3.6. Michael Moore: After Roger & Me
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This article is from the Michael Moore FAQ, by Edward Champion edchamp@slip.net with numerous contributions by others.
3.6. Michael Moore: After Roger & Me
The profits from "Roger and Me" enabled Moore to establish the
Center for Alternative Media, a foundation that is dedicated to
supporting independent filmmakers and social action groups. To
date, the foundation has dispersed more than $400,000 in grants.
From a January 1993 "Esquire" interview:
"I had a lot -- a "lot" of offers to reprise Roger & Me. Or,
as the Hollywood people would say, 'Do your Roger & Me shtick
again.' I turned down a lot of money."
From an excerpt in the October 12, 1992 "New Yorker_:
"I came to New York City to write," says the filmmaker Michael
Moore. "Too many distractions in Flint." Moore flashes his now
familiar smirk, but he's only half joking. He's in New York, all
right, in the dismal common room of the posh Upper West Side
apartment building where he lives. Outside, sirens shriek, cabbies
beep, and boom boxes thump, but no matter. Here he can work. In
Flint -- well, Flint, Michigan, is not only his home town but the
desolate setting of his comic 1989 documentary, Roger & Me, which
raged at General Motors for plant closings and layoffs that,
according to Moore, destroyed Flint's economy. The movie achieved
the largest box-office gross in documentary history (if you don't
count concert films), and it made Moore famous. Too famous. "I
was shopping in Flint, and one of the employees got on the phone:
'Attention, K mart shoppers. Michael Moore has entered the store.'
Know what I'm saying? And I'm hiding, you know, behind the
Valvoline."
Moore got invited to a lot of big premieres. He sat on panels
for aspiring filmmakers, spouting forth advice and several grants.
At an Independent Film Project conference in New York, Moore pulled
out his checkbook and started giving grants on the spot.
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