A perfect storm of issue films

Here's a free sample of dialogue from "Fahrenheit 9/11," the new Michael Moore documentary: "Governor Bush, it's Michael Moore," says the filmmaker. "Behave yourself, will you?" answers George W. Bush, the Texas governor soon to become the American president. "Go find real work!"

That exchange - though it took place long before Sept. 11 - shows how Mr. Moore could raise hackles even then by simply approaching one of the men of power he's made it his business to question.

Moore has been doing "real work" for years, first attracting attention worldwide in 1989 with "Roger & Me," a crusading documentary about big business and joblessness. It sparked plenty of controversy, but not as instantly as "Fahrenheit 9/11," a polemical film against Bush's domestic and foreign policy since the terrorist attacks.

The film, which won the highest prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival - and was promptly disavowed by Walt Disney Pictures, which forbade its Miramax subsidiary to release the picture - opens next Friday, thanks to Lions Gate Films.

For months "Fahrenheit 9/11" has been a subject of heated discussions in op-eds and talkshows, but it isn't the only documentary (a term that applies here in its broadest sense) to tap into today's political anxieties. Several other "impressionistic" documentaries, all with a dissident touch, are in theaters or on their way. They include "Control Room," about the Al Jazeera TV network; "The Corporation," a look at corporate policies and everyday American life; and "The Hunting of the President," which asks whether there was a vast conspiracy - or a series of little ones - to destroy the Clinton administration.

Nonfiction films have been growing in popularity of late, but this season's batch is joining a chorus of already raised voices. Some observers see a renewed interest in political ferment in today's media, extending from bestselling books on the Bush administration by journalist Bob Woodward, to the strongest flood of protest songs in 30 years, to the rise of talk radio on both the left and the right.

"Popular culture is embracing politics in a way it hasn't since the 1960s," says Joel Bakan, cowriter of "The Corporation" and author of the Free Press book on which that movie is based.

More of what one newspaper labels "docs populi" are imminent. (As with most films labeled "documentaries," filmmaker objectivity isn't necessarily implied.)

"The Yes Men" depicts pranks by an anticorporate group. "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" touches on the rock band's lawsuit against Napster musicsharing. "Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" profiles a renowned historian and peace activist. "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War," opening in theaters in August, has already sold a reported 100,000 video copies on the Web.

Some of these movies are debuting at the annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival, celebrating its 15th anniversary of political programming this month at the Lincoln Center here. And expect even more activist fare in cinemas if any of these films approaches the unprecedented $21.5 million take of Moore's 2002 movie, "Bowling for Columbine," or the $6.2 million gross of current release "Super Size Me," in which a filmmaker eats nothing but McDonald's products for a month to see if his McDiet will make him fatter. (It does.)

Perhaps it's not surprising that there's a hunger for movies with a strong point of view, given the huge sales of books by Ann Coulter, Al Franken, and other politically passionate pundits. Michael Moore's most recent book, "Stupid White Men," has been a bestseller for more than two years.

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