NAME: Michael Moore

AGE: 50

NATIONALITY: American

CLAIM TO FAME: The guy honoured for turning Bush-bashing into cinematic art

HARDLY anybody had forgotten the bashing President Bush recieved at the hands of filmmaker Michael Moore when the committee at Cannes decided that the US president was due for another round. For this year, Moore did one better and received the Palme d’Or, for critisizing President Bush on the big screen.

Michael Moore’s documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, a scathing indictment of the Bush administration’s policies before and after September 11, 2001, is the first documentary to win Cannes’ most prestigious trophy in almost 50 years.

Least people think that the selection was due to the fact that there were many Bush haters in Cannes, jury president Quentin Tarantino was quick to defend the jury’s selection of the film, claiming the choice had nothing to do with Moore’s left-leaning politics. The film was simply the best picture screened at the festival.

The victory of the documentary — that accuses the Bush camp of stealing the 2000 election, overlooking terrorism warnings before September 11 and fanning fears of more attacks to secure Americas’ support for the Iraq war — will help it find a distributor after being turned down by the Walt Disney Company because of its tough political message. With Moore’s customary blend of humour and horror, Fahrenheit 9/11 portrays Bush as an incompetent leader keen to further ties between the Bush family and prominent Saudis, including the family of Osama bin Laden. The film also includes video footage of soldiers in the field abusing Iraqi prisoners, as well as interviews with discontented GIs taken by cameramen embedded with US troops.

Author, filmmaker and political activist, Michael Moore is undoubtedly America’s most fearless political commentator. He has a trademark style of tackling major issues with a sharp sense of humour. His movies always follow an agenda of their own — they are invariably unapologetic attacks on callous business corporations, opportunistic right-wing politicians and other social wrongs.

Wearing his usual baseball cap and glasses, this cheeky and chubby filmmaker didn’t start off straight as a filmmaker. It was only after he was sacked from his post of an editor after refusing to bow down to the management’s wishes that Moore decided to make a film about his hometown, Flint. He focused on how the local economy had collapsed in the wake of the closure of General Motors’ Flint plant despite their continued profitability. Roger & Me, became a major critical success, was honoured at a number of film festivals, and became one of the most financially successful documentary features ever made.

In last year’s Bowling for Columbine, Moore examines America’s obsession with guns and violence, and walked away with an Oscar for it, but not before attacking President Bush for his participation in the war in Iraq.

With this being election year, ‘Dubya’ isn’t going to be too happy with this news from Cannes.