The Wait is Almost Over: A SiCKO Interview with Michael Moore

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from Entertainment Wkly, via MichaelMoore.com:



May 16th, 2007 4:52 pm
'Sicko' the Controversy


Michael Moore talks about attracting the ire of the Bush administration with his new health care documentary, and how he wishes Katie Couric would be more forthcoming with the public

By Daniel Fierman / Entertainment Weekly

It's 3:10 in the afternoon and Michael Moore has just finished making breakfast. Another episode in the lazy life of a wealthy documentary filmmaker? Hardly. Moore was up all night working on his new documentary, Sicko, a scathing look at the health care industry that's slated to debut at the Cannes film festival on May 19. Already under fire from the government for taking his crew to Cuba, Moore put aside his cereal to chat about HMOs, his treatment in the media, and (surprise!) the Bush administration.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what makes you think there's a problem with our health care system?
MICHAEL MOORE: I said to the crew on the first day, ''Let's not insult the audience by telling them that the health care system is broken. Let's start with the assumption that people know it. What kind of film would we make then?''

Health care strikes me as something that's a lot harder for you to be adversarial about.
True. You know, I have done no interviews on this film. I've kept very quiet. But it's kind of funny when you're reading about your movie that no one has seen and it's described as this and that.

What's the biggest misconception out there?
That I set out to go to Cuba.

Care to clear that up?
No. I just want to enjoy the next five days reading about how I wanted to go to Cuba to show off their health care system. I think people are going to have to do a serious rewrite after .

But it is true that the Treasury Department sent that letter.
That is very true and very serious. And the lawyer who helped us set up everything and made sure that we were going to do everything following the law has never had a client receive this kind of letter before. And he takes down Audioslave, who did the first rock concert down there, and he's taken various other groups of artists or journalists or whatever. It's a very serious letter and we're taking it very seriously.

The PR can't hurt though.
I mean, I know the conventional wisdom is that the smartest thing for the Bush administration to do would be to say nothing, to ignore the film and it'll go away. But they can't help themselves, I guess. And somebody must have gone last week, ''Hey, it's premiering in Cannes. We really gotta do something. So let's really come out against him and no one will go see the movie.''

C'mon, surely they know this publicity helps you.
They're that divorced from the popular culture. They don't really understand me, the impact of my films, or how what they did will only bring more people to the film. I wasn't going to talk to anybody until we got to Cannes and people saw it there — and then this happens. But it's serious. The lawyers are telling us that we have to take some precautions immediately to protect the film. So we had to create a digital master copy and have it shipped out of the country so that if anything was seized, at least we'd have the master to make a negative from. This is really insane when you think about it in a free country. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=9811