"Capitalism: A Love Story"
AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL MOORE
by Tim Nasson
September 23, 2009
Watch "Capitalism" Trailer
An Interview With Michael Moore
1. What inspired you to make this movie? Why now?
In America, people tend to wait for the coast to be clear before openly discussing certain topics and saying certain things. Even if it’s right in front of our noses and people sense that something’s gone terribly wrong—they go with the flow. They adjust and accept mediocrity, get comfortable and settle in. Most feel that if they just keep their heads down and their noses to the grindstone, they’ll squeak by. But someone has to speak up.
My goal is to address the questions that have been forming in my head for some time and that I believe our society needs to address as well. It’s not the job of the artist or the musician or the filmmaker to follow the crowd. Politicians won’t change anything on their own. It doesn’t make any sense for them to be courageous; that’s too risky. It’s the people that need to make them change. Then, once the truth emerges, those who scoffed and sneered will turn around and sound an awful lot like the lonely people they once ridiculed.
2. How long did the film take to complete?
We began production in the spring of 2008. But in reality, this is the movie I’ve been making for the past twenty years. Since Roger & Me debuted in 1989, there have been common threads and ideas present in all of my projects.
Capitalism: A Love Story is not just a continuation of that, it’s the culmination.
3. A lot of people are angry about the recent financial meltdown and its effects on investments, jobs, home prices and government budgets, but they don’t necessarily know who to blame. Will this film help us to see who was at fault for this collapse?
I don’t think it’s really a mystery who’s behind this financial collapse. There’s been a lot of anger directed at the banks and financial institutions that hijacked our economy and gambled it away. And at the politicians who allowed it to happen... Don’t get me started.
This film is not about a boom or a bust or a bailout. I started working on this before the economy tanked and before I had any idea there would be a massive looting of the U.S. Treasury a month before a Presidential election. I don’t focus on one individual, or company or issue; this is the big enchilada. This film takes on the system that allows, encourages and, most importantly, guarantees this corruption.
4. In terms of the government’s role, it seems like there’s plenty of blame to go around. Members of both political parties have contributed to the current situation. Are anybody’s hands clean in Washington?
There isn’t enough Purell hand sanitizer* in the world to disinfect Washington. This film names names, and goes after both parties without fear or favor. Every political discussion degrades into liberal against conservative and Democrat against Republican. That’s just a distraction from the real issue: the system we operate under owns both parties and both liberals and conservatives. There are some loud and bitter arguments between the two parties, but they are all looking to stay in power and the last thing they want to do is rock the boat. This film will address the issues that are not being debated in Congress or on the Sunday morning talk shows (which are brought to you by Boeing, AT&T, Archer Daniels Midland, ExxonMobil…).
*This is not an endorsement for Purell. I’m sure the pharmacy-brand hand sanitizers work just as well and are a little bit cheaper.
5. What do you hope audiences will take away from this film?
Popcorn and pitchforks.
MICHAEL MOORE FILMOGRAPHY
SLACKER UPRISING (aka Captain Mike Across America) (2008)
• Official Selection, Toronto International Film Festival
SICKO (2007)
• Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival
• Nominated, Best Documentary, Academy Awards
• Winner, Best Edited Documentary, American Cinema Editors/EDDIE Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, Critics Choice Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, Producers Guild Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, Broadcast Film Critics Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, Gotham Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, New York Film Critics Online
• Winner, Best Documentary, Chicago Film Critics Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, Phoenix Film Critics Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association
• Winner, Best Documentary, D.C. Area Film Critics Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, Satellite Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards
• Awarded, Career Achievement Award, International Documentary Association
• Nominated, Best Documentary Screenplay, Writers Guild of America Awards
• Nominated, Favourite Independent Movie, People’s Choice Awards
• Nominated, Best Documentary, Online Film Critics Society Awards
• Nominated, Outstanding Documentary, NAACP Image Awards
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004)
• Winner, Palme D'Or, Cannes Film Festival
• Winner, Best Documentary, Broadcast Film Critics Award
• Winner, Best Documentary, Chicago Film Critics Association Award
• Winner, IDA Award, International Documentary Association (tie with "Born Into Brothels")
• Winner, Best Non-Fiction Film, New York Film Critics Circle
• Winner, Favourite Motion Picture, People's Choice Awards
• Nominated, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary, Directors Guild of America
• Nominee, American Cinema Editors (Eddie)
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (2002)
• Winner, Best Documentary, Academy Awards
• Winner, 55th Anniversary Prize, Cannes Film Festival
• Winner, Best Original Screenplay, Writers Guild of America
• Winner, American Cinema Editors (Eddie)
• Winner, Best Documentary, Broadcast Film Critics Award
• Winner, Best Documentary, Chicago Film Critics Association Award
• Winner, Best Documentary, Independent Spirit Awards
• Winner, Best Documentary, National Board of Review
THE AWFUL TRUTH [TV] (1999-2001)
• Nominee, Outstanding Non-Fiction Series, Emmy Awards 2001
• Nominee, Outstanding Non-Fiction Series, Emmy Awards 1999
• Nominee, WGA Award (TV), Writers Guild of America 2001
• Nominee, WGA Award (TV), Writers Guild of America 2000
TV NATION [TV] (1994-1997)
• Winner, Outstanding Informational Series, Emmy Awards (1995)
• Nominee, Outstanding Informational Series, Emmy Awards (1996)
THE BIG ONE (1997)
• Winner, Best Documentary, Boston Society of Film Critics
• Winner, Best Documentary, Online Film Critics Society
CANADIAN BACON (1995)
• Official Selection, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival
ROGER & ME (1989)
• Winner, American Cinema Editors (Eddie)
• Winner, IDA Award, International Documentary Association
• Winner, Best Documentary, Los Angeles Film Critics Association
• Winner, Best Documentary, National Board of Review
• Winner, Best Documentary, National Society of Film Critics
• Winner, Best Documentary, New York Film Critics Circle
MICHAEL MOORE (Writer/Director/Producer)
Michael Moore was born in 1954 in Flint, Michigan, the son of an auto worker and nephew of a veteran of the 1936 Flint Sit-Down Strike. His family was among the original settlers in the Flint area. After spending time attending a Catholic seminary, Moore became one of the first 18-year-olds elected to public office in the United States when he won a seat on the local school board. At 22, he founded and edited an alternative newspaper, The Flint Voice. Moore’s publication made national news when a court reversed the mayor of Flint’s order to the police to seize the Voice’s printing plates after an article exposed the mayor’s use of federally-paid workers on his own political campaign.
Finding himself unemployed in 1986, Michael decided to document General Motor’s devastation of his home town. He put together a group of friends who taught themselves how to make a film, sold whatever he owned to fund the production and, in 1989, presented Roger & Me to the world. The rest is history.
