Moore to Participate in Keynote Conversation at Festival's Doc Conference
Twenty-five years after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Michael Moore’s first feature, the 1989 documentary Roger & Me, returns for a special anniversary screening with the filmmaker in attendance.
Roger & Me documents the efforts of General Motors as it turns its hometown of Flint, Michigan, into a ghost town. In his quest to discover why GM would want to do such a thing, Michael Moore – a Flint native – attempts to meet the chairman, Roger Smith, and persuade him to come and visit Flint to see the destruction first-hand.
“The 25th anniversary release of my first movie, Roger & Me, is definitely a bittersweet milestone. On the one hand, the film has affected the millions who've seen it and it has strongly influenced what is a now-thriving documentary movement. I'm thrilled that a 25th anniversary screening is being held at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it premiered and was awarded the Festival’s major prize, the People's Choice Award,” said Moore. “The fact that Roger & Me is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago is a travesty. Actually, it's more than that. At least in 1989, there were still 50,000 General Motors jobs left in Flint. Today, there are but 4,000 GM jobs that remain in Flint, the birthplace of General Motors.”
“In 1989 Roger & Me took Toronto by storm: the irreverent, persistent and radical doc seized the attention of media, industry and audiences alike. The premiere at once brought attention to the situation in Flint, Michigan and signalled the emergence of an original and irrepressible voice in documentary filmmaking,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO, TIFF. “Twenty-five years later, welcoming Roger & Me back to Toronto will be a highlight of the 2014 Festival.”
In addition to introducing the special screening of Roger & Me, the Academy Award®-winning director will kick off the TIFF Doc Conference with a keynote conversation moderated by TIFF Docs programmer Thom Powers. Roger & Me screens as part of the TIFF Docs programme during the Festival which runs September 4 to14, 2014. A special 25th anniversary Blu-ray™ edition, DVD and Digital HD will be released from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on October 7, 2014.
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TIFF is a charitable cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world through film. An international leader in film culture, TIFF projects include the annual Toronto International Film Festival in September; TIFF Bell Lightbox, which features five cinemas, major exhibitions, and learning and entertainment facilities; and innovative national distribution program Film Circuit. The organization generates an annual economic impact of $189 million CAD. TIFF Bell Lightbox is generously supported by contributors including Founding Sponsor Bell, the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, the City of Toronto, the Reitman family (Ivan Reitman, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels), The Daniels Corporation and RBC. For more information, visit tiff.net.
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