EXCLUSIVES

CELEBRITY INTERVIEW
Michael Moore > Health Care, Technology and Being Michael Moore

By Alison Ashley Formento

Watching a Michael Moore documentary elicits an emotional response, even for the most cynical filmgoer. Whether following the plight of autoworkers in Roger and Me, tracking bullet sales in Bowling for Columbine, or scrutinizing the Bush-Middle East connection in Fahrenheit 9/11, movie audiences either love or hate this controversial director. Moore's current documentary, Sicko, rankled politicians, medical insurers and pharmaceutical companies even before the first movie ticket had been sold. Moore has high hopes that his newest film prompts a much-needed, often-ignored, national discussion about improving American health care, and eventually brings about a change that will affect every U.S. citizen, insured or not. MacDirectory writer Alison Ashley Formento caught up with Moore at a recent media event in New York.

MacDirectory > Some might view Sicko as a comedy, especially after seeing the film poster with you seated in a doctors' office between two skeletons, dead from waiting so long for care. Was this your intention?

Michael Moore > I see my films like the Op-Ed section of the newspaper. Those essays are opinion-but based on fact. That's what I'm trying to do, and some of it may be comical. I want to entertain people who love to go see a movie on Friday night. But I also hope to show something never seen before. No other movie has a filmmaker going on a boat to Guantanamo Bay. I do that. And we've seen plenty of clips of Nixon dealing with Watergate, but no one has ever seen this footage of Nixon talking about the start of HMO's and the money they'll make. A lot of this movie is funny, but it's also about the 18,000 people with health insurance that die every year-these are horror stories.

MD > You actually went to Cuba in a boat?

MM > Not Cuba. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which is part of the United States. After watching C-Span where Senator [Bill] Frist touted the care that the detainees in Gitmo received-universal coverage, dental, nutritionist-I realized that Al Qaeda prisoners had better health care than most insured Americans. Then I learned about those workers who rushed down to Ground Zero being denied health benefits. It made me angry. Our 9/11 heroes-that big 9/11 fund we all sent money to in the aftermath of that awful day, and they were being neglected and ignored. It made me ashamed as an American.

MD > Were you furious when Sicko appeared on YouTube prior to the release date?

MM > Let's talk about that. Like any police investigator, you have to ask: Who had a vested interest in leaking this film early? YouTube played the master in perfect digital format, so we know it's an inside job. That's unsettling. Still, I'm glad folks watched the film. I've never been a fan of Napster and the strict copyright laws we have here. When I first heard The Clash, it was from a tape someone had loaned me. Then I became a fan, buying my own albums and even paid to go to concerts. But when I first heard them, it was free. If I give you a book I recommend, am I breaking a copyright law? It's part of the communal experience-to share, like going to see a movie in the theater with 300 other people.

MD > You'd obviously prefer audiences to see your film in the movie theater, in its hi-def format. The technology of watching and making movies has changed drastically in recent years. Has technology played an important role in the way you make your documentaries?

MM > Absolutely. So much of what I did to make Sicko came about because of the Internet. It allowed me to reach more people than ever, which is mentioned in the film. I posted a message for folks to send in their personal health care horror stories. We had over 25,000 e-mails in the first week. Based on those e-mails I decided not to focus on uninsured patients, but on the majority who are covered, but were denied benefits or had to fight ridiculous red tape for medical care.

MD > You had to deal some red tape of your own from the United States government regarding your trip to Cuba. What exactly happened when officials learned about your trip?

MM > The Bush administration sent me a certified letter 10 days before the Cannes Film Festival informing me that I was under investigation for criminal and civil penalties. All because I took a group of 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba who hadn't received health care for the injuries they incurred as a result of helping at Ground Zero.

It's illegal for Americans to travel to Cuba unless you're a journalist. A documentary film is a work of journalism. No laws were broken. It's just an attempt by the Bush administration to use our federal agencies, as they've been known to do, to politically harass opponents. In this case-me. In order to protect the film, in case they came after it, we made a duplicate master, which is stored in Canada.

If we brought back 10,000 Cuban cigars, they could confiscate those cigars. They could claim that I took blank film down there-worth nothing, essentially-then filmed scenes that now have value because they were going to be in this movie, and thus they could potentially come and confiscate the negative. To even have to say these words in a free country-that I have to worry about the confiscation of my film, or them going after me as a documentary filmmaker is an absurd thing to deal with. But I guess we've learned to deal with a lot of absurd things in the last seven years.

MD > The Bush administration isn't a fan of yours and there's even an anti-Michael Moore Web site, which you address in Sicko. Do you feel disliked by some of the American public based on the issues raised in your documentaries?

MM > I'm the male Dixie Chick. Even if I owned an American flag factory and gave flags away for free, there will always be those who don't like me. But in 2007, 70 percent of the country agrees with me and I agree with them. Seventy percent of the country doesn't support Mr. Bush and is against the war. I'm actually in the mainstream majority, which is a little weird. That's where I sit now. Four plus years ago I was booed off the Oscar stage for daring to suggest that we were being led to war for fictitious reasons. People didn't want to hear that at the time. Eventually, they came around to realize that what I was saying at the Oscars and in Fahrenheit 9/11 is the truth. That is the story of my life as a filmmaker, from General Motors-now they're near bankruptcy, to Bowling for Columbine, where we are still faced with tragic school shootings. Today we're in a war that's lasted longer than World War II, where we defeated Germany,-but now we can't manage to build a road to Baghdad.

MD > Do you believe Sicko and its message will change the course of health care in this country?

MM > I do these things in part because I believe that things will change. The American people, when they've had enough, do make their feelings known. Without any kind of organization or political movement whatsoever, the American people stopped O.J.'s book from being published. That was an amazing thing. How did it happen? There was a mood, a feeling all through the country that they didn't want this book. Sometimes things happen when the people will it to happen. I believe the American public has had it with this broken health care industry and they've just been waiting for the moment to rise up and demand change. I hope this film helps provide the spark.

MD > Speaking of change, you've lost some weight. Does this relate to the fact that your documentary is about health care?

MM > In the course of filming Sicko, I met a lot of sick people, many of whom, sadly, have died. Some of them might have avoided certain symptoms if they had taken better care of themselves. And it felt hypocritical to be making a movie on health care and not taking care of my own health. I'm from the Midwest. I don't diet and you're not going to see me in a spinning class. Basically, I eat 35 grams of fiber a day, and eat foods that satiate. A baked potato only has 200 calories, the same as a handful of peanuts, but the potato makes you feel full. I also walk 30 minutes to an hour every day and try to get seven to eight hours of sleep a night. I've lost 30 pounds, just by doing those simple things. I feel a 100 percent better. I've still got a long way-let's see how I look next year.

MD > I have to ask. Mac or PC?

MM > Mac.