Posted on 07/18/2005 9:59:33 PM PDT by KevinNuPac
Michigan Freedom Film Festival Counter's Michael Moore's Moviefest
By Kevin Fobbs
Just when we thought it was safe to come out from under the Michael Moore Muckumentary movie making, he decides that he want to not only pay his home state of Michigan a visit but he set up a film festival in Traverse City, Michigan whose county went 60 percent red for President Bush in the November 2004 Presidential election.
So what is up with Michael Moore? Does he really believe he is doing Traverse City a favor by hosting his film festival in a city and county that clearly is not home to his fact-challenged liberal world view of the War on Terror post-9/11?
What's at stake? Is there really any harm in Hollywood and Michael Moore's marginalizing our heartland values through his probable biased film festival? Well, Genie Aldrich, a Traverse City native put it best, "People are fed up and tired with the extreme left-wing radical fringe America haters, family haters, Christian haters," So when she could not convince the Traverse City Commission to not allow Michael Moore's film festival from coming to her city ... she did the next best thing ... she organized the Traverse Bay Freedom Film Festival. After all ... there is nothing like good old fashioned American Competition.
The good people in the heartland of Traverse City just could not take this in-your-face film festival assault by the Flint, Michigan .native lying down. "If he believes that he can spread his version of Hollywood up here in the heartland .... then he is dead wrong," stressed Aldrich, who has joined with the American Film Renaissance group (AFR) to host a counter-festival. The good folks of Traverse City are calling their event the "Traverse Bay Freedom Film Festival".
What is interesting about this counter effort is how it truly speaks volumes about Michael Moore and the Hollywood liberal power faction audacity to push their delusional belief that Hollywood's view of America's traditional family values is actually what our nation's values are. How noble of them .... not...
Could this be the reason that Hollywood and its movies are doing horribly at the box office. Are the Hollywood Producers and the insider multi-million dollar moguls getting the message from America ... that their movies and the values are all wrong? What a predicament for them.
To be fair, perhaps Mr. Moore really wants to step aside from his post-election statements about whose views are truly America's views. Maybe all of those million dollar paychecks in his cash register are sending him down the capitalist pathway, the free market trail which he has shown such disdain for. Well, like they say in Medina County, Ohio. ."I wouldn't bet the farm on it."
Maybe Michael Moore is trying to find the softer gentler side of his psyche. Or he wants to come into the Traverse City area under radar. Matter of fact in an interview in the Detroit Free Press he claims that he truly and honestly wants to expose those uninformed poor souls to "The classics and no political films." So his film festival attendees will not have to sit and endure any of Moore's films, such as the anti-war "Fahrenheit 9/11."
But somehow he is managing to work in some left leaning propaganda films on the sly.
Take for example, a couple of his planned films, in which according to a statement from the counter entertainment for the weekend, the Freedom Film Festival, Michael Moore continues to do what he does best. They say he promotes class warfare in the movie "Land of Plenty Human Resources" which allegedly normalizes un-normal behavior. Whether it is being cavalier about the threat of terrorism or pedophiles as portrayed in the film Gunnar Palace, The Woodsman, is he "seeking to normalize himself?" Good question, no answer.
Well, The Traverse Bay Freedom Film Festival comes riding to the rescue with their own invigorating brand of Americana and patriotism with a Hollywood actress helping all the way. And in many ways it takes conservatives in Hollywood to point out the need for traditional family heartland values to be embraced by Hollywood.
Cheryl Felecia Rhoads, a 20 year veteran of Hollywood is a successful actress and writer and is co-founder of the Traverse Bay Freedom Film Festival. She says it well, "A million men won't march down Sunset Boulevard chanting, "Down with Michael Moore, we say out loud . . . we voted for George W. Bush, and we are proud!"
Rhoads, in her March 25th Human Events article points out, "It is not that we need to indulge in a left vs. right war as artists. The point is that we have sought to be truly honest craftsmen, while also being allowed to enjoy a diversity of opinion without retribution. "
Well, Traverse City is a long way from Hollywood and any possible retribution. So what are the films that the Freedom Film Festival will be showing? One movie in particular is sure to get under Michael Moore's skin. It is called "Michael Moore Hates America. Last September when he was interviewed by Hollywood Reporter, Moore said of the movie ..."You're being duped by the kooky right," he said. "I've been waiting to see this movie. It sounds like great science fiction."
If Moore cares, he will be able to sit down with Heartland Michigan residents and see the movie. He can join Hollywood conservative actors like Morgan Brittany and Cheryl Felecia Rhoads who will be right there front and center with the American Film Renaissance (AFR), whose slogan is "Connecting Hollywood to the Heartland."
That just sounds cool doesn't it? It sounds Midwestern to be up there in Traverse City on July 29th and 30th and point out to Michigan and America, but especially Hollywood, that people in the heartland have their movie viewing priorities straight.
Families want to be entertained, not talked down to, not politicized, and not assaulted with wrong-headed values, half-truths and liberal misrepresentations. Rhoads is totally involved in the planning of this event. "Those of us in Hollywood are excited about this event. Isn't it just wonderful that we can be entertained by movies that celebrate our values like freedom, faith and family?"
Some of the dozen or so films that come from Americana's treasure chest are, "About a dozen film classics like Raiders of the Lost Ark, "Top Gun," "On the Waterfront," "Charlotte's Web," and a several independent films like "In the Face of Evil," which is a moving tribute to former President Ronald Reagan.
You'll also get an opportunity to see "Echoes of Innocence," and "Confronting Iraq"which is purportedly a defense of the war in Iraq and is sponsored by the conservative group Accuracy in Media, which is a non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog of the news media that critiques botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage, i.e.. A breath of fresh air
Working with and seeing Festival co-founder Cheryl Felicia Rhoads in action is something you will clearly want to be part of and share in that energy. And you certainly don't want to miss her presentation on the classic film "On the Waterfront," at the Park Place Hotel, in downtown Traverse City.
Even though the Flint native will be in the area, the counter film festival attendees still will be able to take a holiday from Michael Moore. Summer is about vacation spots where families likes yours and mine can just kick back and settle the family in and feel good about viewing movies that celebrate who we are...not the Hollywood edited version of morality
I also know that these types of ventures, being put on by the Traverse Bay Freedom Film Festival are truly labors of love. These good folks may not have Michael Moore's millions but they have something even more wonderful. They have the spirit of America with them. You should write Genie and Cheryl or call them and just say...America supports you... and here's a donation...and by the way, keep up the good work! You can reach either one at 310-560-6340 or 231-271-1060.
Here's a great bonus. The Freedom Film Festival, unlike Michael Moore's festival, is free. That's right...It is absolutely FREE! America isn't that great? Their sponsoring partner organization, AFR, is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. So you can donate, see a movie and have a great time. You can also check out their schedule of films, screening times and locations, by visiting (web site).
America's heartland has woken up and as Cheryl Felecia Rhoads said quoting Winston Churchill in her Human Events column, "'Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.' His admonition is being heeded in the nick of time, not only for the sake of American culture, but also--due to Hollywood's influence--that of the world."
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Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist to the Detroit News. He is also Outreach Communications Vice Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit as well as co-founder of the Jackson, MI-based American Conservative Values Television Network. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show online at www.wdtkam.com daily 2-3 p.m., and call in toll-free nationwide to make your opinion count at 800-923-WDTK(9385).
Screw hollywood and the michael moore they rode in on.
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