Mike, the Giant Killer [updated]

Citizen — be warned! Unless you want black op’s to surround your home in the dark of night, put your family in thumb-screws and boil the family rabbit over their campfire, there are some things you CANNOT speak ill of … Israel, 9/11 and PharmCo. Mike Moore has the cojones to have addressed two out of three.

It’s a wonder he hasn’t been “disappeared” to locations unknown … I’m guessing the Bushies are having to pick their battles, now. They’re too busy shoring up the outer ring of protections [Fredo and his aide's] that provide a barrier to the inner circle of advisers and cronies that we would like to grill … the Rove’s and Condi’s that compose the last layer of insulation between the public and Dubby and Dick.

Now Moore has the Treasury Department on his case, messing with him because he went to Cuba, seeking medical care for three ground zero victims — so he decided he’d investigate THEM for investigating HIM. Mike gets major points for sheer audacity.

I can’t imagine that his new documentary, Sicko, won’t get major attention — we have all been victimized by this egregious system and will all welcome a little Light on the subject. It’s gone to Cannes now … we’ll get some reflection of the flash and lightning this weekend.

Here’s a short collection of the doin’s surrounding the movies premier, a letter from Mike and the response from those who participated in the film.

Update: response from Cannes, last.

Jude

Michael Moore hiding new film from US authorities: producer
Raw Story
Wednesday May 16, 2007

Michael Moore, the controversial documentary maker critical of President George W. Bush’s White House, is hiding his latest movie from US authorities ahead of its screening at Cannes, his producer said Wednesday.

“The film has been placed in a secret location outside the country (outside the United States),” a spokeswoman for the Weinstein Company, Sarah Levanson-Rothman, told AFP.

Moore, who won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2004 with “Fahrenheit 9/11″, is due to present “Sicko”, his new documentary which takes a scathing look at the US health industry and its powerful insurance lobby, at the film festival on Saturday.

He is currently being investigated by US authorities for making a February trip to Cuba for a segment in the film in which he takes emergency workers from Ground Zero, the New York site of the September 11, 2001 attacks, to the communist island for medical treatment.
Washington maintains an embargo on Cuba and restricts travel by US citizens there, with exceptions for special cases such as journalists, politicians and those with family on the island. Violators face fines of a few thousand dollars.

Harvey Weinstein, owner of the Weinstein Company, said that a letter sent to Moore by the US treasury department “suggests that the Bush administration is proactively trying to discredit the film,” and that his firm had “taken steps to protect the negative of the film.

“We are doing everything in our power to ensure that it premieres in its entirety on Saturday night in Cannes,” he said in a statement. ++

Michael Moore Investigates Treasury Dept’s Investigation Of Him
Reuters
May 16, 2007

Maverick filmmaker Michael Moore took the first step on Wednesday in launching his own probe into the U.S. government’s investigation of him for making an unauthorized trip to Cuba to film scenes for his latest movie “SiCKO.”

Moore’s attorney David Boies sent the U.S. Treasury Department a Freedom of Information Act request for all documents in its possession regarding its civil investigation of Moore which was launched by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. ++

Letter from Mike Moore
“Sicko” Is Completed and We’re Off to Cannes!

May 17, 2007

Friends,

It’s a wrap! My new film, “Sicko,” is all done and will have its world premiere this Saturday night at the Cannes Film Festival. As with “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11,” we are honored to have been chosen by this prestigious festival to screen our work there.

My intention was to keep “Sicko” under wraps and show it to virtually no one before its premiere in Cannes. That is what I have done and, as you may have noticed if you are a recipient of my infrequent Internet letters, I have been very silent about what I’ve been up to. In part, that’s because I was working very hard to complete the film. But my silence was also because I knew that the health care industry — an industry which makes up more than 15 percent of our GDP — was not going to like much of what they were going to see in this movie and I thought it best not to upset them any sooner than need be.

Well, going quietly to Cannes, I guess, was not to be. For some strange reason, on May 2nd the Bush administration initiated an action against me over how I obtained some of the content they believe is in my film. As none of them have actually seen the film (or so I hope!), they decided, unlike with “Fahrenheit 9/11,” not to wait until the film was out of the gate and too far down the road to begin their attack.

Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, launched an investigation of a trip I took to Cuba to film scenes for the movie. These scenes involve a group of 9/11 rescue workers who are suffering from illnesses obtained from working down at Ground Zero. They have received little or no help with their health care from the government. I do not want to give away what actually happens in the movie because I don’t want to spoil it for you (although I’m sure you’ll hear much about it after it unspools Saturday). Plus, our lawyers have advised me to say little at this point, as the film goes somewhere far scarier than “Cuba.” Rest assured of one thing: no laws were broken. All I’ve done is violate the modern-day rule of journalism that says, “ask no questions of those in power or your luncheon privileges will be revoked.”

This preemptive action taken by the Bush administration on the eve of the “Sicko” premiere in Cannes led our attorneys to fear for the safety of our film, noting that Secretary Paulson may try to claim that the content of the movie was obtained through a violation of the trade embargo that our country has against Cuba and the travel laws that prohibit average citizens of our free country from traveling to Cuba. (The law does not prohibit anyone from exercising their first amendment right of a free press and documentaries are protected works of journalism.)

I was floored when our lawyers told me this. “Are you saying they might actually confiscate our movie?” “Yes,” was the answer. “These days, anything is possible. Even if there is just a 20 percent chance the government would seize our movie before Cannes, does anyone want to take that risk?”

Certainly not. So there we were last week, spiriting a duplicate master negative out of the country just so no one from the government would take it from us. (Seriously, I can’t believe I just typed those words! Did I mention that I’m an American, and this is America and NO ONE should ever have to say they had to do such a thing?)

I mean, folks, I have just about had it. Investigating ME because I’m trying to help some 9/11 rescue workers our government has abandoned? Once again, up is down and black is white. There are only two people in need of an investigation and a trial, and the desire for this across America is so widespread you don’t even need to see the one’s smirk or hear the other’s sneer to know who I am talking about.

But no, I’m the one who now has to hire lawyers and sneak my documentary out of the country just so people can see a friggin’ movie. I mean, it’s just a movie! What on earth could I have placed on celluloid that would require such a nonsensical action against me?

Ok. Scratch that.

Well, I’m on my way to Cannes right now, a copy of the movie in my bag. Don’t feel too bad for me, I’ll be in the south of France for a week! But then it’s back to the U.S . for a number of premieres and benefits and then, finally, a chance for all of you to see this film that I have made. Circle June 29th on your calendar because that’s when it opens in theaters everywhere across the country and Canada (for the rest of the world, it opens in the fall).

I can’t wait for you to see it.

Yours,
Michael Moore

P.S. I will write more about what happens from Cannes. Stay tuned on my website. ++

‘Sicko’ Stars Thank Moore for Cuba Trip
JOCELYN NOVECK, AP
May 19, 2007

NEW YORK — It could have been a college reunion: hugs, tears, laughter, photos, and a big friendly guy in shorts and sneakers organizing it all. But the guy in shorts was Michael Moore, whose new documentary, “Sicko,” takes aim at the U.S. health care industry with the same fury - laced with humor, of course, and plenty of statistics - that he directed at the Bush administration in his hit “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

And the people who’d flown in for this intimate first screening, a day after the film had been shipped to the Cannes Film Festival, included grateful Sept. 11 “first responders,” suffering lung problems or other ailments from their days at ground zero. In the film, Moore takes them to Cuba and tries to get them treated at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay - where, he contends, terror suspects were getting better medical care than the heroes of 9/11.

The Cuba trip actually accounts for just a small part of “Sicko,” which aims its wrath at private insurance and pharmaceutical companies and HMOs, while praising socialized medicine in countries like France and Britain. Moore fills it with stories like that of a woman whose ambulance ride after a car crash wasn’t covered - because it wasn’t “pre-approved.”

But Cuba has loomed large in the flurry of prerelease publicity. That’s because the director, an unabashed critic of President Bush, is being investigated by the Treasury Department for possibly violating the U.S. trade embargo by traveling to the island nation. Moore has fired back with an open letter accusing the administration of “abusing the federal government for raw, crass political purposes.”

At his screening Tuesday evening at a Manhattan hotel, however, Moore was focused on the reaction of his invited guests.

“Three years ago tonight, we had the first screening of ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ with victims’ families,” he told them. “It was a very powerful experience, and now we’re honored to have all of you here. We’re very proud of this film. We’re confident it will have a significant impact.”

When the lights came up, Reggie Cervantes, a former 9/11 “first responder” who now lives in Oklahoma, spoke first.

“It was funny. It was real,” said Cervantes, 46, who says she suffers from pulmonary ailments, esophageal reflex, post-traumatic stress disorder, ear and eye infections and other problems stemming from time at ground zero. Of the trip, she said: “It feels surreal. Were we really there?”

“This trip opened my eyes,” offered Bill Maher, 54, another former ground zero volunteer from Maywood, N.J., who had extensive dental work in Cuba. “I was uneducated. I remembered the Cuban missile crisis. Now, you know what? I’m going back!”

“I’m going with you,” replied Cervantes.

Donna Smith, in from Denver with her husband, Larry, was in tears when she spoke. The film opens with their painful story: Plagued with health problems, they were forced to sell their home and move into the storage room of their daughter’s house because they couldn’t cope with health costs, even though they were insured.

“Health care is an embarrassment to our nation,” Donna told Moore. “You give dignity to every American in this film.”

Lost in all the publicity over Moore’s trip is the reason he went to Cuba in the first place.

He says he hadn’t intended to go, but then discovered the U.S. government was boasting of the excellent medical care it provides terror suspects detained at Guantanamo. So Moore decided that the 9/11 workers and a few other patients, all of whom had serious trouble paying for care at home, should have the same chance.

“Here the detainees were getting colonoscopies and nutrition counseling,” Moore told The Associated Press in an interview, “and these people at home were suffering. I said, ‘We gotta go and see if we can get these people the same treatment the government gives al-Qaida.’ It seemed the only fair thing to do.”

So the group, which included eight patients - three ground zero workers and five others - headed off by boat towards Guantanamo. From a distance, with cameras rolling, Moore called out through a bullhorn that he wanted to bring his friends for treatment at the naval base. He got no response.

“So there I was with a group of sick people,” he says. “What was I going to do?”

The answer: head to Havana. There, the film shows the group getting thorough care from kind doctors. They don’t have to fill out any long forms; health care is free in the Communist nation, after all.

But did the American film crew get special treatment because they were, well, an American film crew? Moore and his producer, Meghan O’Hara, insist not. “We demanded that we be treated on the same floor as all Cubans, not the special floor for foreigners,” Moore told The AP. Still, the doctors obviously knew they were being filmed, so it’s hard to know - although Cervantes said she went back alone with no cameras and was treated similarly.

Treasury officials will not comment specifically about Moore’s case. He has a few more days to provide additional information. Moore originally applied in October 2006 for permission to go to Cuba under a provision for full-time journalists, but never heard back.

The patients he brought had all struggled at home with health care costs. Some, like Cervantes, had lost their health insurance because they could no longer work, and were navigating the workmen’s compensation system.

John Graham, a disabled carpenter and EMT from Paramus, N.J., came to the screening with his daughters. On 9/11 he was at his job at the carpenter’s union offices, near the World Trade Center. He rushed over before the second plane hit, spending 31 hours at first, then helping out for months after that. He says he was later diagnosed with lung problems, burns on his esophagus, chronic sinusitis and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other things: “I need a notebook to remember everything.”

Graham, who stopped working in 2004, now lives on $400 per week in workmen’s comp payments. He split from his wife and says he is unable to keep up with childcare payments.

In Cuba, Graham had five full days of medical tests and received medication for his reflux problems. Cervantes was treated for eye and nose infections, among other things, and in a drugstore found pills for only pennies that cost her more than $100 at home. Maher had the longest treatment, to correct dental problems - he said ground zero-related stress and dreams about “people falling from the sky” made him grind his teeth at night.

Moore hopes his latest film will make people stop and think about what he sees as the tragic ills of the health care industry.

“We are the richest country in the world,” the director said. “We spend more on health care than any other country. Yet we have the worst health care in the Western world. Come on. We can do better than this.” ++

UPDATE:

Cannes Warmly Welcomes Moore’s ‘Sicko’
JILL LAWLESS, AP
May 19, 2007

CANNES, France — “Sicko,” Michael Moore’s attack on the U.S. health care system, got a warm welcome at Cannes Saturday that marked the director’s triumphant return to the film festival and a respite from the controversy his work has started at home.

More than 2,000 people applauded loudly after the film’s first Cannes screening at the packed Grand Theatre Lumiere, the main festival auditorium.

“I know the storm awaits me back in the United States,” said Moore as he absorbed the enthusiastic response of critics and journalists.

The movie doesn’t open until late June, but it has already been criticized by conservative politicians in the United States over scenes in which the filmmaker takes ailing 9/11 rescuers to Cuba for treatment.

“It’s very much in the Michael Moore vein - hilarious, but I was crying through about a third of it,” said Peter Brunette of the Boston Globe.

The trip to Cuba led the Treasury Department to investigate Moore for possibly breaking the U.S. trade and travel embargo on the communist country. He could face a fine or jail time.
Some have said the investigation is giving the film free publicity. Not Moore.

“I’m the one who’s personally being investigated, and I’m the one who’s personally liable for potential fines or jail, so I don’t take it as lightly,” he said.

On the advice of lawyers, the filmmakers spirited a master copy of “Sicko” outside the United States in case the government tries to seize it. Asked whether the inquiry could prevent the film opening in the U.S. as planned on June 29, Moore said: “We haven’t even discussed that possibility.”

Moore is a Cannes favorite. His last film, the war-on-terror documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11″ won the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, in 2004. “Sicko” is screening out of competition - Moore joked that he didn’t want to appear like a “typical American” by greedily seeking another trophy.

Stephen Schaefer of the Boston Herald thought the film might do even better at the box office than the President Bush-bashing “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which took $122 million in the United States.

“This could do even more,” he said. “This is an issue that impacts more people. It’s a huge issue.”

In an online review, trade magazine Variety called it an “affecting and entertaining” film that “alternates between comedy, poignancy and outrage.”

Moore said “Sicko” was actually meant to be a quieter and more reflective movie than the rabble-rousing “Bowling For Columbine” or “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

There are no scenes of confrontation to match Moore’s buttonholing of politicians in “Fahrenheit 9/11″ to ask whether they would send their children to Iraq.

Instead, there are ordinary Americans telling heart-wrenching stories of being refused vital treatment. Moore also travels to Canada, Britain and France to take a look - possibly rose-tinted - at their systems of socialized medicine.

“I decided to make a different film this time,” Moore said. “I wanted a different tone and I wanted to say things in a different way.

Moore said he hoped audiences would focus on the film’s message, not the controversy.

“Why would we allow nearly 50 million Americans to go without any kind of health coverage,” he said. “That’s not America.” ++

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

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