task 1

Task 1 – critical approaches      Amara Senior

Michael Moore is an American filmmaker, author, journalist and political activist. He was born on the 23^rd April, 1954, in Flint, Michigan. He first started his career in 1972. His mother Helen Veronica was a secretary and his father Francis Richard was an automotive assembly line worker.  

Michael dropped out of the University of Michigan following his first year. During his times here he wrote for the student newspaper ‘The Michigan Times’, although later had to leave. At the age of 22 he founded the alternative weekly magazine ‘The Flint Voice’ which soon changed its name to ‘The Michigan Voice’ as it expanded to cover the entire state. The Michigan voice was then shut down in 1986, when Moore became the editor of ‘Mother Jones’ magazine, as he moved to California. Moore soon got released from this job after refusing to publish a magazine article by Paul Berman, and sued the company for wrongful dismissal and settled out of court for $58,000. This gave him the motivation to produce his first film, Roger & Me’.

Directing/Producing

·         Pets or meat: The return to Flint

·         Canadian Bacon

·         The Big One

·         Bowling For Columbine

·         Fahrenheit 9/11

·         Sicko

·         Captain Mike across America

·         Capitalism: A love story

As well as this, Moore has written and co-written 8 non-fiction books on similar subject matters to his documentaries. Including,

·         Stupid white men

·         Dude, where’s my country?

He has also done acting, directing and directing music videos.

Bowling for Columbine.

Bowling for Columbine is a documentary film written, directed and narrated by Michael Moore. The documentary explores the main causes for the massacre at Columbine high school and other acts of violence with guns. The documentary includes things such as, public opinions and assumptions about related issues, as well as speaking to previous students of columbine High School to find out their experience of the massacre.

The documentary also covers areas such as violence in the USA in comparison to other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

Awards

The documentary ‘Bowling for Columbine’ brought international attention for Moore, as a rising filmmaker, which lead to his success in receiving numerous awards. Including,

·         The ‘Academy Award for best Documentary Feature’

·         Independent Spirit Award for best Documentary Feature.

·         A prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

·         Won the Cesar award for best foreign film.

Reviews

Rolling Stone – ‘This volcanically funny and seriously scary look at American obsession with guns is meant to shake us up good and it does’.

Chicago Tribune – ‘Moore’s best movie and one of the most blisteringly effective potemics and documentaries ever’.

Overall, Moore received very positive reviews about Bowling for Columbine, and was stated in most reviews that he had changed the way a lot of people thought about gun crime and the right the own a gun in the United States.

Cast list

·         Himself – Narrator

·         Salvador Allende – President of Chile.

·         Jacobo Arbenz – President of Guatemala.

·         Mike Bradley – Mayor of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

·         Arthur A. Bush – County prosecutor.

·          Footage of George Bush, Michael Caldwell.

·         Columbine Victims – Richard Castaldo and Amanda Lamante.

·         Father of victim – Tom Mauser.

With a budget of $4 million, Bowling for Columbine grossed $58,008,423 worldwide, including $21,576,018 in the United States. The documentary also broke box office records internationally, becoming the highest-grossing documentary in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Austria. These records were later eclipsed by Moore's next documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11.

*the highlighted areas above provide clues on the characteristics of the target audience*

‘The lift’

 Marc Isaacs is a director and cinematographer. He has made a various amount of documentaries, which includes the Lift. The lift was set inside a high-rise block of council flats in the East End, London. Marc Isaacs and his camera crew sat inside the lift of this building for 10 hours each day filming/observing residents as they go about their daily business.

Producer – Belinda Giles and Andrew Hinton

Cast – Himself, residents from block of flats.

Release dates

·         UK – 2001

·         FRANCE – 2002

·         USA – 2003

·         ITALY – 2003

·         CANADA – 2010

Production companies – Dual purpose productions

Filming location – East End, London.

Run-time – 25mins

Director/Cinematography

·         The road – A story of life and death.

·         Outside the court

·         Man of the city

·         All white in Barking

·         Someday my prince will come

·         Travellers

·         Calais: The last border

·         Lift

Awards

·         Bafta awards – Best new director – Nomination – 2002

·         Cracow Film Festival – Best medium- length documentary – Won (silver horn) -2010

·         Royal Television Society, UK –Network newcomer – Behind the screen – Won – 2002

Review

‘I don’t know how he did it, but Isaacs has taken what could have been intrusive and exploitative, and turned it into something that is touching, honest and surprisingly intimate’ – Bob the Moo – IMDB source