Sicko - Michael Moore's Next

[MacGuffin]

Sicko
Source: Entertainment Weekly

What's the new gotcha documentary from Michael Moore — that notable crusader for openness and accountability — about? That's an excellent question, so we called him up. Except he wouldn't talk about it. Then we asked The Weinstein Co. for some information. And, well, they didn't have any. What about a photo? Um, nope. And, frankly, we didn't have time to camp outside Moore's Manhattan office with a tape recorder and a baseball cap — and no one at EW really has the facial hair for the gig anyway.

So let's share what we do know. The movie is a documentary. (Obviously.) It's about the health-care industry. (Hence the title.) And Moore is the star. (When hasn't he been?) No matter what you think of the Flint, Mich., filmmaker, the man knows his hot-button issues; and given the number of Americans without health care — an estimated 46 million — this is surely one of them. While shooting Sicko, Moore reportedly brought ailing Ground Zero workers to Cuba for treatment, apparently to demonstrate the advantages of socialized medicine. Moore has now directed two of the highest-grossing docs of all time — and he hasn't lost his flair for the controversial. Whether he chats about this movie or not, we'll be paying attention. It would be just plain silly not to.

[MacGuffin]

Weinsteins set 'Sicko' release date
Moore film to rollout June 29
Source: Variety

The Weinstein Co. has pegged a June 29 rollout for Michael Moore's Cannes-bound docu "Sicko" and brought in Lionsgate to partner on releasing the documaker's first pic since "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Division of labor will see Lionsgate booking theaters on "Sicko" in the U.S. while TWC handles all marketing and publicity duties and puts up all P&A costs.

TWC is also handling international rights and is offering the doc -- a critical look at the U.S. health care system -- in Cannes after its world preem.

People close to the pic's domestic partnership said that TWC was attracted to Lionsgate because of Lionsgate's exclusive pay TV pact with Showtime for docus.

Pact reteams Bob and Harvey Weinstein with Lionsgate three years after the movie-mogul sibs picked the indie studio to help roll out "Fahrenheit 9/11."

"Lionsgate was very helpful the last time, and this time we're happy to have them involved again," Harvey Weinstein said. He added that he sees "Sicko" as a less controversial film than "Fahrenheit."

"I've seen this movie with Republicans and Democrats, and this is one time Michael has sort of unified everyone," he said. "The health care industry might not have a very good July Fourth."

Lionsgate's Tom Ortenberg added that he sees the June 29 date as a prime pick for the docu.

"That will be six weeks from the film's Cannes presentation for us to open," he said. "With July 4 coming on a Wednesday, we see that entire week as virtually seven straight Saturdays."

"Fahrenheit" brought in $222.4 million in worldwide B.O. and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

June release date pits "Sicko" against Disney's computer-animated "Ratatouille" and Fox actioner "Live Free or Die Hard," as well as specialty fare including Focus drama "Evening" and MGM's "Death at a Funeral."

[MacGuffin]

Weinsteins' hired guns set 'Sicko' spin
Lehane to consult on Moore film
Source: Variety

Concerned that the health care industry will lash out at Michael Moore's docu "Sicko" after its world preem, the Weinstein Co.'s Harvey Weinstein has brought aboard political strategist Chris Lehane as a consultant on the Cannes-bound pic.

Gotham-based praiser Ken Sunshine -- who reps clients in entertainment, public affairs, labor and health care -- has been brought on as well and will travel to Cannes with Lehane, Moore and the Weinstein Co. team.

Lehane is no stranger to Moore docs, having served as a press strategist for the release of the firebrand filmmaker's anti-President Bush screed "Fahrenheit 9/11" in 2004. Lehane was Al Gore's press secretary during his the 2000 presidential run and served as a White House spokesman and lawyer for President Clinton. He's worked as an adviser and consultant to various Democratic candidates. He is a partner in California-based communications firm Fabiani & Lehane.

"If the HMOs strike, I'm going to need two guys who can strike back," Harvey Weinstein told Daily Variety Wednesday.

TWC tapped Lionsgate earlier this week in a deal for the latter to book domestic theaters and a feevee deal with Showtime while the Weinstein Co. handles all marketing, PR and P&A costs on the U.S. health care critique.

TWC targeted Lionsgate because of Lionsgate's output deal with Showtime.

Weinstein's hiring of Lehane and Sunshine seemed timely on Wednesday, the same day Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America senior veep Ken Johnson issued a statement bashing Moore's "Fahrenheit" follow-up.

"A review of America's health care system should be balanced, thoughtful and well-researched," the news release stated. "You won't get that from Michael Moore."

"Michael Moore is a political activist with a track record for sensationalism. He has no intention of being fair and balanced."

TWC is handling all world rights on "Sicko" but won't offer them until after the pic's Cannes preem.

[MacGuffin]

Michael Moore faces U.S. Treasury probe

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department for taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary "Sicko," The Associated Press has learned.

The investigation provides another contentious lead-in for a provocative film by Moore, a fierce critic of President Bush. In the past, Moore's adversaries have fanned publicity that helped the filmmaker create a new brand of opinionated blockbuster documentary.

"Sicko" promises to take the health-care industry to task the way Moore confronted America's passion for guns in "Bowling for Columbine" and skewered Bush over his handling of Sept. 11 in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control notified Moore in a letter dated May 2 that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba. A copy of the letter was obtained Tuesday by the AP.

"This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba," Dale Thompson, OFAC chief of general investigations and field operations, wrote in the letter to Moore.

In February, Moore took about 10 ailing workers from the Ground Zero rescue effort in Manhattan for treatment in Cuba, said a person working with the filmmaker on the release of "Sicko." The person requested anonymity because Moore's attorneys had not yet determined how to respond.

Moore, who scolded Bush over the Iraq war during the 2003 Oscar telecast, received the letter Monday, the person said. "Sicko" premieres May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival and debuts in U.S. theaters June 29.

Moore declined to comment, said spokeswoman Lisa Cohen.

After receiving the letter, Moore arranged to place a copy of the film in a "safe house" outside the country to protect it from government interference, said the person working on the release of the film.

Treasury officials declined to answer questions about the letter. "We don't comment on enforcement actions," said department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise.

The letter noted that Moore applied Oct. 12, 2006, for permission to go to Cuba "but no determination had been made by OFAC." Moore sought permission to travel there under a provision for full-time journalists, the letter said.

According to the letter, Moore was given 20 business days to provide OFAC with such information as the date of travel and point of departure; the reason for the Cuba trip and his itinerary there; and the names and addresses of those who accompanied him, along with their reasons for going.

Potential penalties for violating the embargo were not indicated. In 2003, the New York Yankees paid the government $75,000 to settle a dispute that it conducted business in Cuba in violation of the embargo. No specifics were released about that case.

"Sicko" is Moore's followup to 2004's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a $100 million hit criticizing the Bush administration over Sept. 11. Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" won the 2002 Oscar for best documentary.

A dissection of the U.S. health-care system, "Sicko" was inspired by a segment on Moore's TV show "The Awful Truth," in which he staged a mock funeral outside a health-maintenance organization that had declined a pancreas transplant for a diabetic man. The HMO later relented.

At last September's Toronto International Film Festival, Moore previewed footage shot for "Sicko," presenting stories of personal health-care nightmares. One scene showed a woman who was denied payment for an ambulance ride after a head-on collision because it was not preapproved.

Moore's opponents have accused him of distorting the facts, and his Cuba trip provoked criticism from conservatives including former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, who assailed the filmmaker in a blog at National Review Online.

"I have no expectation that Moore is going to tell the truth about Cuba or health care," wrote Thompson, the subject of speculation about a possible presidential run. "I defend his right to do what he does, but Moore's talent for clever falsehoods has been too well documented."

The timing of the investigation is reminiscent of the firestorm that preceded the Cannes debut of "Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the festival's top prize in 2004. The Walt Disney Co. refused to let subsidiary Miramax release the film because of its political content, prompting Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein to release "Fahrenheit 9/11" on their own.

The Weinsteins later left Miramax to form the Weinstein Co., which is releasing "Sicko." They declined to comment on the Treasury investigation, said company spokeswoman Sarah Levinson Rothman.

[Ravi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070511/ap_en_mo/film_michael_moore

Moore blasts Bush over film-trip probe
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer
LOS ANGELES - Filmmaker

Michael Moore has asked the Bush administration to call off an investigation of his trip to Cuba to get treatment for ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers for a segment in his upcoming health-care expose, "Sicko."

Moore, who made the hit documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" assailing President Bush's handling of Sept. 11, said in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Friday that the White House may have opened the investigation for political reasons.

"For five and a half years, the Bush administration has ignored and neglected the heroes of the 9/11 community," Moore said in the letter, which he posted on the liberal Web site Daily Kos. "These heroic first responders have been left to fend for themselves, without coverage and without care.

"I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me — I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help, but until George W. Bush outlaws helping your fellow man, I have broken no laws and I have nothing to hide."

Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Co. is releasing "Sicko," told The Associated Press the movie is a "healing film" that could bring opponents together over the ills of America's health-care system.

"This time, we didn't want the fight, because the movie unites both sides," Weinstein said. "We've shown the movie to Republicans. Both sides of the bench love the film. The pharmaceutical industry won't like the movie. HMOs will try to run us out of town, but that's not relevant to the situation.

"The whole campaign this time was not to be incendiary. It was, can Michael Moore bring both sides together?"

The health-care industry Moore skewers in "Sicko" was a major contributor to Bush's 2004 re-election campaign and to Republican candidates over the last four years, Moore wrote.

"I can understand why that industry's main recipient of its contributions — President Bush — would want to harass, intimidate and potentially prevent this film from having its widest possible audience," Moore wrote.

Treasury officials in Washington said Friday they would have no comment on the contents of Moore's letter, citing a policy against discussing specific investigations being conducted by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the agency that enforces the trade embargo against Cuba.

"Generally speaking, as administrators and enforcers of U.S. sanctions, OFAC is required to investigate potential violations of these programs," Treasury spokeswoman AnnMarie Hauser said. "In doing so, OFAC issues hundreds of letters each year asking for additional information when possible sanctions violations have occurred."

OFAC notified Moore in a letter dated May 2 that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba.

Moore questioned the timing of the investigation, noting that "Sicko" premieres May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival and debuts in U.S. theaters June 19. The Bush administration knew of his plans to travel to Cuba since last October, said Moore, who went there in March with about 10 ailing workers involved in the rescue effort at the World Trade Center ruins.

Weinstein said the investigation would only help publicize the film.

"The timing is amazing. You would think that we originated this. It reads like a fiction best-seller," Weinstein said.

OFAC's letter to Moore noted that he had applied in October 2006 for permission as a full-time journalist to travel to Cuba, but that the agency had not made any determination on his request.

The agency gave Moore 20 business days to provide details on his Cuba trip and the names of those who accompanied him.

Moore won an Academy Award for best documentary with his 2002 gun-control film "Bowling for Columbine" and scolded Bush in his Oscar acceptance speech as the war in Iraq was just getting under way.

The investigation has given master promoter Moore another jolt of publicity just before the release of one of his films. "Fahrenheit 9/11" premiered at Cannes in 2004 amid a public quarrel between Moore and the Walt Disney Co., which refused to let subsidiary Miramax release the film because of its political content.

Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein ended up releasing the film on their own and later left to form the Weinstein Co., distributor of "Sicko."

"This is `Fahrenheit' all over again. `Let's pressure somebody.' Last time it was Disney, this time it's direct," Harvey Weinstein said.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" won the top prize at Cannes and went on to become the top-grossing documentary ever with $119 million.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070511/ap_en_mo/cuba_moore

Cuba: Michael Moore victim of censorship
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer

HAVANA - Cuba characterized American filmmaker Michael Moore as a victim of censorship and the U.S. trade embargo as it reported Friday on a U.S. Treasury Department probe of his March visit here for his upcoming health-care documentary, "Sicko."

Moore took the trip, for a segment in the film, with about 10 ailing workers involved in the rescue effort at the World Trade Center ruins.

The Communist Party daily Granma called the 45-year-old U.S. travel and trade sanctions "a criminal action that has cost lives and grave consequences for the inhabitants of the island," as well as Americans.

"Any resemblance to McCarthyism is no coincidence," the newspaper opined, referring to the political witch hunt that U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy carried out against suspected American communists in the 1950s.

The U.S. government's targeting of Moore "confirms the imperial philosophy of censorship" by American officials, it added.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees U.S. sanctions against other nations, sent a letter to Moore on May 2, notifying him of a civil probe for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo.

Treasury officials in Washington said Friday they would have no comment on the contents of Moore's letter, citing a policy against discussing specific investigations. But Treasury spokeswoman AnnMarie Hauser said OFAC issues hundreds of letters each year asking for additional information when possible sanctions violations have occurred.

The filmmaker suggested Friday that the probe was politically motivated.

"I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me — I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help," Moore wrote in the letter, which he posted on the liberal Web site Daily Kos. "But until George W. Bush outlaws helping your fellow man, I have broken no laws and I have nothing to hide."

Moore confronted America's passion for guns in "Bowling for Columbine," which won the 2002 Oscar for best documentary, and skewered
President Bush over his handling of Sept. 11 in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

"Sicko" premieres May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival and debuts in U.S. theaters June 29.

[martinthewarrior]

Any guess as to when we'll see a trailer for this? Seems like it should be soon.

[Ghostboy]

Probably the day after Cannes. That way, if it wins an award, they can use it in the campaign.

[martinthewarrior]

That makes sense.

[martinthewarrior]

Wait a minute, I forgot, it's playing out of competition. Can it win anything out of competition? Seems like a stupid question, but I really have no idea.

[Pubrick]

Can it win anything out of competition?

only our hearts.


and hype.

[MacGuffin]

Healthy debate surrounds Moore's docu 'Sicko'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

CANNES -- There's a gathering storm of controversy surrounding Michael Moore's new documentary "Sicko," which will have its world premiere Saturday at the Festival de Cannes. But as far as the international distributors circling the film are concerned, it could prove no more than a tempest in a teapot.

Pro- and anti-Moore factions are trading blows in the U.S. following news that the U.S. Treasury Department is investigating the "Fahrenheit 9/11" director for possibly violating America's trade embargo with Cuba by taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to the island for medical treatment.

On Tuesday, Moore challenged former U.S. senator and possible presidential candidate Fred Thompson to a debate over health care after Thompson accused Moore of having a soft spot for Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- Moore even suggested Thompson might have violated the embargo himself by importing Montecristo cigars from Havana.

"They started this," Moore said of his critics, "and I think that somehow by making some sort of example of me, that helps them with a certain community in terms of voters." The director went so far as to send a duplicate master of the film to a "safe house" outside the country to ensure he would have no problem providing Cannes with a print.

While the debate could provide plenty of free publicity for the Weinstein Co., which will release "Sicko" in the U.S. on June 29 through Lionsgate, the Cuba controversy is not playing big overseas.

"The Cuba embargo is an issue that is very confusing for non-Americans and one that few people outside of Miami care about, to be honest," a prominent German acquisitions exec said. "The controversy is being covered by all the papers in Europe, but I don't think anyone will go see the movie because of it."

TFM Distribution, which is releasing "Sicko" in France, said they were waiting to see the reaction of the Cannes audience before forming a promotion strategy for the film. Japanese distributor Gaga Communications is adopting a similar "wait-and-see" approach.

Stateside, however, Lionsgate and the Weinstein Co. are making the Treasury Department's investigation a key focus of their "Sicko" campaign. The Weinstein Co. has hired David Boies, the chief attorney in Al Gore's recount battle against George Bush in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, to help on the "Sicko" case. Chris Lehane, a political consultant on the film, said in an interview that TWC and Lionsgate would "go to the mattresses for this film and fight the Bush efforts in every way possible."

On the anti-Moore side, News Corp. properties Fox News and the New York Post have run editorials and commentaries slamming the filmmaker.

While the Treasury Dept. triggered the current contretemps, "It's Harvey (Weinstein) up to his old tricks, doing his Barnum & Bailey act," said one prominent studio marketing executive. "It's a textbook 'create a controversy' to rev up all the people who hate the government and bring attention to the movie, which is what film marketing is all about. A-plus to them."

Whether such an approach will work in international markets depends on how provocative "Sicko" is seen to be and to what degree Moore's expose of the U.S. health care system can bridge the language/culture barrier.

Glen Basner, Weinstein Co. president of distribution, said the company is taking the same approach to promoting "Sicko" internationally as it is in the U.S.

"Moore is seen in a similar way both within and outside of the US -- a cinematic version of a Mark Twain or Will Rogers -- who uses humor and imagery to stick his finger in the eye of the establishment on behalf of the little guy," Basner said. "His movies, though focused on U.S. issues, certainly transcend an American audience because they are both funny, provocative and ultimately human ... and that is why they have enjoyed both domestic and international appeal."

For many international buyers, the challenge for Moore will not be to get people to talk about his film but to convince audiences he has something new to say.

"When 'Bowling for Columbine' and 'Fahrenheit 9/11' came out they were so new, Moore's personal style, his humor. Now everyone is doing 'Moore-style' documentaries," said a prominent European acquisitions executive. "Even 'Borat' used some of the same techniques. The question with 'Sicko' is can Moore still surprise and shock us, or will this be more of the same?"

[MacGuffin]

'Sicko' the Controversy
Michael Moore talks about attracting the ire of the Bush administration with his new health care documentary, and how he wishes Katie Couric would be more forthcoming with the public

It's 3:10 in the afternoon and Michael Moore has just finished making breakfast. Another episode in the lazy life of a wealthy documentary filmmaker? Hardly. Moore was up all night working on his new documentary, Sicko, a scathing look at the health care industry that's slated to debut at the Cannes film festival on May 19. Already under fire from the government for taking his crew to Cuba, Moore put aside his cereal to chat about HMOs, his treatment in the media, and (surprise!) the Bush administration.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what makes you think there's a problem with our health care system?
MICHAEL MOORE: [laughs hard] I said to the crew on the first day, ''Let's not insult the audience by telling them that the health care system is broken. Let's start with the assumption that people know it. What kind of film would we make then?''

Health care strikes me as something that's a lot harder for you to be adversarial about.
True. You know, I have done no interviews on this film. I've kept very quiet. But it's kind of funny when you're reading about your movie that no one has seen and it's described as this and that.

What's the biggest misconception out there?
That I set out to go to Cuba. [According to press reports, Moore was served with a letter from the Treasury Department informing him that they were conducting a civil investigation to determine whether he had violated the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba when he accompanied ailing Ground Zero workers there for treatment while filming Sicko.]

Care to clear that up?
No. [laughs] I just want to enjoy the next five days reading about how I wanted to go to Cuba to show off their health care system. I think people are going to have to do a serious rewrite after [the first screening in Cannes].

But it is true that the Treasury Department sent that letter.
That is very true and very serious. And the lawyer who helped us set up everything and made sure that we were going to do everything following the law [in Cuba] has never had a client receive this kind of letter before. And he takes down Audioslave, who did the first rock concert down there, and he's taken various other groups of artists or journalists or whatever. It's a very serious letter and we're taking it very seriously.

The PR can't hurt though.
I mean, I know the conventional wisdom is that the smartest thing for the Bush administration to do would be to say nothing, to ignore the film and it'll go away. But they can't help themselves, I guess. And somebody must have gone last week, ''Hey, it's premiering in Cannes. We really gotta do something. So let's really come out against him and no one will go see the movie.''

C'mon, surely they know this publicity helps you.
They're that divorced from the popular culture. They don't really understand me, the impact of my films, or how what they did will only bring more people to the film. I wasn't going to talk to anybody until we got to Cannes and people saw it there — and then this [letter] happens. But it's serious. The lawyers are telling us that we have to take some precautions immediately to protect the film. So we had to create a digital master copy and have it shipped out of the country so that if anything was seized, at least we'd have the master to make a negative from. This is really insane when you think about it in a free country.

When something like the Cuba thing happens, do you have this little moment where you're like... GOOD. They're playing right into my hands.
No. [pause] Nope. No, that is not my first thought. My first thought is: I don't need this hassle.

Are you sitting there just as the triannual feeding frenzy is about to start thinking, ''Why didn't I make a nice fun movie like Canadian Bacon again?''
You know, I don't relish all the noise that surrounds me and my work. I'm still stunned when I read these comments: ''Oh, he must like the hype!'' The last time I was on TV was the Today show in January of 2005, when Katie Couric said to me, ''I'd rather rearrange my sock drawer than talk to you.'' And off camera she's so friendly! Telling me inside stuff like how [the White House] called the big shots at NBC to complain about an interview she did. She's telling me...how she actually got a memo, and this is in the early days of the war, saying tone it down! And I said to her during the commercial, ''Why don't you tell this on the air?'' And she says, ''Aww, I'd lose my job.'' ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You can't lose your job. You have your job. It's called the KATIE COURIC JOB! You can write an op-ed and let the public know how this kind of manipulation takes place. And she says, ''I have to really watch it.'' And then the red light comes on and she's on the attack. And that's when I said, ''I don't need this.'' [A spokesperson for Couric responds, ''Katie has done many hard-hitting interviews over the years. Her responsibilities as a journalist require that her questioning reflects several different viewpoints. I'm glad Katie left such an impression on Michael.'']

[Ravi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070519/ap_en_mo/michael_moore_cuba

'Sicko' stars thank Moore for Cuba trip
By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer

It could have been a college reunion: hugs, tears, laughter, photos, and a big friendly guy in shorts and sneakers organizing it all. But the guy in shorts was Michael Moore, whose new documentary, "Sicko," takes aim at the U.S. health care industry with the same fury — laced with humor, of course, and plenty of statistics — that he directed at the Bush administration in his hit "Fahrenheit 9/11."

And the people who'd flown in for this intimate first screening, a day after the film had been shipped to the Cannes Film Festival, included grateful Sept. 11 "first responders," suffering lung problems or other ailments from their days at ground zero. In the film, Moore takes them to Cuba and tries to get them treated at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay — where, he contends, terror suspects were getting better medical care than the heroes of 9/11.

The Cuba trip actually accounts for just a small part of "Sicko," which aims its wrath at private insurance and pharmaceutical companies and HMOs, while praising socialized medicine in countries like France and Britain. Moore fills it with stories like that of a woman whose ambulance ride after a car crash wasn't covered — because it wasn't "pre-approved."

But Cuba has loomed large in the flurry of prerelease publicity. That's because the director, an unabashed critic of President Bush, is being investigated by the Treasury Department for possibly violating the U.S. trade embargo by traveling to the island nation. Moore has fired back with an open letter accusing the administration of "abusing the federal government for raw, crass political purposes."

At his screening Tuesday evening at a Manhattan hotel, however, Moore was focused on the reaction of his invited guests.

"Three years ago tonight, we had the first screening of 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' with victims' families," he told them. "It was a very powerful experience, and now we're honored to have all of you here. We're very proud of this film. We're confident it will have a significant impact."

When the lights came up, Reggie Cervantes, a former 9/11 "first responder" who now lives in Oklahoma, spoke first.

"It was funny. It was real," said Cervantes, 46, who says she suffers from pulmonary ailments, esophageal reflex, post-traumatic stress disorder, ear and eye infections and other problems stemming from time at ground zero. Of the trip, she said: "It feels surreal. Were we really there?"

"This trip opened my eyes," offered Bill Maher, 54, another former ground zero volunteer from Maywood, N.J., who had extensive dental work in Cuba. "I was uneducated. I remembered the Cuban missile crisis. Now, you know what? I'm going back!"

"I'm going with you," replied Cervantes.

Donna Smith, in from Denver with her husband, Larry, was in tears when she spoke. The film opens with their painful story: Plagued with health problems, they were forced to sell their home and move into the storage room of their daughter's house because they couldn't cope with health costs, even though they were insured.

"Health care is an embarrassment to our nation," Donna told Moore. "You give dignity to every American in this film."

Lost in all the publicity over Moore's trip is the reason he went to Cuba in the first place.

He says he hadn't intended to go, but then discovered the U.S. government was boasting of the excellent medical care it provides terror suspects detained at Guantanamo. So Moore decided that the 9/11 workers and a few other patients, all of whom had serious trouble paying for care at home, should have the same chance.

"Here the detainees were getting colonoscopies and nutrition counseling," Moore told The Associated Press in an interview, "and these people at home were suffering. I said, 'We gotta go and see if we can get these people the same treatment the government gives al-Qaida.' It seemed the only fair thing to do."

So the group, which included eight patients — three ground zero workers and five others — headed off by boat towards Guantanamo. From a distance, with cameras rolling, Moore called out through a bullhorn that he wanted to bring his friends for treatment at the naval base. He got no response.

"So there I was with a group of sick people," he says. "What was I going to do?"

The answer: head to Havana. There, the film shows the group getting thorough care from kind doctors. They don't have to fill out any long forms; health care is free in the Communist nation, after all.

But did the American film crew get special treatment because they were, well, an American film crew? Moore and his producer, Meghan O'Hara, insist not. "We demanded that we be treated on the same floor as all Cubans, not the special floor for foreigners," Moore told The AP. Still, the doctors obviously knew they were being filmed, so it's hard to know — although Cervantes said she went back alone with no cameras and was treated similarly.

Treasury officials will not comment specifically about Moore's case. He has a few more days to provide additional information. Moore originally applied in October 2006 for permission to go to Cuba under a provision for full-time journalists, but never heard back.

The patients he brought had all struggled at home with health care costs. Some, like Cervantes, had lost their health insurance because they could no longer work, and were navigating the workmen's compensation system.

John Graham, a disabled carpenter and EMT from Paramus, N.J., came to the screening with his daughters. On 9/11 he was at his job at the carpenter's union offices, near the World Trade Center. He rushed over before the second plane hit, spending 31 hours at first, then helping out for months after that. He says he was later diagnosed with lung problems, burns on his esophagus, chronic sinusitis and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other things: "I need a notebook to remember everything."

Graham, who stopped working in 2004, now lives on $400 per week in workmen's comp payments. He split from his wife and says he is unable to keep up with childcare payments.

In Cuba, Graham had five full days of medical tests and received medication for his reflux problems. Cervantes was treated for eye and nose infections, among other things, and in a drugstore found pills for only pennies that cost her more than $100 at home. Maher had the longest treatment, to correct dental problems — he said ground zero-related stress and dreams about "people falling from the sky" made him grind his teeth at night.

Moore hopes his latest film will make people stop and think about what he sees as the tragic ills of the health care industry.

"We are the richest country in the world," the director said. "We spend more on health care than any other country. Yet we have the worst health care in the Western world. Come on. We can do better than this."

[MacGuffin]

Review: Sicko
By ALISSA SIMON; Variety

Three years after winning Cannes' top prize for "Fahrenheit 9/11," docu helmer and agent provocateur Michael Moore returns to the Croisette with more polemics-as-performance-art in "Sicko," an affecting and entertaining dissection of the American health care industry, showing how it benefits the few at the expense of the many. Pic's tone alternates between comedy, poignancy and outrage as it compares the U.S system of care to other countries. Given Moore's celebrity and fan base, plus heightened awareness of pic resulting from the heated battle that's already begun between left and right, returns look to be extremely healthy.

Pic should also play well internationally, providing an eye-opening lesson for foreigners who may be inclined (like Moore's Canadian cousins) to take out insurance from their homeland before visiting the States.

Chief criticism of the pic is that it paints too rosy a picture of the national health care of the countries he compares America to, including Canada, England, France — and Cuba.

Employing his trademark personal narration and David vs. Goliath approach, Moore enlivens what is, in essence, a depressing subject by wrapping it in irony and injecting levity wherever possible: a graph shows America's position in global health care as No. 38 — just above Slovenia — and is followed by film footage of primitive operating conditions; and he offers a long list of health conditions that can deny a person insurance coverage, with the list scrolling into deep space accompanied by the "Stars Wars" theme.

Pic explores why American health care came to be exploited for profit in the private sector rather than being a government-paid, free-to-consumers service as are education, libraries, fire and police. Moore comes up with an archival audio recording of Richard Nixon from February 1971, praising Edgar Kaiser and his system using incentives for less medical care. The next day Nixon addresses the nation, proposing a new health care strategy that amounted to a less-per-patient expenditure to maximize profit.

Pic starts by sketching a gamut of health-care horror stories from average Americans: those who can't afford insurance, those who are denied coverage for various, often ludicrous reasons, and those who believe themselves well-protected, but find that the moment they avail themselves of medical services their insurance provider uses obscure technical reasons to refuse coverage, retroactively deny claims and cancel insurance, or raise rates so astronomically that the patient is forced into the ranks of the nearly 50 million uninsured.

Perhaps most emotionally affecting story comes from Julie, a hospital worker whose husband had a potentially terminal illness that medical staff thought could be treated with a bone marrow transplant. Insurance deemed the treatment experimental and refused to cover it. Unable to afford an alternative, the husband died.

The congressional testimony of a former Humana medical director provides a devastatingly direct description of what she calls "the dirty work of managed care." Constantly told that she was not denying care to patients, rather simply denying them Humana's coverage, her career advanced as she saved her corporation money.

Moore appears in his shambling folksy persona about 40 minutes into the pic, interviewing foreign citizens, American expatriates, hospital workers and doctors in countries with nationalized health care. The dramatic contrast with America is played for laughs, as the seemingly incredulous Moore continually mutters, "What do you mean it's free?"

Pic's most dramatic (and now controversial) tactic involves Moore taking a group that includes 9/11 rescue volunteers with medical problems that haven't been covered by insurance to Cuba — first to Guantanamo Bay, which Moore proclaims as the only place on American soil with universal health care, and then to a Havana hospital where they are given treatment. Cuban seg wraps with a poignant expression of emotional solidarity between 9/11 volunteers and Cuban firemen who pay them homage.

Pic incorporates extensive archival footage (some of which comes across as grainy on the bigscreen) as well as home movies and photographs. Extracts from Communist musicals, classic comedies and horror films provide Moore further opportunity for comic editorializing.

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