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TRAVERSE CITY,
Michigan—Madonna’s
new film on the impoverished nation of Malawi has wowed
another maker of documentaries: Michael Moore.
Moore announced Thursday that Madonna, like himself a
Michigan
native, will appear for a screening of I Am Because
We Are during the Traverse City Film Festival on
August 2.
“She’s
sort of entered my realm,”
Moore said. “When I saw it, I thought, ‘Wow, it’s like she’s
been making these films for years.’”
Madonna
produced and narrated the documentary after traveling to
Malawi, where she met the toddler David Banda. She and
husband Guy Ritchie are adopting the child.
Madonna arrives onto the
stage during the amfAR’s annual Cinema Against AIDS 2008
benefit in Mougins, southern France, on May 22, 2008. -- AP
I Am
Because We Are
illustrates the poverty that children of the southern
African country face, how the AIDS crisis is claiming
lives, and the conditions that cause disease and other
misery there. But the film urges people to volunteer and
tries to offer hope.
“She
takes the viewer through a very personal journey and
tries to connect us, living here in the
US,
giving us a window into the way it is for other people
in the world,” Moore said. “You’re extremely moved when
you watch it. You understand very clearly why she’s
devoted so much of her life to the people of
Malawi.”
Moore said he was “outraged” by the criticism Madonna
received for her efforts to adopt David. Some children’s
rights groups said it would be better to provide more
resources so children could remain in their native
countries. Others accused her of using her celebrity
status to circumvent Malawian adoption laws, which she
denied.
“As one
who has seen what the yellow press can and does do, all
of that was just one more reminder to me of just how
dishonest so much of the media is in this country,”
Moore said.
“I am
very excited to come to
Michigan
to show my film,” Madonna said in an e-mail Friday to
The Associated Press. “The film is a labor of love and I
am happy that I can bring it home to my roots with the
help of Michael.
“I am
also honored that the film will be screening at this
particular festival arranged by Michael as he is a
genius and I am a huge fan.”
Moore,
who won the Academy Award in 2002 for Bowling for
Columbine, said he saw an early version of Madonna’s
film in London while shooting scenes for his latest
documentary, Sicko.
After
watching the finished product about a month ago, he
asked Madonna for permission to screen it during the
festival in Traverse City, his adopted hometown about
250 miles northwest of
Detroit.
Moore established the festival in 2005 with local author
Doug Stanton and photographer John Robert Williams.
“She
said she’d be thrilled to come here and be part of the
film festival,” Moore said. “We were pleasantly
surprised.”
Madonna,
born in
Bay City and raised to the south near
Detroit,
recently released a new album, Hard Candy, and is
preparing for a worldwide tour that begins in August.
She’ll take a one-day break from rehearsals to visit
Traverse City.
The film
will be shown in a downtown theater that seats 540.
After the film is shown, Madonna will take questions
from the audience, Moore said. AP |
