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Manufacturing Dissent

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by Christiaan Harden
When Debbie Melnyk and Nick Caine, two self-proclaimed progressive liberal filmmakers, set out to make a biography celebrating Michael Moore, they began as admirers and fans. They ended up feeling, in their own words, ‘disappointed and disillusioned’. Provocative and thoughtful, Manufacturing Dissent provides a measured and welcomed alternative to the myriad of right-wing anti-Moore polemics. It is an admirably honest and thoroughly rewarding piece of documentary filmmaking and a must not only for fans of Moore but for anybody interested in where the boundaries of documentary filmmaking ethics lie.

Despite attempts to avoid a Roger and Me style contributor chase, Manufacturing Dissent bears more than a passing resemblance to Moore’s breakthrough 1989 documentary. Repeated attempts are made to secure an interview with the controversial filmmaker. However, for a man who has made a career out of making people look foolish on camera, he clearly doesn’t want to run the risk himself and fails to respond to any of the filmmakers’ requests. Undeterred, they follow Moore around the U.S., but the smokescreen surrounding him becomes increasingly murky. They are even forcibly ejected from one event by Moore’s sister.

Interviews however are successfully secured with supporters and critics alike who peel back the layers on the documentary maker’s holier-than-thou image. Ben Hamper and actress Janeane Garofalo act as flag-wavers, while others including acclaimed documentarian Errol Morris take Moore directly to task. The vast majority of the charges levelled at Moore’s work, such as his wilful manipulation of chronology, have dogged him for many years and are well documented elsewhere. However does contain a few genuine revelations. Moore’s secret interview with Roger Smith, the head of GM Motors and the apparently unwilling subject of Roger and Me, is perhaps the biggest. Amazingly, Melnyk and Caine also reveal that Moore’s charitable foundation owned shares in perhaps the filmmaker’s number one enemy - the U.S. energy giant Halliburton. Moore’s personal character, as well as his methodology, is also called into question. He is accused of being a sell-out and traitor for supporting John Kerry in 2004, for enjoying the luxury life-styles that he has made a career out of lampooning, and for letting his own bid for superstardom get in the way of the causes he champions.  The filmmaker’s enormous ego is brought firmly to light, whilst we are also treated, if that’s the right expression, to a side of Moore almost unrecognisable from his on-screen persona.  He is deliberately evasive, patronising and in one clip downright unpleasant. Despite such damning revelations Manufacturing Dissent refuses point-blank to sensationalise and remains even-handed throughout  – something very much to the filmmakers’ credit, and perhaps something that Mr Moore could take on-board himself.
Rather disappointingly, there is no cross-examination of The Big One or any of Moore’s early television work, and very little in fact of Fahrenheit 9/11. Much of Moore’s formative background, particularly his early influences, is also left relatively untouched. Just where exactly does he get his rebellious spirit from? The documentary does however raise some very interesting questions not only about Moore, the man and his work, but also about the documentary form itself. It brings back to the table that age-old debate as to whether all documentaries are unavoidably subjective and therefore manipulative by nature and asks the viewer to consider whether it is acceptable for a documentarian to employ dubious methods and tactics to achieve a particular goal?

Manufacturing Dissent is, quite simply, a brave and challenging piece of filmmaking. The more you find out, the more you want to know, and the more you realise there is to know. Beneath Moore’s folksy, down-to-earth, moralistic persona lies what appears to be a complex man, ridden with contradictions. His comments on Oscar night, just days after the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq, will never sound the same again.

Fictitious times indeed.

Credits

Director: Debbie Melnyk/Rick Caine
Canada, 96 mins
A Persistence of Vision Production in association with Chum and Canal D, with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund.

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