Michael Moore's Innovative Plan For Documentaries

By Katey Rich

Michael Moore usually spends his time calling for reform in areas other than his own, be it the weapons industry or the Bush administration. But coming off a few years that were pretty nasty for documentaries at the box office, Moore has some ideas for his own industry, namely a way to get documentaries seen in places distributors might not otherwise dare to send them.

"I just believe that there are 12 people in every town in America that would like to see some non-fiction, instead of some fiction, for one night of the week," Moore said last Wednesday at a dinner hosted by the International Documentary Association, as reported by IndieWire. Oh yes, Michael Moore has a plan: It's called Doc Night in America, and it proposes to bring documentaries one night a week, to one screen in every multiplex.

But it's not quite as financially disastrous as it might sound. Moore points out that on weeknights, a given screen in a multiplex is probably empty, especially if it's dedicated as a second or third screen for the latest blockbuster."'Harry Potter doesn't need to be on seven screens. That seventh screen, it just isn't full, it never is and it's crowding out some very good movies."

Moore plans to meet with theatre exhibitors in the near future to propose his plan to show a documentary a week on the least-used screen in the theatre. His theory is that, with a little bit of the proper marketing, documentary fans will seek out these films, at least in greater numbers than the 12 or so audience members who see blockbusters on Tuesday nights.

Can it work? My guess is it's probably a lot more complicated than it seems. What gets shown at any given multiplex is a decision made by many people other than the specific theatre owner. Are enormous theatre chains equipped to make this kind of location-by-location decision-making, to figure out exactly where Spider-Man 4 isn't playing well and replace that slot with a documentary? Plus, how do these documentaries get chosen? I'd imagine there's plenty of interest now in Taxi to the Dark Side, having just won the Oscar, but what about the recent release The Unforeseen, which got a rave review from our critic Chris Barsanti. Which film is more likely to get an audience, and which is more worthy? That's an answer pretty much no one can know in advance.

I love Moore's idea, especially having grown up in a town with a dearth of movies worth seeing, and nary a documentary for miles. But I have to wonder if it's a plan that can work, especially with a mercurial, polarizing spokesperson at the head. Can the same people who wanted to boo Moore off the stage during his Oscar acceptance speech join hands with him to transform documentary distribution? Or is this like his baiting of Charlton Heston in Bowling for Columbine-- a provocative idea in theory, but in execution, not all that effective?