By Louis Peitzman
To call Michael Moore a contentious filmmaker would be something of an understatement. A stalwart champion of the left, he has managed to piss off Republicans and Democrats alike. At an appearance in San Francisco recently, I spoke to Moore about his latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, a bipartisan look at an economic system that — according to Moore — has let this country down.
San Francisco Bay Guardian: With a topic as broad as capitalism, where do you begin?
Michael Moore: Well, I began by thinking about all the stories I’ve heard over the years of things that, to me, are the most illustrative of this economic system. So I first talked to a pilot on food stamps 13 years ago. I first heard about “dead peasants” eight or nine years ago. I’ve kept in my head a list of these stories, because a lot of people stop me on the street or in a restaurant or whatever, and they want to tell me their story. I’ve listened to a lot of stories. I get thousands of emails every week and so I hear a lot that way. It’s a culmination of 20 years of just being inundated by the misery that this economic system has created.