Michael Moore Offers Surprises and a “Capitalism” Tease in Traverse City

Michael Moore at the Traverse City Film Festival. Image provided by the festival.

“I’m known as the thin guy in Michigan,” joked Moore who has lost considerable weight since last year’s festival. Their repartee took place on one of the free panels held every morning at the 465-seat City Opera House. This session was devoted to “Comedy, American Style.” Moore and Garlin used the occasion to announce their plans for a comedy festival that was so freshly hatched, they couldn’t offer many more details except that they plan to feature both new and established talent. Garlin praised Brian Regan as the best comedian working today without his own TV show. Offering advice to aspiring comedians, Garlin said, “If you want to become a great comedian, force yourself for a year not to use a swear word.”

Not everything is played for laughs in Traverse City. A festival section called “Starring Planet Earth” contained eight feature documentaries that raise alarming environmental issues. Hitting close to home was “Waterlife,” presented by Canadian director Kevin McMahon, exploring the Great Lakes that surround Michigan and the threats to their well-being. The surge in filmmaking from Palestine was honored in a sidebar of four films. One revelation for me was “Salt of This Sea,” directed by Annemarie Jacir, that played last year at Cannes in Un Certain Regard. The fictional story follows Soraya (played by Suheir Hammad), a Palestinian woman raised in Brooklyn on her first trip to the West Bank. She meets Emad (played by Saleh Bakri, memorable from his performance in “The Band’s Visit”) and they take a intense journey through the contested land of Israel and Palestine. Since filming in the region, Jacir has not been allowed to cross Israeli borders to re-enter the Occupied Territories. She has been living in Amman, Jordan, but visited Traverse City with her producer Ossama Bawardi. In a light moment during a Q&A, she asked the audience, “Will someone adopt me?”

On the last day of the festival, Moore has traditionally set aside a slot for “Mike’s Surprise.” Ticket buyers have no idea what they’ll be getting until he makes the introduction. In past years, he’s shared sneak previews of “Slacker Uprising” and outtakes of “Sicko” before they were seen by any other audience. Taking the stage this year, he quickly dispelled hopes to see his latest work “Capitalism: A Love Story” that is set to premiere at the Venice and Toronto festivals before its fall release. “It’s way too risky,” he said to leak “some of the appalling things I’m going to present to rest of the country.” Instead, he showed a rough cut of a three-minute “Capitalism” trailer that opens with him standing at the doors of AIG - a leading recipient of Washington’s bailout - and announcing through a loud speaker that he intends to make a citizen’s arrest.

The voiceover goes on to characterize the bailout as a fiasco, stating that by spending a few million to buy Congress through campaign donations, Wall Street got billions. In addition to the trailer, Moore screened a seldom seen documentary called “Blood in the Face,” directed by Anne Bohlen, Kevin Rafferty, and James Ridgeway, about neo-Nazis in Michigan. The film was shot in the 1980s and released in ‘91. The filmmakers recruited Moore, who was then a newspaper editor, to conduct on-camera interviews. In turn, Moore asked Rafferty to teach him the basics of camera and editing for “Roger & Me.” “It was a great film school,” said Moore, “and I’m forever in their debt.”

[Thom Powers is the documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival; and the artistic director of Stranger Than Fiction in New York City.]

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Has the financial crisis, bailouts and lingering recession rocked your faith in capitalism?

	Yes, the system is inherently flawed.
	No, economic shakedowns are a natural outcome of a free market.
	The system has flaws, but there isn't a realistic alternative.
	It's capitalism for the middle class and poor, and nepotism for the rich and well connected.
	Michael Moore is inherently capitalist, seizing a moment in history to exploit people's fears with his new movie.

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