Our Dinner With Michael (Moore) | What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire

Our Dinner With Michael (Moore) | What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire: "We were in the presence of someone who knew what we’d been through without us speaking a word of it. We listened, somewhat spellbound, as Michael talked about his experience of seeing our movie. He laughed and joked with us about the warning card at the beginning of the movie, saying that What A Way To Go is a long and dense film. He said he’d had no idea what he was about to watch but when he saw the warning he realized that he was likely in for a ride. And indeed, he said, it was a ride. So much so that he did something he didn’t remember having done in the last decade or more. As soon as the movie was over, he told us, he reached up and hit the play button again and watched it through a second time. “Four hours,” he said, “I watched your movie.” He was riveted.

Hearing this from a hero was a balm for two weary and road-wounded souls. It’s been a very long four years. It’s been hard and lonely. But Michael Moore watched our movie and he liked it. He liked it enough to watch it immediately a second time. He liked it enough to agree with the IndyFlix committee that they should bring us to Traverse City when they screened the movie. I guess what he’s saying is that it’s good.

It’s good. It’s good not in spite of the fact that it tells the truth, but because it tells the truth. It’s good not in spite of the fact that it’s long and dense, but because it is long and dense. And when he introduced us and the movie at the State Theater later on, Michael Moore went further. After he told the story of hitting the play button again after his first viewing, he said something that really hit the spot for me. He said it is not often to find people like us who respect their audience enough to tell them the whole truth. With that, he nailed it for me. Because that is true, truer than anyone else had put into words previously. We do respect our audience that much. We do believe our audience wants the whole truth. How amazing for us to have him really understand that, and to put words to it.