The premiere of Michael Moore’s newest documentary “11/9” took place this past Thursday to a spirited audience at Alice Tully Hall in new York. The event was paired with a Q&A with the acclaimed director, hosted by New York Film Festival director Kent Jones, where the two discussed the film’s potential impact and modern relevance.
“I wanted to make something that I thought would be vital for right now. At the end of the film, I didn’t want to tie it all up in a nice bow and have people have a false sense of hope, because I don’t have hope, I’m not hopeful,” Moore told Jones.
The director emphasized that his time working with the Parkland shooting survivors while making the film, who were quick to move to activism post-tragedy, helped shaped his perception of ‘hope.’ “They really taught me a number of things. They’re in complete action, they don’t have any time to be sitting around ‘hoping’ for things to get better or ‘hoping’ that we’re going to win the midterms.”
“We need to treat things like that as if it’s not going to be happening. [In 2016] I tried to tell liberals and progressives and Democrats that we were going to lose and no one wanted to hear that,” he continued.
In regards to Trump’s poor current image, Moore says people on the left can never be too comfortable. “We talk about Trump, ‘he’s an idiot, he’s crazy’ all these names we attach to him, but like he said he’s President and you’re not. He’s so ‘dumb’ he figured out how to win the White House by losing. How do you do that?”
“I took him seriously from the get go. I didn’t know at the very beginning he’d win the presidency, but I certainly thought he’d win the Republican nomination,” he said.
“We only have 54 days until the midterms, and anybody that’s not taking Trump and the Republicans seriously right now is going to cost us the election,” Moore stated to a heavily attentive audience, “I wake up every morning with the knowledge and belief that we’re going to lose on November 6th. If you don’t believe that, if you don’t embrace that truth, you are going to help us lose.”
Fahrenheit 11/9 hits theaters this Friday.
Photo Credit: Paula Schwartz