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Director Michael Moore’s project for a festival of independent cinema in Michigan has kicked up a controversy. Saibal Chatterjee reports
But, then, the US establishment has never had any love lost for the combative man who has made poking their bubbles his life’s mission. The film festival in question, to be held from July 28 to 31 in the tourist town of Traverse City under the chairmanship of Moore, has been granted permission by the city commissioners to use a park off Lake Michigan. The event will be a mix of free open-air shows and ticketed indoor screenings. Moore is a native of the town of Flint. The filmmaker, who works primarily out of New York City, spends a fair amount of time in the rural Antrim Country, near Traverse. Could this festival be the beginning of something big? Will the Traverse City Film Festival evolve into another Sundance? Moore has expressed the hope that his brainchild will indeed grow into a dynamic annual event that the world will look forward to every year. But critical murmurs are getting louder. The upcoming event is already being described as "a left-wing film festival". In an online column, conservative political commentator and radio talk show host Debbie Schlussel writes: "Half the film’s cost is being borne by the far-left Center for Alternative Media and Culture. Alternative. " She goes on to add: "To get an idea of the types of films that will be shown, the Center provides grants to independent films in post-production dealing with economy, class issues, the poor, women, war and peace, race and labour." Moore, on his part, has assured the city commissioners that the 30-odd films in the inaugural Traverse City festival line-up will be non-partisan and completely apolitical. What that means is that Moore’s own films will not be on show. Anticipating the obvious line of argument adopted by his critics, Moore has said: "There will be no surprises. There is no hidden agenda." So, there will be no Fahrenheit 9/11, which fetched Moore the Palme d’Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, or Bowling for Columbine, which made waves around the world a few years earlier. So what are the films that are likely to be on offer when the Traverse City festival rolls end-July? Moore is believed to be considering successful mainstream Hollywood classics such as Jaws, Casablanca, High Noon and Rebel Without a Cause. Also on the bill of fare are several independent features and a selection of European cinema. Moore does indeed have
an agenda and it is not all that hidden. He wants to help his
countrymen develop a better sense of what good cinema really
constitutes. His "movies in the park" concept certainly
sounds great. How well it goes will hinge entirely on the popular
support base Moore manages to build. |
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THE
life and times of the confrontational American documentary filmmaker,
Michael Moore, are such that nothing he touches is ever free from
controversy. His latest hobbyhorse, something as innocuous as a
small-town festival of quality films in his native Michigan, has
raised more then a few eyebrows.