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Fahrenheit 9/11 turns up the heat

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Michael Moore's docu-movie Fahrenheit 9/11 could influence the outcome of the November US elections. Here's the story behind the movie.

Article: Laura van Niekerk from women24

If there's one thing that worries US President George W Bush more than the mounting US casualties in Iraq it's movie director Michael Moore's Cannes Film Festival hit Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11 cleverly and often humourously criticises U.S. President George W. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and the "War on Terror" he declared after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and how the Bush Administration used the tragic event to push it's agenda (including it's oil interests).

It's been widely reported that Walt Disney chief Mr Eisner decided against distributing the documentary/movie saying it decided it "did not want a film in the middle of the political process when we're such a non-partisan company". Moore's take on it is that Disney was "afraid of losing millions of tax breaks in penance for angering [state governor] Jeb Bush in Florida, where Disney have a lot of their investment.

Whatever the case, Disney has since agreed to sell the roughly $6 million (3.3 million pounds) film to Miramax (Miramax is art-house division of Disney) chiefs Harvey and Bob Weinstein. The Weinsteins will be free to find a new distributor once they own the film. In the past when Miramax has been forced to relinquish films because of Disney's objections - such as with the Roman Catholic satire Dogma or the sexually disturbing Kids, the Weinsteins have been permitted to buy the movie rights themselves and find independent distribution. Things don't, however, seem as clear-cut for Fahrenheit 9/11 which could well influence the outcome of the November US Presidential elections.

For that same reason, Moore needs a distributor, and he needs one fast. He insists that whoever distributes the movie do so in July (there are a couple of companies eager and waiting), presumably, as mentioned, when it can still have an impact on the November US presidential election outcome. A DVD and video release before November would double that impact – those in the know will know DVD/video releases have a bigger audience.

The rush has been fuelled by the film raking in the Palme d'Or - the top prize at France's Cannes film festival, over the weekend of 23 – 24 May. Incidentally, it's the first documentary to win the Palme since Jacques Cousteau's "The Silent World" in 1956.

Moore has said he expected conservative US media to try to minimise the impact of the Cannes win by presenting it as a French statement - despite the fact that, of the nine festival jury members, only one was French and four were Americans. The festival's jury, led by US filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, said after the win that it won on its cinematic merit rather than its politics.

Did you know these facts about Fahrenheit 9/11?

The film takes its title from Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, which refers to the temperature needed to burn books in an anti-Utopian society. Moore calls Fahrenheit 9/11 the "temperature at which freedom burns."

For all his Bush criticism, Moore said he would like to visit the White House himself. "I would love to have a White House screening of this film," Moore said. "I would attend it. I would behave myself."

Moore got 'fodder' for his film from a variety of sources — foreign journalists and broadcasters (like Britain's Channel Four), freelancers and sympathetic American TV workers apparently slipped him illicit video, and Fahrenheit 9/11 supplies war-time pictures that have been largely shielded from the public's view.

The nine jurors were: American actor/director Quentin Tarantino; Haitian-born, American author Edwidge Danticat; actresses Emmanuelle Béart, Kathleen Turner and Tilda Swinton; directors Tsui Hark and Jerry Schatzberg; Finnish critic Peter von Bagh and Belgian actor-screenwriter Benoît Poelvoorde.

SA's golden girl Charlize Theron presented Michael Moore with his Palme d'Or for Fahrenheit 9/11.

In his acceptance speech Moore said "I dedicate this Palme d'Or to my daughter, to the children of Americans and to Iraq and to all those in the world who suffer from our actions. "

Money has been made available by Miramax to update the film (if needed) before an estimated July 2004 U.S. release.

The film is expected to be a box office hit once it's distributed in the US – it's the same controversy-generated free publicity that made Mel Gibson's religious feature, The Passion of The Christ, a surprise mega hit earlier this year.

Moore exposes business links between the bin Ladens and the Bushes over the last 25 years. Bush Snr became a highly paid consultant for the Carlyle Group, one of the nation's largest defence contractors. One of the investors in Carlyle - to the tune of at least $2million (£1.2m) - was the bin Laden family.

The campaigner says: "The bin Laden family have extensive dealings with large companies in the US. They have donated $2m to Bush's alma mater, Harvard. They own property in Texas, Florida and Massachusetts. In short, they have their hands deep in our pants."

Bush's cousin John Ellis, a Fox News executive, was instrumental in "calling it" for Bush/Cheney on election night and cowed the other networks into joining in. This confusion helped set the scene for the debacle that ended in his election despite Al Gore winning the popular majority.

During a press conference at Cannes after receiving the award, Moore described to journalists what would shock people: ”There is footage they have never seen. They will see things never seen before, starting with Bush's military record, both the year 2000 original document and the 2004 document that has the name James R. Bath blackened. [...] You saw the first abuse segments of Iraqi detainees outside of prison walls; you were the first to see that today. [...] The American people don't like things being kept from them and this film will pull back the curtain on what is going on and they will respond accordingly."

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis attached little significance to the decision by the Cannes jury to honour the film. Speaking in a telephone interview with the French news agency AFP, DeFrancis said the United States is a great country because it is "a free country where everyone has the right to say what they want."

Now you know all this, you're probably interested to know more about what it is exactly the movie depicts. Click to read Fahrenheit 9/11 - stories the movie tells where we reveal some of the scenes that have the American left thrilled and the right horrified.

Image: Scene from Fahrenheit 9/11, courtesy of Festival-cannes.fr