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Agnes Varnum is a freelance writer, film programmer and communications manager for the Austin Film Society. She is the primary contributor to doc it out and Tribeca Film Institute's Resources.

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Manufacturing Dissent

February 28th, 2007 • Related Posts • Tags

There is an unsettling sequence near the end of An Unreasonable Man, Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan’ biopic about Ralph Nader, where they show Nader’s 2000 campaign rally with famous Dems like Eddie Veder, Susan Sarandon, Bill Murray and out in support of Ralph as a candidate for president. I’m not quoting exactly as it’s been a couple of months since I last saw the film, but during the ‘00 scene, is telling the audience to vote their conscience, that Nader is the conscientious choice. Later, in 2004, grasping for a Democratic victory, tells an audience that they shouldn’t vote for Nader even if they feel like they should; that voters should vote against their conscience and go with the candidate they need to see win. That was when my Micheal halo popped violently.

For others, it is and will be seeing Manufacturing Dissent, a new doc premiering at SXSW by Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk. There was an article in this week’s Times about the difficulty the filmmakers had in making a film that examines and his muck-raking. The filmmakers where even throw out of an event by ’s sister. That is the kind of behavior we’ve come to expect from people who have something to hide, courtesy of ’s work in not so small ways.

It’s interesting how his politics and his use of the documentary form have somehow become intertwined with the documentary industry in such an integral way - with everyone commenting in the article how on one hand, he’s great for business, but that he partakes in some unethical practices which most would like to distance from documentary.

The old objective vs. subjective debate is never more alive than when examining his work, but for me it all goes back to media literacy - a movie is a movie, and just because a distributor or marketer of some stripe or another calls it a doc doesn’t mean you can suspend your brain at the door and trust that everything in it is true. Same goes for nightly news, or what you read in a newpaper. Fiction is crafted in so many ways, and every story has a point of view. But nevertheless, looking forward to March 10 at 9:30 PM>>

There Are 4 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Chuck on 28 February 2007:

    This article deepened my ambivalence about Moore. While I think he has demonstrated incredible skill as a muckraking journalist, there are too many situations in which his ethics as a documentary filmmaker have been called into question, so I will be curious to see what this film has to say (even if I won’t be able to see it for a few months).

  2. Comment by Bob on 1 March 2007:

    Right there it was in the last paragraph of your note: doesn’t mean you can suspend your brain at the door and trust that everything in it is true. Same goes for nightly news, or what you read in a newpaper. Good Heavens! I thought, she is advocating that people think for themselves. I bet this blog is being monitored, you know, by …

  3. Comment by Bill on 5 March 2007:

    Michael Moore began his parasitical career based on the glaring false illusion that he was the common man’s champion.That is what his foundational Genesis movie Roger was all about. If examined closer the shaded beginnings of Moore’s existence, and his career ever since, is built upon the backs of activist auto worker rebels many years ago….not Moore’s.
    Moore was no blue collar activist rebel, he had no credentials, he led nothing and did nothing but occasionally assist these Flint rebels. Moore wasn’t even from Flint and was no more then a very unsuccessful unknown talking head that took on the identity of these blue-collar rebels who were putting everything on the line every day.
    He has gotten away with it and has fooled the world for 25 years…until now.

    When Moore took on the identity of these fighting Flint rebels the world believed him.
    The power and honesty of this very singular truth is the real story.

    For one moment let us consider the documented facts. Michael Moore hasn’t helped America but has harmed Americas workers and damaged America itself. He used and crushed these rebel American workers to build a personal financial empire for himself. Society didn’t benefit, only Michael Moore benefited.
    Manipulators and parasitical opportunists cannot be all-American hero’s. Anyone who holds Moore up as a hero has no sense of accurate history.

    There are sites with historical documentation of these events…
    http://michaelwestfall.tripod.com/id17.html

    Examine this particular piece closely especially the … “conclusion.” .

  4. Comment by agnes on 5 March 2007:

    I don’t go in for censorship so I’m allowing the above comment to stand on it’s own. I’m not personally going to follow the link because the comment has the stench of conservative viral campaign politics all over it - it contains no facts, only a rant about someone that is a thorn in the side of people who are content to roll around in their cash while others starve, have no health care and we perpetrate war on sovereign nations, at home and abroad.

    I’m going to watch the film about Moore with an open mind and I’ll report back.