American right vows to settle score as Bush's nemesis turns up the heat Lawrence Donegan in San Francisco and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday June 27, 2004
The Observer UKhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1248275,00.htmlAfter the film comes the film festival. The day after Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 was released in American cinemas, it was announced yesterday that a festival devoted to films debunking Moore's own work will be staged later this year in Texas.
The American Film Renaissance has the backing of 'some big-time conservative donors', according to its organisers, and will feature up to 10 films, among them Michael Moore Hates America - a so-called exposé of the director's working methods, by filmmaker Michael Wilson.
'We want everyone to see Michael Moore's film,' said festival founder Jim Hubbard, a lawyer based in Dallas. 'But we also want everyone in America to see Michael Moore Hates America. Conservatives complain about institutional bias in Hollywood. But they need to stop whining and get out there and produce.'
The proposed anti-Moore festival is just the latest development in a widespread effort to discredit Fahrenheit 9/11, an excoriating attack on the presidency of George W. Bush and his decision to go to war in Iraq, which was released in the US this week.
The film's central claim is that Bush took the country to war to satisfy the commercial interests of a network of military, industrial and oil companies which had ties to his own family, members of his administration, the Saudi Arabian government and the bin Laden family.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1248275,00.html