 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moore
film puts Flint area back under scrutiny TORONTO -- When Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" opens in select cities this fall, patrons can expect the filmmaker's most Flint-intensive feature since "Roger & Me." Moore's seriocomic guns-in-America documentary, which opened at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend, spends nearly one-third of its 125 minutes dealing with the infamous fatal shooting of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland by a classmate at Buell Elementary in Mt. Morris Township in February 2000. Moore uses the Rolland tragedy and others to support his major theme, that the influence of guns in American culture has produced a firearms-related murder rate unrivaled worldwide in numbers, media attention and government sanction. Among the film's interview subjects, who discuss the Rolland case and its aftermath, are Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur A. Busch, Sheriff Robert J. Pickell, Buell's former principal Jimmie Hughes and Mt. Morris Township police Detective Michael Caldwell. Buell closed this fall as part of budget cuts in the Beecher district. Saturday night's public premiere at the Toronto festival, generally regarded as North America's biggest film showcase, brought Moore a standing ovation. The left-leaning, Davison-bred director has been a festival favorite since "Roger & Me," his film about Flint and General Motors, played there in 1989. "This will be a difficult film for Americans to watch," Moore told the Canadian audience after the screening. "It isn't really about guns as much as it is about the American psyche." "Bowling for Columbine" premiered last spring at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where it earned a special Jury Prize as that festival's first honored documentary in 46 years. It is to be released to theaters starting in October by United Artists. The Rolland tragedy occurred while Moore was making a movie in which another schoolroom tragedy -- the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. -- plays a central role. Moore shows a Detroit TV reporter on the scene in Flint commenting off-camera about the senselessness of the Rolland shooting, and then bragging that his footage will be picked up by national news networks. Busch talks about the pressure put on him by "gun nuts" who wanted "to hang" the 6-year-old boy who pulled the trigger. Pickell is shown criticizing state welfare-to-work programs. The film implies that anti-welfare programs contributed to the neglect of the boy by forcing his mother, Tamarla Owens, to work out of town at an Auburn Hills restaurant. Owens was evicted from her home shortly before the shooting and left her son with a relative, from whose home the boy gained access to the gun. Moore confronts media mogul Dick Clark, whose themed restaurant at Great Lakes Crossing employed Owens, and interviews actor Charlton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association. Heston is shown visiting Flint and Littleton shortly after their respective shootings; he and other NRA officials spoke at a pro-gun rally at the IMA Sports Arena in October 2000. The Toronto festival is considered an important launching spot for major fall releases, including Academy Award hopefuls. The Detroit-made "8 Mile," starring rapper Eminem, is being shown here as a work in progress ahead of its release in November. Reviews in two major Toronto newspapers greeted "Bowling for Columbine" with differing views. The Toronto Star said the film "begins with sharpshooting accuracy and breaks down into scattershot fanaticism." The Sun lauded it as "great entertainment with socio-political value." Moore said he made "Bowling at Columbine" because of his discontent with the "American mentality" of "every man for himself" and "I, me, mine." "(People) are easily manipulated through race and fear to have guns in their homes," he said, "... and bad things can happen because of it." ***
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
 
|
Comments? Questions? Go to: http://www.michaelmoore.com Site Created by Plank • Site Hosted by Webcore Labs |
|