Buzz Bissinger Confronts Michael Moore at Philly Film Fest

Michael Moore (photo by David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons) | Buzz Bissinger (publicity photo)

Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore was in Philadelphia on Friday night for a screening of his new movie Where to Invade Next. And sitting in the front row at the Prince Music Theater was none other than Philly’s own Buzz Bissinger, the Pulitzer-winning journalist and frequent rabble rouser. And based on what went down at a talkback after the screening, we think it’s fair to say that Bissinger has some significant issues with the film.

Moore is generally known as a documentarian, but he’s come under frequent criticism for playing fast and loose with the truth. Some have called him a propagandist. Bissinger chose to label Moore a polemicist and took him to task for a section of the film that deals with the topic of homosexuality in Tunisia. He also suggests that Moore tries to manipulate audiences with his movies.

Bissinger refers to a sequence in Where to Invade Next where Moore has a “talking head,” as Bissinger refers to him, speaking about Tunisia’s attitude toward gays. We haven’t seen the film, but it is apparent from Bissinger’s comments that the talking head suggests that Tunisia is more liberal than it actually is on the subject.

Bissinger refers to a recent incident where a man was sentenced to prison in Tunisia for being gay. The two go back and forth for a bit, and eventually, Moore promises to check out the story.

But the best part of the whole thing happens earlier in the confrontation. Bissinger identifies himself as a journalist and Moore questions him about it, asking if he works for “a local paper.” (He might as well have asked, “What are you, a blogger?”) Bissinger seems to take offense and rattles off some of his credentials, including that Pulitzer award and his gig as a Vanity Fair writer.

Most of it was captured on video thanks to XFINITY.com entertainment editor David Onda. Check it out: