'This is our Last Chance to Wrestle America Away From the Grubby Hands of the Greedy Rich.' (2 artciles)

Michael Moore in Madison
Saturday, March 5, 2011 by The Nation
by John Nichols

Filmmaker Michael Moore will march with members of Madison Firefighters Local 311 to the Wisconsin Capitol today and join a mass rally at the King Street entrance around 2 p.m.

Moore will speak up for union rights and cheer on the mass protests at a rally organized by the Wisconsin Wave movement, which has been backed by Wisconsin labor, farm, community and grassroots groups. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, former Mayor Paul Soglin, State Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, Liberty Tree Foundation director and Wisconsin Wave organizer Ben Manski and others will also speak, while singers Ryan Bingham, Jon Langford and Michelle Shocked will also join the rally.

Moore, a long-time supporter of labor rights, is the director and producer of Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story, four of the top nine highest-grossing documentaries of all time. His breakthrough film, Roger & Me, chronicled the deindustrialization of his his hometown of Flint, Michigan, along with the struggles of blue-collar workers.

Moore says of the protests against Governor Scott Walker’s budget repair bill – which would strip most public employee and teacher unions of their collective bargaining rights:

“This movement--we'll call it the 'Madison Movement' (after both the town where it was born and the president who wrote our Bill of Rights) is exploding across the Midwest. It will be unlike anything you've seen in recent U.S. history. It is built on this one truth: Corporations have taken over our country and we know this is our last chance to wrestle America away from the grubby hands of the greedy rich.”

+++++

Michael Moore: The Smug Wealthy Have Gone Too Far -- And We're Finally Fighting Back

By Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com
Posted on March 6, 2011

America is not broke.

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.

And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.

I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs.  That too caused a reduction in revenue. And the population ended up suffering because they reduced their taxes, reduced our jobs and took wealth out of the system, removing it from circulation.

The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. It's part of the Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade: America/Wisconsin is broke, Iraq has WMD, the Packers can't win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.

The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn't work, they've got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:

1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day – this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart -- because you -- yes, you, too! -- might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep you head down, your nose to the grindstone, don't rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.

2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it's Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin' awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don't care. We'll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"

The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).

Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant know as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone tells us America is broke and broken. It's just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!

So how do we get this? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity.

Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more – something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job -- their $19,000 a year job. That's how much some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie pilots flying people here to Madison. But he's stopped trying to get better pay. All he asks is that he doesn't have to sleep in his car between shifts at O'Hare airport. That's how despicably low we have sunk. The wealthy couldn't be content with just paying this man $19,000 a year. They wanted to take away his sleep. They wanted to demean and dehumanize him. After all, he's just another slob.

And that, my friends, is Corporate America's fatal mistake. But trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon us. Many people in the media don't understand this. They say they were caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather. "Why are they all standing out there in the cold? I mean there was that election in November and that was supposed to be that!

"There's something happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you ...?"

America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!

Madison, do not retreat.  We are with you. We will win together.

The Morning After

Until Pigs Fly ...With Michael Moore

By JOSEPH G. RAMSEY

In his recent post-election interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! activist film-maker Michael Moore, in tones of mourning more than anger, expressed his frustration with the Democratic Party and Barack Obama for (yet again!) naively falling into the Republican trap of offering “bipartisanship” and “compromise” rather than any sort of bold progressive change. Anticipating Obama’s post-election speech, Moore likened the leadership of the Democratic Party to the “abused” partner who over and over again submits to an “abuser.” How many times, he pondered, are the Democrats going to extend the hand of “compromise and bipartisanship” to a Republican Party that smacks that hand down, or worse, uses that extended hand to pull the Dems down prone to the ground? How many times, he asked, do we have to witness this spectacle of pointless conciliation (and the abandonment of bold fights for progressive reform that such centrist conciliation entails) before the Democrats learn their lesson? How long until the victim stops submitting to the abuse and stands up for him/herself, and, say… ends the relationship?

This of course not the first time, Michael Moore has made such a public lament. Nor is he alone in (again and again) voicing such sentiments. Independent and “progressive” media is full of this stuff.

But it is long past time to turn Moore’s analogy back upon him and other would-be left-wing supporters of the Democratic Party. Aren’t you, Michael, and those who share your (pro-worker, anti-war, anti-corporate) sensibilities yourselves like the abused victim, continually (even cynically, knowingly) submitting to the abuse of a Democratic Party that ignores (or pays only lip-service) to your concerns, priorities, and prescriptions? (Except of course when your contagious lack of “enthusiasm” for a corporate centrist can be blamed for a lag at the polls.)

And yet, like the abused victim, you keep trying to make the relationship work. Turning out the vote for a Party that turns you out the door (that is, if you dare to raise a single subversive idea). All the while you do your bit to keep others from bolting ahead of you.

You fantasize that the party leadership is merely temporarily under the spell of a bad influence, or a losing political strategy. Poor advice is the problem. You repeat again and again, despite all the sell-outs and false promises and continued abuse (not to mention the bombs raining down on civilians abroad), that Barack is still “really a nice guy,” that he has a “good heart,” and that he “means well.” (No doubt Bush and Cheney and many war-criminals before them have loved their families and friends too, though this is not an argument against their criminality.) You continue to convince yourself (and others) that it is possible –if not necessarily likely—that your abusers will change their ways and suddenly start listening to you. No matter that they have ignored you , barred you from their table, and stomped all over your hopes and proposals time and time again…This time it could be different. This time they can change. This time Obama just might bring the left in as policy advisors and political strategists. This time he may listen to what we have been saying all along…

Thus, you say engage in fantasies:

“If Barack Obama got on the TV/radio tomorrow and said X…”

“If he would only tell the American people Z…”

And on and on…Until pigs fly…

The sick farce here is not only that such fantasies of hypothetically acting as the advisors to the president rest on false assumptions about the rulers’ attitudes towards the politics of people like you, Michael. (Have you forgotten how much Barack’s ears resemble Bush’s?) Or that such fantasies suppress the fact that the Democratic Party answers to the same corporate, financial, and imperialist interests as the Republicans. What is really pathetic about such delusions is that by keeping us focused on what “they” (the rulers) should or could do, you keep us from thinking about what we can and should be doing today, tomorrow, the next day, to bring about the kind of world that we would like to see.

Don’t mourn for abusers. Organize independently of them, you might say. Organize to get rid of them altogether. Or better, to get rid of the system that makes them possible (and necessary).

But so long as people are stuck in seeing the world through Barack’s eyes—and speaking for Barack’s ears!—they cannot but fail to grasp the situation that they are in: how late the hour is; how badly radical change is needed. Nor can people in such a trance see the freedom of action that does still exist within our dire situation, including avenues for transformation of the situation itself through action that can occur despite, against, and behind the backs of these so-called “leaders.” Moore and his ilk would lead us to fantasize that the only real power lies within the halls of those slave-built buildings in Washington. Yet in fantasizing us into advisors to the President, Moore is turning himself—and worse others—into timid spectators instead of courageous actors. This is no way to build the consciousness, nor the courage in people that is necessary for us to challenge the established powers and create new power bases outside the halls of government.

Thus, even as Moore ponders the possibility of a wide open 4-way race for President in 2012 (in which the Tea-Party run their own candidate, and the angry neglected left follows suit), even here, he does not call boldly for this left campaign to start today but rather “hopes” that the Obama administration and the Democrats are thinking about this possibility and modulating their strategy in light of it…that is, to head off the possibility of a situation emerging where a strong left candidacy becomes possible! But for God’s sake Michael, if even an “anti-capitalist” progressive like you is not willing to boldly launch (or plausibly threaten to join if not to lead) such a left bloc, then why in the hell would Obama and company feel the need to “move left” to head off such a “possibility” in the first place?!

With “left opposition” like this, who needs supporters!

Moreover, the fact that Moore’s first instinct is to “look ahead” to the next election (!) rather than towards what we should be doing outside and beyond electoral politics—and certainly outside and beyond Democratic Party politics!—is itself a sign of the problem.

Instead of advising “them,” which is to say, pretending to be one of “them,” why not speak to US, Michael? Why not speak with us, your viewers, your fans, the workers, the teachers, the critical thinkers, the struggling people that actually value the films that you have made? Why not speak to and with the left, including to the mass base of the Democratic Party that is so taken for granted, used, abused, and ignored by the Party leadership? Why not turn away from the murdering bastards in power and come join the people?

This revolution could use some good film-makers.

There's Going to Be a Second Economic Crash: Moore

Michael Moore: There's Going to Be a Second Economic Crash
By Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks
March 5, 2010

We interviewed Michael Moore on The Young Turks today and he was not shy about sharing his opinions. Anyone surprised? He had very strong words for the Democratic Party, the state of our political system and Glenn Beck.

What he thinks of Democrats and Republicans:

You know, I tell you, these Democrats are disgusting. Wimps and wusses and weasels. You know, get some spine. This is why I have to admire the Republicans. They at least stand for something. They at least have the courage of their convictions. They get elected to office, they come into town, and they go "Get outta my way, there's a new sheriff in town. This is the way we're doing things. Get outta here." And then they do it. You know. I mean what they do is crazy. But dammit, they are good at it. We should take a page out of their book.

Can we fix the broken political and economic system in America?

It's not going to get fixed. There's going to be another crash. The commercial real estate bubble hasn't burst yet. That's going to burst. The credit card debt is so huge right now, it will never be repaid. That's a house of cards waiting to fall. So the crash of '08 is going to look like coming attractions. And we're in for a much, much worse time.

What he would have said to Glenn Beck if he was in Van Jones' place:

Fuck off! That's what I would have said. But again, you mentioned Glenn Beck, and of course, he's the guy that's called for my removal from the planet Earth, so...

Watch the whole interview here:



There's one thing you know about Michael Moore, he's going to come strong. Unfortunately, I share his pessimism about the system. But I believe there is hope at the end of that tunnel. And as corny as it sounds, that hope is with the American people. We have to stop letting corporate interests buy our politicians and government officials. Make a change.

 The following is the transcript of the interview with Michael Moore:

Cenk:  Now joining us, Michael Moore, director of 'Capitalism: A Love Story', and a couple of other ones you might remember, 'Sicko', 'Fahrenheit 911',' Bowling for Columbine', 'Roger and Me'--just to name a few.  Michael, welcome to The Young Turks.

Michael:  Thank you.  Don't forget Blue Hawaii, too, with Elvis.

Cenk:  All right, so the DVD is coming out for 'Capitalism' soon.  My question is-- you know I saw the movie--obviously, we agree on a lot of things, including the huge flaws in the system as it currently exists, but do you think that capitalism is fundamentally flawed, and we need to change it entirely?  If so, to what?

Michael:  Yes, I do believe it's fundamentally flawed, because I don't think that in the 21st century the big decisions that need to be made should be based on profit.  They should be based on what we need as a society and what the world needs.  And when I say that, I don't mean that I don't think people should be able to earn money or do well or work hard or have a great idea or whatever.  That's not what I'm talking about.

The kind of capitalism that we have now is a three-card Monte game.  And it's rigged--it's rigged against the working person, and I just think that until we decide that we have to get away from that and into a more democratic economy--in other words, economic decisions that are made by our elected representatives as opposed to Wall Street, the banks, the Fed, etc., etc.

Cenk:  But how do we do it?  How do we do it?  How do we switch to that system?

Michael:  Well, no switch will occur until we remove money from politics.  We would have to start a movement where people will be running for Congress and for Senate and signing a pledge that states that they will not accept in their first run for election more than $25 or $50 from a person.  And after that, when they get in there, their number one priority is to remove funding of our elections from individuals who have the most money, and have it be federally funded like it is in most democracies.

Cenk:  So you think that campaign finance reform is the critical part of this.

Michael:  Cenk, there's nothing else will happen.  Look at right now.  Here we are guys, we're a year and a half away from the crash.  A year and a half since the big crash.  Not one single regulation has been put back in place.  Not one rule.  And for Wall Street, they're back to doing the crazy derivatives.  They're back to the credit default swaps.  They're back to all the crazy loony bin casino stuff that got us in the mess that we're in.  And the Congress has not done one single thing to stop it.

Cenk:  You know in the movie you talk about Chris Dodd, and of course he's the head of the Finance Committee.  And now he's retiring.  But that might be a worse thing, Michael, because now's he's got a payday coming just a couple of months from now.  That's going to give him a lot of incentive to not to be so tough on the banks, isn't it?

Michael:  Well, yeah, I guess that's one way to look at it.  But, a boy can hope.

Cenk:  Because part of the problem is the implicit bribe that these guys are getting.  The Treasury official just left yesterday, Damon Munchus, I believe is his name.  And he's got a great lobbying gig now with the Cypress Advisory Group.  So it's not just the campaign money they take, it's not just their advisors that leave, but themselves--they leave at some point and they get huge money.  So how do we ever fix a system that's broken, especially given that it appears that Obama has no intention of doing so?

Michael:  Well, you want the honest answer?

Cenk:  Yes, definitely.

Michael:  It's not going to get fixed.  There's going to be another crash.  The commercial real estate bubble hasn't burst yet.  That's going to burst.  The credit card debt is so huge right now, it will never be repaid.  That's a house of cards waiting to fall.  So the crash of '08 is going to look like coming attractions.  And we're in for a much, much worse time. That's how I honestly feel.

But you don't want to hear that from me, do you?  I mean, I'm only the guy who said that there weren't going to be any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that we were being lied to.  And I'm the guy who 20 years ago made his first film saying that General Motors was a piece of crap company that was going to slide down the hill and bring us all down with it.  So don't listen to me.

Cenk:  Part of the problem, Michael, is if it does crash--and I have the same fear as you do--right--is that then what the right wing media is going to step in and say "Hey, listen, you know what, it was too much government, and it was too much regulation, and it was the progressives who were the cancer, etc., etc."

Michael:  Oooohhhh, I know I'm so afraid of the right wing saying that.  Oooohhhh.    Typical Democrats.  That's the way the Democrats think. Oooohhhh, ooohhh,  they're gonna say bad things about us.  Oooohhhh, we better not do too much.  Oooohhhh.

You know, I tell you, these Democrats are disgusting.  Wimps and wusses and weasels.  You know, get some spine.  This is why I have to admire the Republicans.  They at least stand for something.  They at least have the courage of their convictions.  They get elected to office, they come into town, and they go "Get outta my way, there's a new sheriff in town.  This is the way we're doing things.  Get outta here."  And then they do it.  You know.  I mean what they do is crazy.  But dammit, they are good at it.  We should take a page out of their book.

Cenk:  I couldn't agree more with that.  So to finish that thought, if you were, for example, Van Jones, how would you have responded to Glenn Beck?

Michael:  Fuck off!  That's what I would have said.  But again, you mentioned Glenn Beck, and of course, he's the guy that's called for my removal from the planet Earth, so...

Cenk:  So, it's someone you're familiar with, so apparently you had that refrain ready.  All right, Michael Moore is the director of 'Capitalism: A Love Story', it's coming out on DVD.  Thank you so much for joining us on The Young Turks, we really appreciate it.

Michael Moore: ‘Democrats are a bunch of wusses…It’s disgusting… I’m sick of them’

Michael Moore: ‘Democrats are a bunch of wusses…It’s disgusting… I’m sick of them’

By Sahil Kapur
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Just over a year ago, Michael Moore vigorously campaigned for President Obama and the Democratic Party. But watching them jettison the public option from health care legislation appears to have been the final straw.

"These Democrats are a bunch of wusses," Moore told Raw Story in a hard-edged interview Wednesday. "They don't have the courage of their convictions. They won't stand and fight."

Health care is a uniquely important issue for the liberal filmmaker, whose 2007 documentary Sicko explored the heartbreaks and inequities in the US health care industry. He says he's fed up with the Democrats' reticence to take on insurance companies.

"It's embarrassing, it's disgusting and I won't have it anymore," he told Raw Story, mocking them in a baby's voice. "I'm sick of them."

His views on the Republicans? Well, at least they have cojones, Moore said.

"You really have to admire the Republicans on some level, because they stand up for what they believe in," he said. "They come into town, and when they win, oh they win. They come in with guns blazing."

A social critic who believes his government regularly fails to stand up for working people, Moore also took aim at Sen. Jim Bunning's (R-KY) single-handed five-day-long hold on an unemployment benefits extension.

"I remember him as a kid," said the Michigan-born-and-raised filmmaker. "He was a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. He held the record for hitting the most number of batters with a baseball, beaning them... He was an angry pitcher. He was crazy then, and he's crazy now."

Moore said Bunning is doing to America's workforce what he did to America's batters many decades ago. "He's beaning the workers," he said.

The Senate finally passed the unemployment benefits package late Tuesday after accepting a symbolic Bunning amendment.

"Capitalism: A Love Story"

Moore's newest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, assails the rampant inequality of wealth in the United States, and is currently the eighth highest grossing documentary of all time.

Its controversial thesis is that capitalism and democracy are fundamentally incompatible because such a system will inevitably lead to a plutocracy where the wealthy control the means of power and take advantage of working people.

His problem isn't the excesses of capitalism, he says, but rather in the concept itself. "Capitalism is in and of itself the problem," he told Raw Story. "Anytime the profit motive is the foundation for what you're doing, I think you're doomed."

In the film, Moore mentions Western Europe and Japan as examples from which the United States can learn, but he said even they have their limitations.

"I hail them only in the sense that they've at least found a way to put a friendly face on capitalism, so it's a little less harsh than it is on their people here," he said.

"But ultimately, they'll succumb to the same things, as we've seen with Toyota," he averred. "Once they became the General Motors, the number one, they got more greedy. They decided, 'why should we spend 7 cents on this little wire, when we can spend 4?'"

Fahrenheit Obama?

Moore shot to the national spotlight by forcefully criticizing the war and national security policies of President George W. Bush in the 2004 Fahrenheit 9/11, the highest grossing documentary of all time. Would he consider making a follow-up film with a similarly critical look at President Obama?

"Yes, I would consider that, absolutely," he said. "Unless we stop this escalation of the Afghanistan war, we are going to have to quit calling it Bush's war and call it Obama's war."

Though he's a frequent recipient of conservatives' ire, Moore rejected allegations that he's a partisan, noting that he regularly assailed President Bill Clinton during the 1990s, as he chastises Obama now.

"I've always made movies and television shows and written books where I've tried to do my best to keep an eye on those in power," he said.

Four of Moore's flicks last decade cracked the box office's top 10. Two of those came after Fahrenheit 9/11. Yet some of his critics have labeled all his releases since the 2004 record-breaker a flop. Is he cursed?

"Oh man," Moore said with an exuberant laugh. "When I read something like that, it's so Orwellian. It's like it's 1984. My movie becomes, like you said, the eighth largest grossing documentary of all time and -- 'ah that's a flop, he's all over.' I don't know what to do!"