Manufacturing Dissent

It's probably not much of a surprise to anyone that I'm not a very big fan of Michael Moore. Besides not actually agreeing with his politics I've also thought his "documentaries" were lacking something. Usually what's lacking was a not so obvious personal political argument, and this is why I put documentaries in quotes just now. After all, a documentary should be built around a position, it should be built around a subject and then see which way the research and filming takes you.

This appears to be what happened to one left-wing filmmaker, Debbie Melnyk when she decided to make a documentary on someone she considered to be a left-wing hero, Michael Moore. Melnyk had just finished making a documentary investigating her fellow Canadian, Conrad Black, when she decided that doing one on Moore would be a good idea.

The journey however was not one she expected it seems as she started out wanting to produce a film about someone she admired, and ended with a film that debunked some of his methods and showed Moore to be an outright hypocrite who cared more about the narrative of his film than what actually happened whilst making it.

Melnyk has written a superb feature article in the Sunday Telegraph about her experience making the film which ended up being called "Manufacturing Dissent". I imagine many Sunday Telegraph will find their views merely re-enforced by the article, but then again, maybe not. Some have accused Melnyk of using the very same documentary tactics which the film ends up arguing against, having not seen it I can't know if that's true.