Moore unveils Sicko at Cannes
Michael Moore has defended his documentary style
Saturday, 19, May 2007 05:54
US documentary maker Michael Moore has unveiled his new film Sicko at Cannes film festival.
Sicko depicts the US health system and involves Moore travelling across the world to see how other health care systems are managed.
But it's travelling which seems to have embroiled the film maker in fresh controversy, as the US treasury investigates whether Moore broke a trade embargo against Cuba for filming.
The purpose of his trip to Cuba, Moore says, was to highlight that al-Qaida detainees are receiving a higher standard of healthcare than citizens in the US.
Moore told the BBC: "The point was not to go to Cuba, it was to go to American soil, to Guantanamo Bay, to take the 9/11 rescue workers there to receive the same healthcare that they are giving the al-Qaeda detainees.
"No film-maker should ever have to be talking about jail or fines or where he or she can travel. I know a lot of you have written: 'How dumb are they to give us all this publicity?'
"But I am the one who is personally being investigated, and I am the one who is personally liable for potential fines or jail so I don't take it lightly."
Moore posted a master tape of Sicko to a country outside of the US after becoming concerned that it might not be able to come out in his own country.
The controversial film maker has never shied away from the media and earned many plaudits with his previous work.
Bowling for Columbine, which criticised US gun control, won an academy award in 2002 and Moore also picked up the Palme d'Or at Cannes for his 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, criticising US president George Bush's domestic and foreign policy.