Moore screens new ‘Capitalism’ documentary

Filmmaker Michael Moore at a recent event in San Francisco. (Creative Commons photo by Steve Rhodes via Flickr)

BELLAIRE — Director Michael Moore’s new documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story” made its U.S. debut over the weekend as a fundraiser for the Antrim County Democratic Party at the single-screen cinema in this small Northern Michigan town, population 1,164.

In the last five years, Moore, a Flint native who now has a home in the area, has mobilized thousands of volunteers to establish the immensely popular Traverse City Film Festival and resurrect the downtown State Theater, and has achieved mainstream popularity as a force of economic and cultural development despite the region’s traditional Republican preferences.

Before the screening he told the crowd of friends, neighbors and long-traveling hard-core fans that he is pleased that “Capitalism: A Love Story” is the first full-length major documentary to be produced in nearby Traverse City.

Moore said he found it good to relocate his New York-based crew to Michigan and have them live and work among locals who are suffering through a period of historic levels of foreclosure and unemployment.

“It did something good for their souls,” he said.

With tears, laughter and some cheering, the multi-generational crowd seemed to remain engaged as the two hour and seven minute film presented modern economic history with a special focus on the dangers of unchecked corporate power and the dignity of regular people who fight to get what they deserve.

The film touches on the fear campaign that preceded last year’s bank bailout and the strange prevalence of Goldman Sachs people in government and features leaders of the Catholic church arguing that capitalism is incompatible with Christianity.

Michigan figures heavily in the film as the birthplace of Moore and as the first place devastated by corporate moves to dismantle American industry for short-term profit.

The movie offers current examples of people who have brought democratic principles into their workplaces.

It served as a reminder that then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called out the National Guard to protect workers from union-busting goons during the Flint sit-down strike of 1937, which launched the United Auto Workers and the American middle class, and that FDR wanted to add an economic bill of rights to the U.S. Constitution.

Former bank regulator and professor William K. Black was featured in the film, explaining how deregulation of the financial industry allowed scoundrels to prosper, and how the administration of then-President George W. Bush pulled the FBI’s white collar crime specialists off the job after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks even as the agency was warning of a wave of mortgage-related crime by lenders.

The soundtrack includes new music from Iggy Pop and a lounge rendition of “The Internationale,” a socialist anthem originally written in French.

After the screening, across the street from the theater at Short’s Brewery, fans reflected on the film.

“This movie will go down in history, though it may take a while for its influence to be felt,” said Mel Schacher, who is best known as the bassist for the rock bank Grand Funk Railroad and contributed some music to the film. “I think it will be seen as a major mechanism of the turning point in how we think.”

Schacher said he appreciated how the film used Catholic priests to explain the function of propaganda in a capitalist system.

Guitarist Ivan Greilick said he is also optimistic about the potential social impact of the film.

“People with a financial interest in the status quo have been really good at messaging,” Greilick said, giving as an example the “birthers” who deny that President Obama was born as a U.S. citizen. “The fact that people continue to believe that comes down to a literacy problem.”

“Michael Moore deserves credit. He is making a good effort to inform people. I hope that what people take away is that whether or not this disaster we face continues is in large part up to us.”

“Capitalism: A Love Story” is slated for nationwide release Oct. 2.