Michael Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American documentary film director and author known for his satirical advocacy of social democrat views. Moore became famous for his film Roger & Me, a documentary about what happened to his hometown Flint, Michigan, near Detroit, after General Motors closed its factories and opened new ones in Mexico, where the workers were paid much less. His work has been branded Chomsky for children by the American magazine The New Republic.
In 1995, Moore released a satirical film, Canadian Bacon, which featured a US politician (played by Alan Alda) engineering a war with Canada in order to boost his popularity.
In 1999 Moore won the prestigious Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Arts and Entertainment, for being the executive producer and host of The Awful Truth, where he was also described as "muckraker, author and documentary filmmaker."
Moore's 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine, probes the culture of guns and violence in the United States. Bowling for Columbine got special notice at the Cannes Film Festival and won France's Cesar Award as the Best Foreign Film won the 2003 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, although there was controversy over the factual elements involved and whether it was actually a documentary. When he accepted the Oscar, he created a stir when he took the oppurtunity to loudly denounce US President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq which was met with mixed reaction by the audience. However, despite the resulting criticism for his speech, sales of his books and tickets for his film went up significantly.
He has also directed two television series, TV Nation and The Awful Truth, both with a vicious satirical wit.
Moore has authored the three bestselling books Downsize This (about politics and corporate crime in the United States), Stupid White Men, and Dude, Where's My Country (both critiques of American domestic and foreign policy).
Moore was previously a columnist for and briefly the editor of Mother Jones magazine and an employee of Ralph Nader. He left Nader's employment on bad terms, but they remained friends, with Moore vociferously supporting Nader's campaign for the US presidency in 2000. On January 14, 2004, Moore declared his support, on his website, for the candidacy of Democrat Wesley Clark in the 2004 presidential election.
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See Mike Moore for the New Zealand politician and World Trade Organization director.