1977–1986: Journalism At age 22, Moore founded the alternative newspaper
Free to Be..., later renamed
The Flint Voice (
Burton, Michigan 1977–1982), later renamed to
The Michigan Voice (Burton, Michigan 1983–1986) as it expanded to cover the entire state. Singer-songwriter
Harry Chapin is credited with being the primary benefactor in bringing about the bi-weekly newspaper's launch, by performing benefit concerts and donating the money to Moore. Moore crept backstage after a concert to Chapin's dressing room and convinced him to do a benefit concert. Chapin subsequently did a concert in Flint every year. In April 1986,
The Michigan Voice published its final issue as Moore moved to San Francisco. After four months at
Mother Jones in 1986, Moore was fired in early September.
Matt Labash of
The Weekly Standard reported this was for refusing to print an article by
Paul Berman that was critical of the
Sandinista human rights record in
Nicaragua. Moore refused to run the article because he believed it was inaccurate and would be used by the Reagan Administration against the Sandinistas. Chairman of the Foundation for National Progress (which owns
Mother Jones) Adam Hochschild said that Moore was fired due to performing poorly at his job. with other fund raising efforts, including bingo games, for his first film,
Roger & Me. Moore worked for
Ralph Nader as the editor of a newsletter after being fired by
Mother Jones, which provided further financial support during this period.
1989–present: Directing, producing and screenwriting Roger and Me The 1989 film
Roger & Me was Moore's first documentary about what happened to
Flint, Michigan, after
General Motors closed its factories and opened new ones in Mexico where the workers were paid lower wages than their American counterparts. The "Roger" referred to in the title is
Roger B. Smith, then CEO and President of General Motors.
Harlan Jacobson, editor of
Film Comment magazine, said that Moore muddled the chronology in
Roger & Me to make it seem that events that took place before G.M.'s layoffs were a consequence of them. Critic
Roger Ebert defended Moore's handling of the timeline as an artistic and stylistic choice that had less to do with his credibility as a filmmaker and more to do with the flexibility of film as a medium to express a satiric viewpoint.
Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint Moore made a follow-up 23-minute documentary film,
Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint, that aired on PBS in 1992. It is based on
Roger & Me. The film's title refers to Rhonda Britton, a Flint, Michigan resident featured in both the 1989 and 1992 films, who sells rabbits as either pets or meat.
Canadian Bacon Moore's 1995 satirical film
Canadian Bacon features a fictional U.S. president (played by
Alan Alda) engineering a fake war with Canada to boost his popularity.
The Big One Moore's 1997 film
The Big One documents the tour publicizing Moore's book
Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American, in which he criticizes mass layoffs despite record corporate profits. Among others, he targets
Nike for outsourcing shoe production to
Indonesia.
Bowling for Columbine His documentary
Bowling for Columbine, released in 2002, probes the culture of
guns and violence in the United States, taking, as a starting point, the
Columbine High School massacre of 1999.
Bowling for Columbine won the Anniversary Prize at the
2002 Cannes Film Festival and France's
César Award as the Best Foreign Film. In the United States, it won the 2002
Academy Award for Documentary Feature. It also enjoyed great commercial and critical success for a film of its type, and has since gone on to be considered one of the
greatest documentary films of all-time. At the time of
Columbines release, it was the highest-grossing mainstream-released documentary (a record now held by Moore's
Fahrenheit 9/11). The speech was received with a cacophony of boos, applause, and standing ovations from the audience at the theater. Moments after the speech concluded, to lighten the mood, host
Steve Martin joked, "The
Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo." Moore later said a stagehand "screamed 'asshole' right in my eardrum." After his return flight, he opened his bag to find his Oscar had been keyed, with a
TSA notice.
Fahrenheit 9/11 Moore's film
Fahrenheit 9/11, released in 2004, examines America in the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks, particularly the record of the George W. Bush Administration and alleged links between the families of
George W. Bush and
Osama bin Laden.
Fahrenheit was awarded the ''
Palme d'Or'', the top honor at the
2004 Cannes Film Festival. It was the first documentary film to win the prize since 1956's
The Silent World. Moore later announced that
Fahrenheit 9/11 would not be in consideration for the 2005
Academy Award for Documentary Feature, but instead for the
Academy Award for Best Picture. He stated he wanted the movie to be seen by a few million more people via television broadcasting prior to Election Day. According to Moore, "Academy rules forbid the airing of a documentary on television within nine months of its theatrical release", and since the November 2 election was fewer than nine months after the film's release,
Fahrenheit 9/11 would have been disqualified for the Documentary Oscar. Regardless, it did not receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The title of the film alludes to the classic book
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, about a future totalitarian state in which books are banned, and any books found are burned by firemen. According to the novel, paper begins to burn at . The pre-release subtitle of Moore's film continues the allusion: "The temperature at which freedom burns." As of August 2012,
Fahrenheit 9/11 is the highest-grossing documentary of all time, taking in over US$200 million worldwide, including United States box office revenue of almost US$120 million. In February 2012, Moore and the Weinsteins informed the court that they had settled their dispute.
Fahrenheit 9/11 drew criticism and controversy following its release just prior to the
2004 United States presidential election. Journalist and literary critic
Christopher Hitchens alleged that the film contained distortions and untruths. This contention drew multiple rebuttals, including an eFilmCritic article and an editorial in the
Columbus Free Press.
Sicko receiving a standing ovation for
Sicko Moore directed the 2007 film
Sicko, about the American health care system, focusing particularly on the managed-care and pharmaceutical industries. At least four major
pharmaceutical companies—
Pfizer,
Eli Lilly,
AstraZeneca, and
GlaxoSmithKline—ordered their employees not to grant any interviews or assist Moore. According to Moore in a letter on his website, "roads that often surprise us and lead us to new ideas—and challenge us to reconsider the ones we began with have caused some minor delays." The film premiered at the
Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2007, receiving a lengthy standing ovation, and was released in the U.S. and Canada on June 29, 2007. The film is currently ranked the twelfth highest grossing documentary of all time
Captain Mike Across America and Slacker Uprising Moore takes a look at the politics of college students in what he calls "Bush Administration America" with
Captain Mike Across America, which was shot during Moore's 62-city college campus tour in the months leading up to the 2004 presidential election. The film debuted at the
Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2007. It was later re-edited by Moore into
Slacker Uprising and released for free on the internet on September 23, 2008.
Capitalism: A Love Story in September 2009 Released on September 23, 2009,
Capitalism: A Love Story analyzes the
2008 financial crisis and the U.S. economy during the transition between the
Presidency of George W. Bush and the
Presidency of Barack Obama. Addressing a press conference at its release, Moore said, "Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event. If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. So Obama will rise or fall based not so much on what he does but on what we do to support him."
Where to Invade Next Where to Invade Next examines the benefits of progressive social policies in various countries. The film had its premiere at the 2015
Toronto International Film Festival.
Godfrey Cheshire, writing for
Roger Ebert.com, wrote that "Moore's surprising and extraordinarily winning
Where to Invade Next will almost surely cast his detractors at
Fox News and similar sinkholes into consternation".
Michael Moore in TrumpLand In
Michael Moore in TrumpLand, Moore talks about the
2016 Presidential Election Campaigns. It is a solo performance showing Moore on stage speaking to a seated audience. The film consists of Moore's opinions of the candidates and highlights the Democratic National Candidate
Hillary Clinton's strengths and also features a lengthy section on how the Republican National Candidate
Donald Trump could win. It was filmed in
Wilmington, Ohio, at the
Murphy Theatre over the course of two nights in October 2016.
Fahrenheit 11/9 In May 2017, it was announced that Moore had reunited with
Harvey Weinstein to direct his new film about
Donald Trump, titled
Fahrenheit 11/9, which was released in approximately 1,500 theaters in the United States and Canada on September 21, 2018. Sexual assault allegations against Weinstein prompted Moore to revoke the plan to work with
The Weinstein Company, which stalled production. The title refers to the day when
Donald Trump officially became
President-elect of the United States. In a column for
Variety responding to the film's low opening weekend, "How Michael Moore Lost His Audience," sympathetic film critic
Owen Gleiberman wrote "He's like an aging rock star putting out albums that simply don't mean as much to those who were, and are, his core fans". According to
Glenn Greenwald, "what he's trying is of unparalleled importance, not to take the cheap route of exclusively denouncing Trump, but to take the more complicated, challenging, and productive route of understanding who and what created the climate in which Trump could thrive."
Planet of the Humans Michael Moore was executive producer of the documentary
Planet of the Humans, which was directed by Jeff Gibbs and released on July 31, 2019. The film makes the argument that, since the first
Earth Day, the condition of the planet has worsened, and questions whether mainstream approaches adopted by industry to
mitigate climate change, entail environmental impacts whose costs are comparable to or even possibly outweigh the benefits. The film received criticism from a number of
climate change experts and activists who disputed its claims, and the accuracy of figures cited in the film, and suggested that the film could play into the hands of the fossil fuel industry. Michael Moore, Jeff Gibbs, and co-producer
Ozzie Zehner responded to the critics on an episode of
Rising.
2001–2003: Writing ,
UCLA to promote his memoir
Here Comes Trouble, September 2011 Moore has written and co-written eight non-fiction books, mostly on similar subject matter to his documentaries.
Stupid White Men (2001) is ostensibly a critique of American domestic and foreign policy but, by Moore's own admission, is also "a book of political humor". ''
Dude, Where's My Country?'' (2003), is an examination of the
Bush family's relationships with
Saudi royalty, the
Bin Laden family, and the
energy industry, and a call-to-action for liberals in the
2004 election. Several of his works have made bestseller lists.
1999–2004: Acting Moore has dabbled in acting, following a supporting role in
Lucky Numbers (2000) playing the cousin of
Lisa Kudrow's character, who agrees to be part of the scheme concocted by
John Travolta's character. He also had a cameo in his
Canadian Bacon as an anti-Canada activist. In 1999, he did a cameo in
EDtv as one of the panel members. In 2004, he did a cameo, as a news journalist, in
The Fever, starring
Vanessa Redgrave in the lead.
1994–2017: Television Between 1994 and 1995, Moore directed and hosted the
BBC television series
TV Nation, which followed the format of news magazine shows but covered topics they avoid. The series aired on
BBC2 in the UK. The series was also aired in the US on
NBC in 1994 for 9 episodes and again for 8 episodes on
Fox in 1995. His other major series was
The Awful Truth, which satirized actions by big corporations and politicians. It aired on the UK's
Channel 4, and the
Bravo network in the US, in 1999 and 2000. Moore won the
Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Arts and Entertainment for being the executive producer and host of
The Awful Truth, where he was also described as "muckraker, author and documentary filmmaker". Another 1999 series,
Michael Moore Live, was aired in the UK only on
Channel 4, though it was broadcast from New York. This show had a similar format to
The Awful Truth, but also incorporated phone-ins and a live stunt each week. In 2017, Moore planned to return to prime time network television on Turner/TNT in late 2017 or early 2018 with a program called "Michael Moore Live from the Apocalypse". In 2003, he guest starred as himself on
The Simpsons episode "
The President Wore Pearls", stating that children who do not receive music, gym and art are more likely to become unemployed and end up in one of his movies.
1991–2001: Music videos Moore has directed several music videos, including two for
Rage Against the Machine for songs from
The Battle of Los Angeles: "
Sleep Now in the Fire" and "
Testify". He was threatened with arrest during the shooting of "Sleep Now in the Fire", which was filmed on
Wall Street; and subsequently the city of New York City denied the band permission to play there, even though the band and Moore had secured a federal permit to perform. Moore also directed the videos for
R.E.M. single "
All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)" in 2001 and the
System of a Down song "
Boom!".
Appearances in other documentaries '' in 2020 • He appeared in
The Drugging of Our Children, a 2005 documentary about over-prescription of psychiatric medication to children and teenagers, directed by
Gary Null, a proponent of
alternative medicine. In the film Moore agrees with
Gary Null that
Ritalin and other similar drugs are over-prescribed, saying that they are seen as a "pacifier". • He appeared on fellow Flint natives
Grand Funk Railroad's episode of
Behind the Music. • He appeared as an off-camera interviewer in
Blood in the Face, a 1991 documentary about
white supremacy groups. At the center of the film is a
neo-Nazi gathering in Michigan. • Moore appeared in the 2001 documovie ''
The Party's Over'' discussing Democrats and Republicans. • He appeared in
The Yes Men, a 2003 documentary about two men who pose as the
World Trade Organization. He appears during a segment concerning working conditions in Mexico and Latin America. • Moore was interviewed for the 2004 documentary,
The Corporation. One of his highlighted quotes was: "The problem is the
profit motive: for corporations, there's no such thing as enough." • He appeared in the 2006 documentary ''
I'm Going to Tell You a Secret'', which chronicles
Madonna's 2004 Re-Invention World Tour. Moore attended her show in New York City at
Madison Square Garden. • He appeared briefly in the 2016 documentary
Cameraperson, directed by
Kirsten Johnson, who was one of his camera operators in
Fahrenheit 9/11.
2017–2018: Theater Moore's
Broadway debut,
The Terms of My Surrender, an anti-Trump dramatic monologue, premiered on August 10, 2017, at the
Belasco Theatre. Donald Trump tweeted his dislike for the show and falsely claimed that it closed early. In the first week the production earned $456,195 in sales and $367,634 in the final week, altogether grossing $4.2 million, falling short of its potential gross. It lasted 13 weeks with 96 performances until October 2017, grossing 49% of its potential. Fox News gave it a negative review, in line with Trump's comments. The show was unenthusiastically praised by
The Guardian, which said he only wanted to "preach to the choir". A spokesman for "The Terms of My Surrender" suggested that the production might have an engagement in San Francisco in early 2018, which didn't materialize. ==Honorary degree==