Roger & Me(1989)
dir. Michael Moore
Flint, GM, and a man who will not answer the door.
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When General Motors closes its plants in Flint, Michigan, and lays off thirty thousand people, a local named Michael Moore tries to get the chairman, Roger Smith, to come and see what he did. He never gets in the door. What he does find is a town of evictions, rabbit-sellers and a sheriff who is evicting the people he grew up with. It is the film that made the documentary a popular form.
Why it’s here
The film shows what a plant closing does to a town, a family and a Christmas, in a way a chart cannot. What's punk is the fact that it starts with a nobody with a camera knocking on a door he is not allowed through. What's pedagogical is the way it is a lesson in point of view: Moore has been criticized for compressing the timeline, so the film is also a good case study in documentary honesty. Pairs with American Factory, Nickel and Dimed and Stupid White Men (suggested 10-25). Note: Moore is partisan, and the film's chronology is rearranged for effect.
Where This Film Lives
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