Post #10: Teaching Documentaries

The documentary I chose for this activity is Michael Moore's Slacker Uprising (2008). I chose it not because I'm a Moore fan (far from it, even though I lean pretty far to the left), but because of the message it conveys. Moore's intent was to get "slackers" (a catch-all term that applies to all apathetic voters, but primarily those apathetic voters who fall within the 18-25 age range) to "get off the couch" and vote in the 2008 presidential election. In this documentary, he uses close-up shots of the crowds at his speaking engagements to show his slacker viewing base that the people who show up to hear him speak are just like them: young, disaffected potential voters who want change but don't think their vote will make a difference. His word choice is key too: "The young people of America--you're the ones that are gonna do it! You're leading the revolution!" Phrases like that give the crowd a sense of agency, that they really do make a difference at the polls. Of course, Michael Moore is well-known for his one-sided portrayals of issues in previous films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, and nothing changes here, so viewers looking for evenhandedness are going to be disappointed. However, Moore succeeds in stirring up his fans enough to get out and vote, so the documentary was successful at least in that sense. As a person who feels that the youth of America have the potential to be empowered but remain apathetic for whatever reason, I feel that a documentary like this is not only successful, but necessary.