[Churchill Gomez]

Michael Moore is a member of the Indie Community.

[weegee]

Hollywood has made a successful racket out of pitching films by Disney, Sony, and Turner/NewLine/FineLine as being "independent films".

[Helms]

Michael Moore

Author, filmmaker, and political activist Michael Moore has developed a trademark style of tackling major issues with a sharp sense of humor while maintaining a regular-guy attitude, an approach that has helped him secure a reputation as both a razor-sharp humorist and one of America's most fearless political commentators. Michael Moore was born in 1954 in Davison, MI, a suburb of Flint, then home to one of General Motors' biggest manufacturing plants, where Moore's father and grandfather both worked. Born to an Irish-Catholic family, Moore attended parochial school until he was 14, when he transferred to Davison High School. Moore soon developed an interest in student politics as well as larger issues: He won a merit badge as an Eagle Scout by creating a slide show exposing environmentally unfriendly businesses in Flint, and in 1972, when 18-year-olds were granted the right to vote, he ran for a seat on the Flint school board, soon becoming one of the youngest people in the United States to win an election for public office. While Moore was briefly a student at University of Michigan-Flint, he dropped out to focus on activism, and began a career as a journalist by working for the Flint Voice, an alternative weekly newspaper. In time, Moore became the editor, and under his leadership the paper expanded into the Michigan Voice, one of the most respected alternative political publications in the Midwest. Moore's success at the Michigan Voice eventually led to a job offer from Mother Jones magazine, where he became editor in 1986.