Last we all heard from muckracker Michael Moore, the filmmaker had changed the focus of his post-“Fahrenheit 9/11” documentary cum “sequel” from foreign policy to the economy. The move was smart, the economic crisis/recession, and the number of workers who have received pink slips in the last three-four months is basically the only thing in the news and on people’s minds anymore. When was the last time you heard CNN talk about foreign policy?
So in his latest email blast on his website, Moore has written that he’s looking for help with his new film and he wants Wall Street employees, insiders and people on the ground floor to participate and tell the real story of what happened with our economic downturn.
“I am in the middle of shooting my next movie and I am looking for a few brave people who work on Wall Street or in the financial industry to come forward and share with me what they know. Based on those who have already contacted me, I believe there are a number of you who know “the real deal” about the abuses that have been happening. You have information that the American people need to hear. I am humbly asking you for a moment of courage, to be a hero and help me expose the biggest swindle in American history. All correspondence with me will be kept confidential. Your identity will be protected and you will decide to what extent you wish to participate in telling the greatest crime story ever told.”
Moore says to write in to his personal email for the project which is [email protected] and which seems to be the working title of the film. And a pretty apt one at that considering it’s a term we hear in the headline every other minute. Is “Bailout” the title of Michael Moore’s new economic, what-the-fuck-happened-on-Wall-Street doc? Hey, we endorse it; it sounds great. Now if people will only come forward. Let’s hope so. It would be great for the country to get a better sense of what happened other than the almost meaningless term, “Wall Street greed.” Hell, head-in-the-sand U.S. audiences didn’t give a shit about the very underrated “Sicko,” because it basically only concerened their dying grandparents and unfortunate sick neighbors they barely knew (who gives a shit about them!), but dare to touch their wallet and they snarl like a pit bull. Maybe this could be one of Moore’s most successful docs? We”re looking forward to it.
I think the only thing left for Michael is critical acclaim. His rep is so badly hurt by the likes of Fox News that he’ll never have as great of success as he could have with his docs. Almost every repub just writes him off the second they hear his name these days. That isn’t to say he can’t have one of the top grossing docs of the year, though.
There’s a reason he was hit so hard by the right wing press and basically discredited. You can probably guess why: they saw him as a real threat.
Moore fights for righteous causes, but uses Hard Copy-style (or should we say Fox News style?) manipulation to make his points. That’s why his support has flagged despite Sicko supposedly being a much more fair and well-made doc.
I only wish Charles Ferguson’s No End In Sight got the same mainstream audience that Farenheit 9/11 received. These topical docs should really be on major network television, but of course, corporations control those networks. This is wy “tv-on-the-net” could be a real game changer and why net neutrality is a HUGELY important issue.
“uses a Hard Copy-style.”
Yup. Unfortunately, middle america is totally cook and ok when fox does that. They flip their shit if Moore does. No End In Sight was fantastic agreed, but there’s no rule that says documentaries need to be made one certain way.
PS, don’t use game-changer, McG kept using it over and over again last weekend and it was sooo ghey and annoying.