MIKE'S CHARITIES

This one's for you Ricky, who gave me a boost for the site with your questions and encouragements. Ask me whatever you want, you will help. And spread the word around. God it's so hard to focus in the turmoil of life !


Mike’s general philosophy is that it’s his responsibility to do everything he can so as to be the voice of all those silenced. So all the money he has he re-invests in his hometown, his movies, his books and many organizations who try and change the way things are.

1) FLINT

Mike’s first concern has always been Flint, his hometown, yesterday as today, and in spite of the terrible ungratefulness he had to suffer from a significant number of natives, including contributors, former friends and people who benefited from his generosity.

In his contract for Roger and Me, he stipulated that those people thrown out of their homes in the film must have new homes bought and paid for by the distributing company. It's all in a great book on the Indie film boom in the late eighties early nineties, called Spike, Mike, Slackers, and Dykes by John Pierson. I have it in front of me right now, it has the exact reproduction of the "Roger and Me" original deal with John Pierson and Associates, it goes from p154 to 157 and the proof is p 157 : "THE SPIRIT OF THE AGREEMENT : Charity Contribution : The first $25,000.00 of distributor profit on the film shall be set aside to buy homes for the five evicted families in the film." And mind you, he asked this of big dogs in Hollywood who thought he was a joke. But he fought and got it done.

This book was released at a time when Mike was unknown, so there's no link. However this interview by Karen Duffy (who worked for him in TV Nation and still admires him) is available online :KD: …I love the fact that you got Warner's to agree to all of those stipulations, which must have been a first.MM: Well, sometimes artists don't ask for things, and they'd be surprised, if they just asked, what they might get. I made it part of my contract with Warner Brothers that they pay for housing for those people for two years.

http://www.gradewinner.com/p/articl...729145#continue

He did it again after “The Big One” and in particular forced Phil Knight (after losing face in the movie, what else could he do to try and not look like the ugly corporate criminal that he was) to use a little of his money to do good :

The Big One: Miramax and Moore to Share Profits with Flint

Miramax and Moore to Share Profits with People of Flint, MichiganMichael Moore is set to make good on his promise to share the profits from his films with the people of Michigan. The first $100,000 will be given away at a special screening of Moore's new film, "The Big One" on April 15, at the Showcase East Cinema in Flint, Michigan. Miramax is donating 50% of it's profit from theatrical, television and video release to various Flint-area charities. Following the acquisition of "The Big One," in September, $5,000 each was given to the North End Soup Kitchen, the Kids' Cafe of the Beecher Salvation Army and the Flint Urban League. Nike CEO, Phil Knight, who figures prominently in the film, contributed $20,000 in computers to Beecher Community Schools.

"We at Miramax have been deeply moved by Michael Moore's commitment to his hometown," said Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Miramax. . "He has set a unique example among filmmakers."

Moore and Miramax are also offering a one-time, $1,000 scholarship to one student from every high school in Genesee County. Students who are interested in community organizing, labor issues, and social justice can apply by sending a one-page letter outlining their goals and needs to: Michael Moore Scholarships, PO Box 978, Flint, MI 48501. The deadline is March 25.

http://www.indiewire.com/biz/biz_98...ooreProfit.html

2) CULTURE

Just as importantly, Mike uses his money to support culture and education and promote progress in all the fields pertaining to raising the general level of awareness and freeing the people’s minds from the forces of obscurantism and oppression.

Using profits from "Roger and Me", he established the Center for Alternative Media, a foundation dedicated to supporting independent filmmakers and social action groups. To date, the foundation has dispersed over $400,000 in grants.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/dogeatdogfilms/threat.html

Large chinks of the money he earned from the same movie have gone into helping finance other filmmakers' projects, such as acclaimed documentary, Panama Deception.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/dogeatdogfilms/marquee.html

Details :

World: You've set up a fund to help struggling artists and groups on the left, the Center for Alternative Media. Can you describe this fund?

Moore: We have given grants now totaling over $400,000 just from the profits of Roger & Me. I decided to give away 50 percent of whatever I earned from the film. But that's my own personal choice, and I know some people reading this will think 'what is this guy, crazy?' But it's because of where I come from, you know I like the life I had before Roger & Me. I never made more than $15,000 a year and I still only own three pairs of blue jeans and one Detroit Tigers cap.

As far as recipients, I helped fund a number of independent and documentary films, including Panama Deception, which won an Academy Award. I helped fund the first feature film that was distributed in this country by an African American woman called Just Another Girl On the IRT by Leslie Harris. I thought it was appalling that we're in the 100th year of cinema, and there has never been in the U.S. a film directed by an African American woman, and released by Hollywood, and that voice needs to be heard in American cinema.

World: Would you like to advertise where this fund is located?

Moore: (laughs) You know we do this very differently. We're not like the typical foundation. It's kind of like I see something and I just call up the person and say, "What's your address? I want to send you a check." It's really more from me, keeping with the spirit of Roger & Me. And what's incredible is the irony of this whole system. I basically get this money from Time-Warner and then recycle it into anti-corporate areas.

http://www.pww.org/archives95/95-09-23-3.html

He donates to the American Library Associations Spectrum Initiative to recruit more minority librarians.

Oscar winner Michael Moore donates $25,000 to ALA Spectrum Initiative

“Only the beginning,” filmmaker says

The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce that Michael Moore, author, activist and winner of the 2002 Oscar for best documentary film, has donated $25,000 to support the ALA Spectrum Initiative.

Moore originally pledged this support for Spectrum during a speaking engagement at ALA’s June 2002 Annual Conference in Atlanta.

“This donation is only the beginning of what will be an ongoing effort on my part to rally my fellow Americans to support their local libraries. I intend to raise tens of thousands more, both in my appearances around the country and via my Web site,” Moore said. “I will not allow one of our most precious national resources – our free, public libraries – to suffer any further abuse. It is their budgets that get cut first. It is their staffs who are paid some of the lowest wages among professionals in the country. And now, it is their privacy – and the privacy rights of any person who holds a library card – that is now under attack.

“I am proud to do what I can to support our libraries and their librarians. Without them, and without this basic American right to read a book – any book – regardless of one's socio-economic status, we will surely be less free as a people. Freedom is only preserved when its citizens have total access to all information and the free flow of ideas,” Moore added.

http://www.ala.org/ala/pressrelease...nnermichael.htm

He is currently organizing the Traverse City festival in a similar spirit.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3189

3) ACTIVISM

Mike has not only helped people in the classic, brotherly sense of the term, and not only in an admirable effort to elevate the general level of intelligence of the country. He believes that citizen action is a form of charity. I agree with him, and how.

He will often act on the spur of the moment, following his heart and inspiration. Here’s an example of how he proceeds and how he’s amazingly always in the thick of things and ready for action :

On request, Moore immediately endorsed Green Party candidate for State Assembly Doug Riley-Thron. "He first handed me a $20 bill, then he gave me another one, and another one," Riley-Thron said later. "Then he said ‘Here, take it all,' and he handed me a bunch of ones." The total take: $80.
"I thought, ‘Dang, that was worth doing,'" Riley-Thron said.….

Moore was comparably impassioned about Sierra Pacific Industries' recently approved Timber Harvest Plan for Sunny Brae. "They shouldn't be cutting the trees down in the first place," Moore said. "Who is this company? How come this one company gets to decide, gets to own all this land? These are one of the biggest landowners in this country - no one individual should be able to own that much property. This is not his [SPI owner A.A. "Red" Emerson's] property, this is planet Earth and its inhabited by the people who live here and other living things and one individual should not have so much say and power cutting down trees that are that many years old. You know, it's absolutely outrageous, and so I'm executive producing a documentary. I'm funding it. A buddy back in Michigan is making a documentary about the situation with the trees and he's going to come out here and do some filming about what's going out here so we'll be doing that sometime during the coming months."

http://www.arcataeye.com/top/020312top02.shtml

His choices of donations as an activist are often the result of his experience. Mike created the "Michael Moore Freedom of Speech Scholarship" at CSU San Marcos after his scheduled speech was cancelled unilaterally by the Administration for the usual authoritarian reasons.

The Daily Aztec - City

Michael Moore triples scholarships

By Barbi Smith, Staff Writer

The "Michael Moore Freedom of Speech Scholarship" at CSU San Marcos proves it's the orders people don't follow that makes them famous.

Created to reward students who embrace issues of student rights by standing up to the administration, the $2,500 scholarship, funded by the political activist, author and director Moore, was originally to be awarded to only two selected San Marcos students.

With much surprise, Moore granted scholarships to six students last Thursday, totaling $15,000 in awards. Tripling the initial amount, the scholarships were added because of the large number of impressive applications received from "outstanding" students, Moore stated in an announcement on his Web site, www.michaelmoore.com.

"I believe in holding people accountable, especially those in positions of power and privilege," Frost stated in her winning essay. "It wasn't easy to speak out. As students, we realized that our voices do matter and that we can live as citizens who actively participate in the governance of the communities and country we live in."

http://www.thedailyaztec.com/media/...ps-952123.shtml

When the Weinsteins bought F9/11 for $6 million from Disney, the deal that was struck by these producers in order to guarantee its quick release was that the Weinsteins would get 40% of the net profits and the other 60% would go to charity except Disney would get to choose who receives it.

Mike's share of the profits has not been disclosed but it has been disclosed as being less than the share that will go to charities. Fact is he knew how much was to be given away from the beginning.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0702-07.htm

He had no interest in “making money off 9/11” as he was so infuriatingly blamed for, in fact he had no interest in making any money at all. He just wanted to rid us of Bush, and he sacrificed his Oscar (by airing the movie on Nov 1) and his profits for that. He lost tons of easy money by allowing people to download F9/11 for free and even adding that he didn’t agree with the copyright laws. He said: “Is it wrong for someone who’s bought a film on DVD to let a friend watch it for free? Of course it’s not. It never has been and never will be. I think information, art and ideas should be shared.”

Sunday Herald - 04 July 2004

Moore: pirate my film, no problem

Fury as Fahrenheit 9/11 director backs illegal not-for-profit downloads
By Iain S Bruce, Online Editor

Controversial film-maker Michael Moore has welcomed the appearance on the internet of pirated copies of his anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 and claimed he is happy for anybody to download it free of charge.
The activist, author and director told the Sunday Herald that, as long as pirated copies of his film were not being sold, he had no problem with it being downloaded.
“I don’t agree with the copyright laws and I don’t have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people as long as they’re not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose that,” he said.
“I do well enough already and I made this film because I want the world, to change. The more people who see it the better, so I’m happy this is happening.”

http://www.sundayherald.com/43167

His most remarkable achievement, both as a proof of his selflessness and as a token of his acute social awareness, may have been the way he has openly and strongly advocated for much higher taxes on the upper income bracket, knowing full well that it would take money out of his own pocket. He believes that it should largely be the people, via their elected representatives, who should help the less fortunate among us.

Spend Mike's Tax Cut

George W. Bush went out of his way to give guys like me a big whopping tax cut this year. Words cannot express my gratitude-but money can!
That's why I'm spending my entire tax cut on getting rid of George W. Bush!
I will be giving the maximum legal amount to the candidate who has the best chance of defeating him (except Joe Lieberman. I won't give a dime to any Bushie pretending to be a Democrat).
I also want to support the candidates in your congressional districts who have the best chance of tossing out the Republicans.
Send me your candidate suggestions and the names of any groups who are working toward the kind of change we all seek. I will choose the recipients of Mike's Tax Cut and send them a check. I will also post their names on my website in case you want to send them a check, too. Thanks for the tax cut, Mr. Bush! I hope it allows you to spend a long and well-deserved vacation at the ranch in Crawford.

http://michaelmoore.com/books-films...axcut/index.php

4) HIS LIFESTYLE

Nothing to do with charities, I know, but your adversaries will necessarily mention that he's "stinking rich" at one point, because it's been for ages on the front page of David Hardy's website and the dude also obsesses over that quite a bit in his... I don't know how to call it, they say it's a book. Anyway. Just a few words.

I like the fact that Mike moved back to Davison three years ago. So much for the criticisms of "Mr. NY Penthouse" elitist.

At the moment, Moore is behind the wheel of his red Chrysler minivan, giving me a tour of Davison, the little town just outside Flint where he spent his childhood. He and his wife/producer, Kathleen Glynn, a fellow Flint native, moved back to the area two years ago when their daughter started college. They still have a Manhattan apartment but now return to New York largely for work. In Davison, we drive past rolling farmland, a quaint Main Street and Moore's favorite doughnut shop.

http://media.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=155

Besides, if he was spectacularly rich, by now Limbaugh, O'Reilly, or one of those other fools would have long been spouting off about his mansions, cars, private jets, etc. but they can't because he just doesn't live that way.

5) FIGHT BACK

I’ll end on an important comment.

The right-wingers’ accusations of greed against Mike are based on the obnoxious idea that if he really cared about poor people, he'd be poor and powerless, just like them. So, it’s not enough to prove that Michael Moore is a good man. A question should be asked back on the inquisitors :

WHY SHOULD MOORE LIVE IN THE GUTTER ?

To be a saint in addition to being the courageous, talented and unreasonably selfless man he already is ? To pay even further for a thug administration's sins ? To please those unable to see who are the really rich men anyway ? To please those who worship zillion-rich parasites and traitors at the head of America ?To stand defenseless and unable to make any more movies and make his voice heard ?

But Mike will explain that much better than me, and this will be my conclusion...

"You don't know me. I have few material needs. So putting money in my hand is like handing me a Molotov cocktail.
"I'm going to do damage with it. I'll make sure that my work gets out. That no publisher will ever be able to tell me to take things out. Because I'll put it out myself. The more money I earn, the less they can stop me. Where I come from it's called f*** you money because I don't have to take an ounce of s**t from anybody."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnew...-name_page.html