- legally. I am doing this for two reasons:

1. Next year it will be 20 years since my first film, "Roger & Me," so I'd like to give those of you who've supported my work over the years a thank you gift in the form of a brand new movie; and

2. I hope the release and wide distribution of this new movie will help to bring out millions of young and new voters on November 4th.

"Slacker Uprising" takes place in the wake of "Fahrenheit 9/11," during the run-up to the 2004 election, as I traveled for 42 days across America, visiting 62 cities in a failed attempt to remove George W. Bush from office. My goal was to help turn out a record number of young voters and others who had never voted before. (That part was a success. Young adults voted in greater numbers than in any election since 18-year-olds were given the right to vote. And the youth vote was the only age group that John Kerry won.)

What I encountered during the tour and the filming was both inspiring and frightening, so I thought, hey, this might make for a funny and enlightening movie! Each night, thousands would show up to volunteer in the Slacker Army against Bush. This drove local Republicans nuts. In one state they tried to have me arrested. At two colleges, rich donors offered to donate more money to the college if they would ban me from campus. Nearly a half-dozen universities kept the Slacker Uprising tour off their campuses. But there was no stopping this movement. By the time we got to Florida, 16,000 people a night were showing up.

It was clear that young people were the ones who were going to save the day -- just as they are in this year's election.

On Tuesday, September 23rd, you will be able to stream, download, or burn a DVD of "Slacker Uprising," free of charge. The distribution is being organized by Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films (they're the great people behind "OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" and "WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price").

To sign up for the download of "Slacker Uprising," click here. You have my blanket permission to share the movie with your friends, to set up screenings in your communities or theaters, to show it on your campuses -- all at no charge. I encourage you to rally voters with it, to raise funds for your favorite candidates, to air it on your local cable access channels or web broadcasts. You can also click here to request a free DVD of "Slacker Uprising" for your school or university library.

As I said, this is a movie for you, my fans -- a little 97-minute digital treat that I think you'll really enjoy. I hope you'll check out SlackerUprising.com and download it a week from today, next Tuesday, September 23rd.

Thanks again for coming to my movies all these years. It's meant a lot to me. I feel very privileged and blessed, and I am honored to be in this "virtual" community with you as we try to reclaim our beloved country.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. The world premiere of "Slacker Uprising" will take place in one of the great slacker capitals of this country, Ann Arbor, Michigan, this Thursday at 5pm at the historic Michigan Theater. Admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis. If you're in the neighborhood, hope to see you there!

P.P.S. If you live outside the U.S. and Canada, I'm sorry that I don't own the rights to make this film available to you for free. But it will be coming to a theater, video store or television network near you soon.

P.P.P.S. If you are not part of the "downloadable" generation, I am making a low-cost DVD of "Slacker Uprising" available at Amazon, Netflix and your local stores in October.

Michael Moore making '9/11' sequel

http://www.variety.com/VR1117985577.html

Tue., May 13, 2008
Michael Moore making '9/11' sequel
Documentary to be released in 2009
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK, ANNE THOMPSON

Michael Moore is making a sequel to "Fahrenheit 9/11" for Overture Films and Paramount Vantage, which will shop the project to international buyers when the Cannes Film Festival and market get under way today.

The two companies are co-financing and co-producing the untitled doc, which will be released next year. Overture will distribute the film domestically, while Vantage will handle international.

Moore may be leaving the Weinstein Co. -- where he made his last two films, including "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- but Overture and Vantage are no strangers to the filmmaker. Overture CEO Chris McGurk and chief operating officer Danny Rosett were both at MGM and United Artists, home of Moore's "Bowling for Columbine."

Moore also knows Vantage topper Nick Meyer, former president of Lionsgate's international arm. Lionsgate teamed with Bob and Harvey Weinstein and distributed "Fahrenheit 9/11" after Disney refused to let Miramax do so. Lionsgate again teamed with the Weinsteins to distribute Moore's most recent docu, "Sicko."

"Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing indictment of George W. Bush's war on terrorism and a hit at the worldwide box office, won the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2004. "Bowling for Columbine" also played at Cannes, and "Sicko" preemed at the fest last year.

Moore's new doc could play at Cannes next year, if it isn't released earlier in the spring. He's already at work on the film.

"Clearly, we have a movie of global appeal here. Michael Moore is a very talented filmmaker, and this is a branded property," Meyer said, adding that the Weinsteins helped build that brand.

Sequel will pick up where "Fahrenheit 9/11" left off. In the time since, Bush's popularity has plummeted, while the Iraq war continues and the economy falters.

"It's a vote of confidence on Michael's part and a great partnership for all of us," Rosett said. "There is a voracious appetite for this kind of commentary."

Moore has made three of the five top-grossing documentaries of all time. "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the highest-grossing docu ever domestically, earning $119.1 million. It grossed another $100 million at the international box office.

Moore's decision not to make his next film with the Weinstein Co. comes after "Sicko" failed to ignite at the box office. The film, which took on the U.S. health care system, grossed $24.5 million domestically and $11.2 million internationally. Topically, the film didn't resonate with overseas auds.

Deal strengthens the relationship between Vantage and Overture. Last year, the two entered into an exclusive international distribution deal that gives Overture access to Vantage's international sales division, as well as the distrib arm of Paramount Pictures Intl.

Vantage will likely keep distribution rights to certain overseas territories after selling off the rest.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein will get an exec producing credit.

Michael Moore breaks his silence

Thanks to Rense.com for forwarding the following...

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/123.html

Michael Moore breaks his silence

An obvious, common sense question that no one will answer

Michael Moore, the maker of "Sicko" and "Fahrenheit 911," has been widely criticized for his apparent lack of interest in examining the details of the 9/11 cover story.

This may have been the case in the past, but things have clearly changed. In this short video, Moore asks an obvious common sense question that no one seems to be able to answer:

"Why can't we see the Pentagon videos from 9/11?"

The Pentagon is surrounded by dozens of video security cameras and yet except for one useless clip, none of this footage has ever been released. Why not?

What struck the Pentagon on 9/11? Whatever it was it failed to leave the wreckage of an airliner.

Moore’s ‘Sicko’ is incredibly persuasive

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19378252/

Moore’s ‘Sicko’ is incredibly persuasive
Health care documentary shows that in U.S., it's all about the Benjamins
REVIEW
By John Hartl
Film critic
MSNBC contributor
June 25, 2007

“Who are we?” might be a better (if less jazzy) title for “Sicko,” Michael Moore’s two-hour meditation on the sickly qualities of American health care.

In retrospect, the entire movie seems to be moving toward that plaintive, deceptively simple question. As Moore searches for a definition of our national identity, the question generates remarkable resonance because it transcends so many boundaries and political positions.

In a country so wealthy and seemingly progressive, why should anyone be forced to sacrifice body parts because they can’t pay their medical bills? A man loses his life savings because he has a series of heart attacks. A suffering woman is thrown into the streets because she has nothing. A group of 9/11 survivors fail to get the care they need for various pollution-related problems.

Moore builds his case largely by demonstrating that even Americans who have health insurance are at risk. They can be denied coverage for any number of fine-print reasons, and they can be victims of a quota system. Some agents are told to turn down a percentage of requests no matter what the reasons. As for the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance, good luck.

He also shows, in vivid and refreshing detail, how other countries deal with the problem. In France and England, coverage is virtually free for all citizens. In Cuba, three 9/11 survivors approach Guantanamo Bay (figuring that detainees get the best health care) and finally find relief at an astonishingly receptive Havana hospital.

Moore doesn’t say a lot about taxes, and he concedes that Canada has a poor reputation because of long waits for medical appointments. But he rounds up plenty of Canadians who couldn’t be happier with their system. Clearly, many other countries have found a solution that works far better than the crippled — and sometimes literally crippling — U.S. system.

It’s this human toll that makes the strongest impression. As he did in “Fahrenheit 9/11” and his Oscar-winning “Bowling for Columbine,” Moore connects the dots by showing the impact of political decisions on individual lives. When a man who has lost two fingertips is told that he will have to come up with $12,000 to restore one of them and $60,000 for the other, he uses his partially mutilated hand to illustrate the choice he was forced to make.

What comes through loud and clear is the emphasis on dollars in the current American system, which Moore traces back to President Nixon. Moore claims his Web site was flooded with bureaucratic horror stories once he announced his intentions for “Sicko,” and many of them involved bankruptcy or battles with insurance companies.

In foreign countries, he insists, money is simply not allowed to become part of the equation where health is concerned. The emphasis is on treating citizens equally, regardless of the seriousness of their illnesses or injuries.

The situation in other countries may not be quite as uncomplicated as Moore claims. But he does suggest that the entire system is healthier when payment is not required or expected. And who could argue with that?

Michael Moore Faces U.S. Treasury Probe

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20070510/117880002000.html

Michael Moore Faces U.S. Treasury Probe
Thursday May 10, 2007

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department for taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary "Sicko," The Associated Press has learned.

The investigation provides another contentious lead-in for a provocative film by Moore, a fierce critic of President Bush. In the past, Moore's adversaries have fanned publicity that helped the filmmaker create a new brand of opinionated blockbuster documentary.

"Sicko" promises to take the health-care industry to task the way Moore confronted America's passion for guns in "Bowling for Columbine" and skewered Bush over his handling of Sept. 11 in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control notified Moore in a letter dated May 2 that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba. A copy of the letter was obtained Tuesday by the AP.

"This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba," Dale Thompson, OFAC chief of general investigations and field operations, wrote in the letter to Moore.

In February, Moore took about 10 ailing workers from the Ground Zero rescue effort in Manhattan for treatment in Cuba, said a person working with the filmmaker on the release of "Sicko." The person requested anonymity because Moore's attorneys had not yet determined how to respond.

Moore, who scolded Bush over the Iraq war during the 2003 Oscar telecast, received the letter Monday, the person said. "Sicko" premieres May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival and debuts in U.S. theaters June 29.

Moore declined to comment, said spokeswoman Lisa Cohen.

After receiving the letter, Moore arranged to place a copy of the film in a "safe house" outside the country to protect it from government interference, said the person working on the release of the film.

Treasury officials declined to answer questions about the letter. "We don't comment on enforcement actions," said department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise.

The letter noted that Moore applied Oct. 12, 2006, for permission to go to Cuba "but no determination had been made by OFAC." Moore sought permission to travel there under a provision for full-time journalists, the letter said.

According to the letter, Moore was given 20 business days to provide OFAC with such information as the date of travel and point of departure; the reason for the Cuba trip and his itinerary there; and the names and addresses of those who accompanied him, along with their reasons for going.

Potential penalties for violating the embargo were not indicated. In 2003, the New York Yankees paid the government $75,000 to settle a dispute that it conducted business in Cuba in violation of the embargo. No specifics were released about that case.

"Sicko" is Moore's followup to 2004's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a $100 million hit criticizing the Bush administration over Sept. 11. Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" won the 2002 Oscar for best documentary.

A dissection of the U.S. health-care system, "Sicko" was inspired by a segment on Moore's TV show "The Awful Truth," in which he staged a mock funeral outside a health-maintenance organization that had declined a pancreas transplant for a diabetic man. The HMO later relented.

At last September's Toronto International Film Festival, Moore previewed footage shot for "Sicko," presenting stories of personal health-care nightmares. One scene showed a woman who was denied payment for an ambulance ride after a head-on collision because it was not preapproved.

Moore's opponents have accused him of distorting the facts, and his Cuba trip provoked criticism from conservatives including former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, who assailed the filmmaker in a blog at National Review Online.

"I have no expectation that Moore is going to tell the truth about Cuba or health care," wrote Thompson, the subject of speculation about a possible presidential run. "I defend his right to do what he does, but Moore's talent for clever falsehoods has been too well documented."

The timing of the investigation is reminiscent of the firestorm that preceded the Cannes debut of "Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the festival's top prize in 2004. The Walt Disney Co. refused to let subsidiary Miramax release the film because of its political content, prompting Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein to release "Fahrenheit 9/11" on their own.

The Weinsteins later left Miramax to form the Weinstein Co., which is releasing "Sicko." They declined to comment on the Treasury investigation, said company spokeswoman Sarah Levinson Rothman.