(Reuters) - Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore interviewed Nick Berg, the American contractor beheaded in Iraq, for his latest film and has offered to show the footage to Berg's family before he would release it, a family spokesman said on Friday.
Bruce Hauser, the spokesman and Bergs' neighbor in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said Moore called him to confirm reports that the footage existed and that Moore wanted to send a copy to the Bergs for their approval before its release.
The clip was made during the filming of "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore's new movie attacking the Bush administration, which won this year's Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Berg interview was not used in the film.
"I was very surprised to hear from him," the family spokesman said of Moore.
"He said, 'Yes, there is such a video,' and if they are OK with it, then he will go ahead and release it," he said. Moore's office in New York confirmed it has the 20-minute interview but said there were no plans to release it. "We are not releasing it to the media. It is not in the film. We are dealing privately with the family," a statement from Moore's office said. Moore was not available for comment. The contents of the interview were unknown, as was the date it was made. Moore's office did not say why it was not used in the film. Berg's decapitation in Iraq was shown in a video on a Web site on May 11, in which his masked executioners said they were retaliating for the U.S. military abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Berg's parents would not receive Moore's clip until they return from a trip this weekend, Hauser said.
The conradictions continue.
So, let's see if I have this straight.
This nice man, Mr. Moore, knew he had in his possession unseen video of Nick Berg, now deceased, which might very well have been the last video taken of Berg -- yet until Salon.com broke the story, he didn't bother to call them up and tell them about it?
Now I really AM wondering why he didn't put this video in his film.
Take a look at this:
From his web site on May 5th:
"There is much more to tell, but right now I am in the lab working on the print to take to the Cannes Film Festival next week (we have been chosen as one of the 18 films in competition)."
So on the 5th of May, he was still in the lab working on this movie; Berg's death was announced on the 8th of May, the news of the video came out on the 11th.
The sister of Nick Berg, the contractor from the Philadelphia suburbs who was beheaded earlier this month in Iraq, says she's dumbfounded by reports that liberal icon Michael Moore had filmed an interview with her late brother for his new anti-war film.
"I'm very skeptical of this," said Sara Berg, a Virginia attorney whose brother's beheading sparking a global uproar.
But she said there was no way to confirm that Moore had sent a tape of the reported 20-minute interview to their parents' home in West Chester, as the filmmaker suggested in a statement yesterday, because the couple have been away.
Moore's acknowledgment that he had interview footage of Berg that had been shot - but not used - for his highly controversial "Fahrenheit 9/11" documentary may be the strangest twist yet in the increasingly weird saga of Berg and his Iraqi travels, which led to his slaying.
The initial story that touched off the controversy appeared yesterday on the online magazine Salon.com.
It said the interview took place in the United States late last year, before Berg, a radio-tower technician, made the first of two trips to Iraq seeking work there as a private contractor.
So, how would a completely unknown young wannabe contractor like Berg come to the attention of Moore, whose anti-President Bush screed "Dude, Where's My Country?" was the best-selling book in the nation at the time?
Stranger than that: Why would Moore or his crew interview Berg for "Fahrenheit 9/11" for 20 minutes, when Berg's family insists the slain contractor was pro-Bush and supported the American military action in Iraq?
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