Sundance for Republicans (the Lib view of "American Film Renaissance")

DALLAS—The opening night of the American Film Renaissance, the nation's "first and only" conservative film festival, featured an African-American pianist sitting in a ballroom of Dallas' InterContinental Hotel and playing "As Time Goes By." On Saturday and Sunday, aspiring right-wing auteurs suggested that if we could just get back to the values of Casablanca—you know, Nazism, adultery, casino gaming—the studios would make movies worth watching again. "We're seeing the rise of conservative film," said Alan Lipton, the co-director of a short called Operation Eagle Strike.

I also work in the media, and know a thing or two about distribution of entertainment product. Strikes me the writer of this Slate piece is deliberately trying to downgrade "Michael Moore Hates America" because to give it its due might be to admit that a conservative filmmaker had bested their big, fat tin Jesus at his own game. Below is a review I posted to an earlier thread, but that seems to have sunk into oblivion, so pardon me for posting it again as a chaser to Slate's very sour grapes...

"Michael Moore Hates America" is not a polemic against Moore; in fact, it bends over backwards to be fair and balanced and to attempt to give him a chance to defend himself. But through his own actions, his obvious dishonesty and refusal to answer questions, he comes across much worse than he would have were the film just a partisan broadside. Wilson gives Moore the rope, and he obligingly hangs himself -- so obviously that even his own fans who are interviewed onscreen at one point notice it and comment on it.

Wilson does an excellent job of balancing several disparate threads: his fruitless pursuit of Moore for an interview, segments on how to make a documentary without turning into a dishonest propagandist, profiles of average Americans who are nothing like the mouth-breathing cartoons promoted by Michael Moore, and best of all, his interviews with people who were deceived by Moore, finally giving them a chance to set the record straight. Some are amusing, such as the bank personnel misrepresented in "Bowling for Columbine," and others more serious -- the most devasting and moving section of the film is an interview with a double amputee Iraq War vet who was used without his knowledge or consent in "Fahrenheit 9/11" to trash Bush and the military, and who calls Moore's film a "crock" and has a message for Moore that drew cheers from the audience.

In one of the best scenes, Wilson misrepresents the nature of his film to get an interview from a reluctant city official, and his co-producer tells him he is turning into Michael Moore and threatens to quit the project. Wilson realizes he's right, writes to the duped interviewee to confess, and the man agrees to let him use the footage anyway, as long as he's honest about it. Michael Moore should be forced to watch that scene about 1,000 times until it sinks through his dirty baseball cap and into his fat skull.

What Wilson has done here is more than just debunk Michael Moore. He has (one hopes) set the documentary genre back on the right road after Michael Moore helped drive it into the ditch. He has shown that it is possible to use Moore's genuine stylistic innovations -- digital video, an on-screen guide with a point of view, irreverent humor, cartoons (an hilarious game show called "Six Degrees of Conspiracy" to explain Moore's claims of how Bush is responsible for censoring his movie), etc. -- in service of a truthful, balanced documentary rather than a propaganda piece.

The film was inspiring, moving, very funny, and downright cathartic (the final, profane line belongs to Penn Jillette, and it should be embroidered on a sampler or written in cake frosting or something and sent to Michael Moore: Penn warns Wilson that if he uses editing to make it appear that he said something he didn't say or was more negative about Michael Moore than he really is, "I will hunt you down and I will f---ing kill you."

What I wouldn't give to see Mike Wilson holding up that Best Documentary Oscar next year that Michael Moore thinks is his by divine right. I won't be holding my breath for that, but I would highly recommend that everyone on this board see this film, and even more so, that everyone on DU see it as well. It might open an awful lot of eyes, and one hopes, minds.

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