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HAMPTONS DOC FEST HONORS MICHAEL MOORE
WITH THE 2024 PENNEBAKER CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
A serious filmmaker and passionate political activist uses humor and satire
GALA EVENING HONORS MICHAEL MOORE
SATURDAY, DEC 7
BAY STREET THEATER
6:30PM Cocktail/Buffet Reception
8:00PM Pennebaker Award and Interview with Michael Moore
Followed by screening of Roger & Me
Michael Moore was born in Flint, Michigan and, according to him, was “raised on a dirt street by loving parents, two sisters, and a lot of Green Giant in a can.” In addition to a keen sense of humor, he is also a very serious filmmaker and passionate political activist, casting a critical eye on many of America’s leading politicians, institutions, and corporations.
His activism started early. At age 18 he was elected to the Flint school board, becoming the youngest elected official in the country at the time. At 22, he founded the Flint Voice, a nationally recognized alternative newspaper, which he edited for 10 years. Watching the automotive industry’s decline instilled in him a desire to challenge corporate practices and advocate for social justice.
Moore has made his mark as a filmmaker by entertaining while, at the same time, provoking viewers to rethink their assumptions. He uses irony and sarcasm and doesn’t shy away from controversial narration in his films. He often appears in his documentaries, allowing his audiences to connect and engage with him, bringing a human 12touch to difficult subject matter. While Moore’s films often generate debate among audiences, they also lead to critically important policy discussions.
Moore’s first documentary, Roger & Me, chronicled the economic impact of General Motors’ plant closures in Flint. The film was a hit with critics and at the box office. Roger & Me earned Moore a reputation as a groundbreaking filmmaker for shining a spotlight on the struggles of working-class Americans using his dark sense of humor and keen sense of satire – a revolutionary approach for the documentary genre.
Over the course of his long career, he has directed 13 films (producing and writing most of them); acted in four films; made five video shorts; produced three television series; published eight books and one audiobook. Currently he can be found on The Michael Moore Podcast where he continues to offer his subversive takes on the issues of the day.
After Roger & Me, Moore went on to break the documentary box office record two more times with his 2002 Oscar-winning film, Bowling for Columbine, about gun violence in the U.S., and the Palme d'Or-winning Fahrenheit 9/11, about President George W. Bush’s handling of the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War, which remains the highest- grossing documentary of all time in the U.S. Other notable films include the Oscar-nominated Sicko, Capitalism: A Love Story, Where to Invade Next and Fahrenheit 11/9. Moore won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series for his prime-time NBC series TV Nation and is one of America's top-selling nonfiction authors, with such books as Stupid White Men, Dude, Where's My Country? and Here Comes Trouble.
Moore’s live stage performance about the 2016 presidential election was the basis for Michael Moore in Trumpland. In 2017 Moore made his Broadway debut in the one-man show The Terms of My Surrender, which examined the Trump presidency.
In addition to all there is to admire about his career, we, at Hamptons Doc Fest congratulate Michael Moore on the highly respected Traverse City Film Festival which he founded and ran for 20 years. Sadly, this esteemed festival closed its doors in 2023. As Moore so aptly put it at the time, “We can reaffirm to you our belief, as always, that one great movie can change your life, and that powerful films can help change the world.”
