Guest Post submitted by Barry Hampe. See below for his contact information and websites: Kevin Leffler made a movie called Shooting Michael Moore. Everyone except those for whom English is a (difficult) second language recognizes the play on words in that title. It’s about shooting as in filming the heavy practitioner of the ambush interview. And it’s about shooting as in taking a shot at the egot [...]
Guest Post submitted by Barry Hampe. See below for his contact information and websites: Kevin Leffler made a movie called Shooting Michael Moore. Everyone except those for whom English is a (difficult) second language recognizes the play on words in that title. It’s about shooting as in filming the heavy practitioner of the ambush interview. And it’s about shooting as in taking a shot at the egotistical filmmaker, as he has taken shots at GM CEO Roger Smith, Charlton Heston, George W. Bush, and, oh I don’t know, so many others he doesn’t like. Unlike Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, which is a title referring to an event that never happened, the title of Leffler’s film is at least reflective of the filmmaker’s intent. And, no, I don’t think Shooting Michael Moore advocates violence against Moore. Nor do I think Christine Vachon, whom the New York Times has called “the godmother of the politically committed film” advocates violence in her book entitled Shoot to Kill. It’s about low-budget, independent filmmaking, not marksmanship. Vachon has produced many films, including one called I Shot Andy Warhol. Guess what that’s about? Back in January, Shooting Michael Moore was scheduled to be shown at one theater of the Carmike Cinema chain in Traverse City, Michigan. In the week prior to the showing, a man named Jeff Gibbs sent an e-mail to “Friends and Fellow Residents of Traverse City,” in which he asks his fellow citizens to help prevent the film being shown, because it “promotes not merely filming Michael Moore, but violence toward him.” He continues, “While Carmike is free to show any film they like, and Mr. Leffler is free to make any film he likes, they are not free to promote violence.” (Well, actually they are; First Amendment and all that.) The Bottom line is that Carmike Cinema canceled the screening. Full disclosure: I’m not a fan of Michael Moore’s films. In my book, Making Documentary Films and Videos, Second Edition, I wrote, “Moore is a provocateur — a performance artist — not a documentarian.  At their best, his works are personal essays.  In the earlier edition of this book I described his film Roger & Me as ‘a brilliant satire on corporate public relations and municipal mismanagement.’  At their worst, however, his films are inaccurate polemics that have so freely distorted the facts that they have produced an avalanche of websites devoted solely to debunking them. . . . I Googled “Michael Moore” and “truth” and got over seven million hits.  While I certainly didn’t have time to read them all, the first few pages of listings were mainly concerned with questions of inaccuracies in Moore’s films and books.” There are two things worth noting about Jeff Gibbs’s e-mail. The first is that in writing to his friends and fellow residents of Traverse City, while he said that he knew both Moore and Leffler, he neglected to mention that he is credited as a producer, co-producer, and/or composer on most of Moore’s latest films. But why bring up an inconvenient truth that might suggest a conflict of interest? His friend Mike doesn’t do that in his films. The second is that the Michael Moore camp can dish it out, but they can’t take it. Moore feels free to bend (or even ignore) the truth when he goes on the attack in his films.  But a film showing how and where he has fudged the facts – Must. Not. Be. Shown. And that’s just being a bully. Barry Hampe barryhampe@makingdocumentaryfilms.com http://www.makingdocumentaryfilms.com http://www.makingdocsblog.com http://www.barryhampe.com http://www.write-edit.net