Michael Moore Sees The Need For Non-Profit Healthcare

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:00:00 -0000

Documentary-maker Michael Moore is hopeful for the healthcare changes that American President Barack Obama is working towards. He just wishes that the majority of Americans who elected Obama were being a little noisier.

“I feel bad for President Obama, what he’s going through,” said Moore. “He’s trying to bring health to people who have a hard time getting health. All those millions, tens of millions of people who voted for him, where are they? Where are the people that wanted this?”

Moore thinks that Obama might be getting better attention if his proposal went straight to a single tier healthcare system similar to the versions available in most other western industrialized countries. Nevertheless, he still has faith: “I’ll give him credit for this: He knows, and his opponents know, that if a true public option exists, if that’s passed, it will be almost impossible for the private profit-making insurance companies to compete for the company that doesn’t have to make a profit, and could put those private profit-making insurance companies out of business. That possibility exists, they know it, and that’s why the health insurance companies are spending over a million dollars a day on lobbyists and other advertising efforts in the United States.

“My favorite ones of course being the ads that show Canada as a third world country, with people lined up out the door of the doctor’s office, waiting in line for nine months, dying of brain tumors on the sidewalks of Toronto. Thank you for appreciating our sense of humor in America,” he quipped last month while visiting the Toronto International Film Festival.

Madonna’s Malawi Efforts Get Multiple Recognition

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:30:00 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

Malawi is awarding Madonna with citizenship in honor of the work she’s done through her charity, Raising Malawi, for AIDS orphans of the impoverished country.

However, Malawi’s government offices aren’t the only ones noticing Madonna’s work. Michael Moore asked to show her new film, I am Because We Are, at the Traverse City Film Festival and for her to attend the showing in person.

“She said she’d be thrilled to come here and be part of the film festival,” said Moore. “We were pleasantly surprised.”

The documentary, written, produced and narrated by Madonna, follows her through Malawi, a country devastated by poverty and AIDS, exploring the lives of the orphans. The message, though, is optimistic: there is hope. No child without vision has a future – this future exists when children believe “they are their own potential.”

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, activist Jeffrey Sachs, Archbishop Desmund Tutu and various experts are also interviewed.

“When I saw it, I thought, ‘Wow, it’s like she’s been making these films for years,’” said Moore. “She takes the viewer through a very personal journey and tries to connect us, living here in the U.S., giving us a window into the way it is for other people in the world. You understand very clearly why she’s devoted so much of her life to the people of Malawi.”

“The film is a labor of love and I am happy that I can bring it home to my roots,” Madonna told The Associated Press. “I am also honored that the film will be screening at this particular festival arranged by Michael, as he is a genius and I am a huge fan.”

The Traverse City Film Festival will run July 29 through August 3. Madonna will introduce I am Because We Are, playing at 8:00 p.m. August 2 at the State Theatre, and take questions from the audience afterwards. Proceeds of the $25 tickets will go to the Raising Malawi foundation.

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Michael Moore Sees The Need For Non-Profit Healthcare

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