Moore makes no apologies for ‘picking flowers’ of Europe in new documentary

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Michael Moore, the divisive political pop-documentarian, brought gifts for the audience and gripes for his fellow Americans when he came to Canada for the world premiere of his new movie at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

During a question-and-answer session following the screening of Where to Invade Next, Mr. Moore gave moviegoers free pencils from a Faber-Castell factory in Germany, whose progressive working conditions he lauds in the film. And he had TIFF ushers hand out applications for a Slovenian university which he says provides a free education to anyone who qualifies – even foreigners.

But he also took time to throw out some well-aimed barbs: Comparing aspects of the U.S. political system to apartheid, attacking the mainstream media for helping the U.S. government keep citizens fearful and ignorant of the rest of the world, and calling America's treatment of women and African-Americans the country's "original sin."

Greeted by frequent applause during the screening and cheered by a standing ovation afterward from a sold-out crowd of 1,700 at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Where to Invade Next follows Mr. Moore as he visits a series of European countries and Tunisia on a mock invasion, where he learns about how well some progressive policies are working around the world in hopes of stealing the ideas for use back in America.

He goes to Italy to speak with regular people and CEOs about the benefits of generous vacation time and two-hour lunch breaks; drops in on a lunch program at a primary school in France, where the Camembert-eating children learn about nutritious meals and spurn his offer of a Coca-Cola to accompany their gourmet prawn appetizer; and sees how the French sex-education curriculum leads to a lower rate of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases than in the United States.

In a sombre second half, Mr. Moore looks at how Germany has incorporated the Holocaust into its educational curriculum and everyday life, contrasting it with America's discomfort over addressing its history of slavery and its treatment of indigenous peoples. He goes to Norway to visit a maximum-security prison where the emphasis is on "rehabilitation rather than revenge." And he lauds Iceland for the wholly equal role women play in that society.

The film closes by noting wryly – spoiler alert! – that most of the social innovations he trumpets as successes in other countries actually began in the United States.

Mr. Moore said during the question-and-answer session that he knows critics will attack the film for leaving out the downsides of some of those policies, but he doesn't care.

"I'll write the critics' line for you now, so you don't have to read it: 'Italy?! Italy, are you kidding? It's a [expletive deleted] mess! Oh, Greece, he didn't go to Greece, did he?'" Mr. Moore said, adopting a mock blowhard pose.

"The mainstream media does a really good job of telling you night after night and day after day how all the rest of the world is just so bad, it's horrible, it sucks. And all I ask for is, every few years, just two hours of your time to present the other version, the truth about what goes on."

He added: "I went there to pick the flowers and not the weeds. And, other people can pick the weeds, but I wanted to show – especially my fellow Americans, but around the world – the contrast between the two."

Asked by documentary programmer Thom Powers whether he timed the film to influence next year's U.S. election, and noting that the film endorses the central role women play in Iceland's political and economic structure, Mr. Moore said it would take more than the election of a new president to change things in his home country.

"I don't think that just having an African-American president, or a female president, is going to fix [America's problems]. I think that there's much deeper work to be done as Americans," he said.

"We're so happy now that we've got 20 U.S. senators that are women. 'Woohoohoo! Twenty women in the Senate.' Do you realize how ridiculous that is, to be happy about that? They're 52 per cent of the population! If 20 per cent of the power – we're thinking this is some great thing that we've done, no one 100 years from now is going to think that. They're going to think: 'Wow, these people lived in a democracy when it was controlled by the minority gender.' They have another term for that, for another country, it was called apartheid, when the minority calls the shots."

Where to Invade Next is Mr. Moore's first film since Capitalism: A Love Story. That 2009 film, which put the financial crisis under a microscope, did only middling business in theatres, earning less than $15-million (U.S.) at the box office. The new film is Mr. Moore's first since 1989's Roger & Me to come to TIFF without having a distribution deal sewn up. Bidding, which began when the premiere screening wrapped up after midnight, was said to be heated.

Where to Invade Next screens at TIFF on Sept. 11 at 1:30 p.m. (Bell Lightbox 1), Sept. 18 at 12 p.m. (Ryerson) and Sept. 20 at 6 p.m. (Ryerson); tiff.net.