ART - FILM 17, 2003

Michael Moore Film Festival

Lansing’s Shalom Center for Justice and Peace is sponsoring a series of Michael Moore films on Sept. 17-19. The films, “Roger and Me,” “The Big One” and “Bowling for Columbine,” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church at 215 N. Capitol Ave. in Lansing. Every evening, a special greeting from Michael Moore will be played in a short video introduction, created especially for this event.

The series starts with Moore’s documentary “Roger and Me,” depicting the desolation of Flint, Mich., after GM pulled 30,000 jobs from the city in the 1980s. Throughout the film, Flint native Michael Moore attempts to meet chairman Roger Smith to “talk things over.” The son of a local automaker, Moore’s journey through Flint brings him in contact with Ronald Reagan, Miss America, Pat Boone, Bob Eubanks and evangelist Robert Schuller, who all show up to save the city.

In “The Big One,” Moore brings Nike’s, the athletic shoe company, overseas labor practices to public attention. In discussions with Nike’s CEO, Phil Knight, Moore asks about the young people working in his factories, the length of days they work and their wages. As a result of the publicity from the film, Nike raised the minimum age of factory workers in Indonesia to 18.

“Bowling for Columbine” is a 2002 documentary film about the enormous amount of violence in America. Each year 11,000 people die because of gun violence. Moore traces in the footsteps of actor Charlton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association, who was born in Michigan. He also interviews Michigan-native James Nichols, the brother of the Oklahoma City bombing’s co-conspirator, Terry Nichols. Before the bombings, Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh spent at least three months on the Nichols’ tofu farm, where they were suspected of making practice bombs, and where they trained with the Michigan Militia. In this Oscar-winning documentary, Moore theorizes that Americans live excessively in fear, and that corporations capitalize on this by selling security devices and bullets.

A $5 donation is requested. For more information contact Reverend Bob Roth, Director of the Shalom Center, at (517) 485.9477

By Daniel Sturm

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