Interview. If you haven't had your coffee yet, wait to read it.TORONTO (AP) — "Mike's Happy Movie" was the working title of Michael Moore's latest documentary, "Where to Invade Next," but few would consider its examination of American ills — from runaway college tuition to mass incarceration — the stuff of bubbly, feel-good delight.
Yet "Where to Invade Next," in which Moore plunders foreign (mostly European) ideas like Italy's government-mandated vacation or Portugal's decriminalized drug use to bring back home to America, has an unmistakable whiff of hope.
Yes, Moore, that passionately voluble critic and left-wing icon, is feeling a wind at his back. Moore's first film in six years, he says, was partly inspired by change he's witnessed in recent years, from the Occupy Wall Street movement to the success of marriage equality.
In "Where to Invade Next," which Moore is currently shopping for distribution, he travels to various countries seeking smarter ways to educate, police and work. "Instead of sending in the Marines," he says in the film, "send in me."
In an interview following the movie's Toronto International Film Festival premiere, the 61-year-old filmmaker weighed in on Hilary Clinton ("a decent soul with a great sense of humor"), Bernie Sanders ("a bit of a crank") and where he got his international outlook growing up in northern Michigan ("I blame Canada").
AP: Your film suggests American chest-thumping has blurred its vision.
Moore: This concept of American exceptionalism is the death of us. We know personally it does none of us any good walking around going "Yeah! Yeah!" That's not the path to self-improvement. I mean, you can like yourself, and I do. I love the fact that I'm an American. I love this country. I love everything about what it means. But I also embrace the other side of it, and in doing so, it's incumbent upon me as a citizen to want to help fix it.
AP: Does this film signify some optimistic shift in you?
Moore: I am crazily optimistic about things getting better and people having the power to do that and making it better. But remember, I'm a filmmaker and my first concern is always to make a great movie. If I don't make a great movie, then the politics are what? Nothing's going to come of it because no one's going to be watching my movie.
AP: Do you think the protest spirit of America has waned?
Moore: The month before the Iraq War began — that one Saturday — there were millions of people in the streets in towns all over America. Largest collective demonstration in the history of the United States. One month later, it didn't stop the war. And when it didn't, people just kind of gave up and there weren't large-scale demonstrations after that. People just can't give up so easily here. Things take time.
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