BFC Revision

1. BFC Revision Categories, Language, Institution Opportunities for Integrating Key Aspects

2. Questions Raised by Moore • Bowling for Columbine is a film that asks questions. Why are there 11,000 shooting deaths in the United States each year? What makes our country different from other countries like England, France, Germany, Japan and Canada? Is it poverty? Is it the sheer number of guns here? Is it our violent history? Is it our racial makeup? By examining events such as the shootings at Columbine High School and the shooting death of a 6-year-old girl by a 6-year-old boy, and by relating aspects of our popular culture, such as the television show “COPS” and frightening nightly newscasts to the creation a highly fearful society, Moore attempts to find an explanation for the violence rampant in the United States today.

3. Success Criteria – Categories Form and Medium Genre Documentary film codes and conventions Grierson definition and why it adheres to it. • Medium: • Film, then video and DVD and finally television • Form • Mainstream. A feature film so ideal length of just over 2 hours. Small budget of $4.3 million dollars.

4. Genre – codes and conventions • Archive clips from TV and film • ‘Talking heads’ on TV • Jiggly hand held camera when interviews in Canada and USA • Location shooting and sound • Voiceover narration by Michael Moore • Real people rather than actors • Documentary editing which makes an argument (cf. continuity editing of fiction)

5. Michael Moore as ‘auteur’. • (Bowling for Columbine carries Moore’s authorial stamp. He wrote, directed, produced and stars in the film. He even narrates the film) • MM an ensemble of signs which connotes ‘ordinary guy’ • Narcissist, self publicist and entrepreneur • Inserts himself into public debates • Staged encounters with authority – MM has a series of TV shows and films which show that ‘big shots’ do what they want and don’t care about ‘ordinary folks’ • Speculations give enough information to cause suspicion but not enough to make a case • Distorts facts • First person polemic with punch lines • Excludes articulate opponents of his arguments • Mixes comedy and tragedy • Comic/ironic use of music • Funny, opinionated, sometimes eloquent • Exhaustive research. Expert editing and structuring of material with bravura montages of archive material.

6. Categories - Purpose • The purposes underlying this presentation are several: to entertain, to move, to educate, to provoke, to inspire political activism, to advocate social change. What does Moore want us to think? For starters, that gun ownership in the United States is hazardous to our health. But as the NRA claims, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” He seeks deeper, more fundamental change. He wants us Americans to be less fearful of each other, and more understanding of the causes of our fears, which he attributes to media hype and insidious, ubiquitous racism. He wants the media to focus attention on what he considers the real problems of society, instead of taking the easy way out by resorting to the sensationalism of violence. He wants to foster a climate of compassion for the underdog, replacing the tendency in our culture to blame the victims instead of helping them. He wants us to think that a good government is one that takes care of its citizens, ensuring universal access to health care, providing a safety net for those in need. And finally, he wants us to understand that our fears win elections for politicians who spout simplistic rhetoric and advocate repressive legislation instead of tackling the root causes of our social ills.

7. Categories - Genre • Bowling for Columbine falls within the documentary film genre; that is how it played at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and how it has garnered awards, and how it continues to be marketed. There are those who would argue this point, perhaps considering it a propaganda film instead. Moore is criticized for his documentary style, in that he often creates the action instead of simply recording events as they occur with no intervention on his part. He himself is on camera much of the time, questioning, teasing, confronting and consoling. He is also criticized for his obvious bias; there is no mistaking Moore’s point of view. His passionate beliefs are delivered with a wallop; he uses every filmmaking element to support his deeply held convictions about economic injustices, the inhumanity of warfare, and the insanity of fear-based violence in the United States. • The documentary film is one that “shapes and interprets factual material for purposes of education or entertainment”, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. John Grierson, a Scottish director considered to be the Father of Documentary, defined the genre as “the creative treatment of reality.” The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines documentaries as “those dealing with historical, social, scientific, or economic subjects, either photographed in actual occurrence or re-enacted, and where the emphasis is more on factual content than that on entertainment.” Filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker states, “ Documentaries are about passions, and isn't that what great movies are about?” (Mitchell). Orson Welles’ 1973 documentary, F for Fake, touches on the impossibility of making an objectively “truthful” documentary. In a sense, all documentaries are “fakes”; we, the audience, are in the hands of directors who tell and show only what they want. Welles concludes, “Art is a lie which makes us see the truth” (Fitzgerald).

8. The documentary format allows one to play fast and easy with sequencing. To make a point, shade the truth, or even tell an outright lie, a director could simply show scenes out of sequence. Moore came under fire for this in Roger & Me, when he admitted that he had rearranged the chronology of events to tell his story. “Many people considered this an unethical bending of the truth that they felt a documentary should represent” (“Film Notes”). In his own defense, Moore says, “It's only a few people who don't want to deal with the politics in the movie who are saying that. All the facts in the movie are true. All the context is true. They're only accusing me of being a journalist - attempting to tell a story with 50 hours of film footage edited to an hour and a half” (Rumsey). • A storyteller who affects to not have a point of view is always suspect. Even when a story is told with apparent objectivity, the audience is still not quite sure that it is getting the “truth”. In fact, the viewer must then dig more deeply to unearth hidden biases. With Moore’s unabashedly opinionated documentaries, we know what he is thinking – there is no hidden agenda.

9. Language You can discuss: • Technical codes • Cultural codes • Anchorage Or all three through exploration of key scenes.

10. Institution • Bowling for Columbine was financed in part by a Canadian production company, Salter Street Films, and also in part by Moore’s own company Dog Eat Dog Films. United Artists purchased the film, but exact figures were not available. Different sources reported $3 million and $5 million. United Artists president Bingham Ray claimed that he spent somewhere between $1.5 million and $10 million, “neutron bombing the competition” (Bloom). Since its release in late October, it has broken the record held by Roger & Me for highest grossing documentary, taking in $12,875,296 as of December 10, according to online Variety figures. It was the first documentary to compete at Cannes in 46 years, where it received a 13-minute standing ovation and was awarded a special Jury Prize. It is being featured at film festivals around the world; the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures gave it the Best Documentary award; it received the People's Choice Award at Vancouver's International Film. Other honors are sure to follow.

11. Integration • Categories – purpose with language • Language with Institution – think about the ways that Moore attempts to persaude the audience of his point of view

12. Genre and Purpose: • What techniques are used in documentary to PERSUADE the audience? • Technical codes: • 1. Editing • Bank scene • www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxbRm2dS1F8 • Charlton Heston “walkingaway” • www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-wcqSKse-I&feature=related • 2. Including shaky cam • Spoiled footage kept in – makes it seem “real” • 3. Real life footage • Columbine HS CCTV, the 9/11 footage etc. • www.youtube.com/watch?v=865Onxt9H2M&feature=related • CHS www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vh_Cq7h_gI&feature=related • Cultural Codes: • 2. Michael Moore’s presenting persona: dress and language • Bank scene “how do youspellcaucasian?” • www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxbRm2dS1F8