So when he arrives in sloppy shorts and a sweaty t-shirt on the decidedly upscale Riviera, he is barraged with attention. Filmmakers from all over the world are clamoring for his blessing; fans are lined up all along the Croissette hungry for a glimpse of his bemused visage.

At a forum hosted by Peter Bart, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Variety, Italian journalists do battle with their colleagues from Hong Kong, worried that they will not get a seat in the arena. It is a large space, but it is not nearly large enough to hold us all. Those of us who were here early will, despite all the fear to the contrary, get seats, and others will have to stand while many more will be turned away.

Bart begins the session with a statement about opening the documentary opposite Spiderman 2, which is, as is Fahrenheit 9/11, scheduled to open July 4.

Moore laughs and says that the films should compliment one another. Mostly, he asserts, it is imperative that the film open in the States on the 4th of July. “We can’t be conveniently moved beyond the election . . . which is, of course, Eisner’s intent.”

Moore goes on. “You’d think a film distribution company would love this film. After all, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE brought in $120,000,000 in profits. This one has the same budget and should reap the same profits. Making money usually wins in the U.S. I always believed money would buy them in the end. But the potential of the film to have enormous impact on the election is larger than we believed. Every effort will be made to block it. ”

Bart mentions the “passion of the guy nailed on the cross,” alluding to the kind of benefits Moore’s film could reap from having the distribution controversy rage so publicly, as it did for Mel Gibson’s THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST.

Moore reminds us that Gibson’s company ICON was the first investor in FAHRENHEIT. Then he abruptly and absolutely backed down at which point Harvey Weinstein put up the money in ICON’s stead.

The flap at Disney reared its head in April after some underling of Eisner expressed his discomfort with the film at the annual board meeting. “One tremor from a low level exec, and two weeks later, there’s no distribution.”

“Americans cannot see this movie,” Moore growls. “It’s really annoying to hear people say this is good for marketing. Do you think any filmmaker wants to hear 8 weeks before release that his film isn’t going out? It’s not good for the filmmaker. And Eisner hasn’t got the right. It says in their contract that he can pull out of the deal if we had an NC-17 rating or if the film is a piece of shit. But they can’t say that. They know that lie would come out.”

But of course he has lots more to say. “Do you really think any filmmaker wants his film to be undistributed? I made this to change the course of history, to be seen. Now it’s going to be in art houses, and that’s all.”

Moore explains that the impetus for FAHRENHEI 9/11 began right after the obliteration of the World Trade Center towers. “My wife and I were stranded in LA, and our daughter was in New York, and there were about five hours we couldn’t find her. Then we heard that the Bin Laden family had had flights approved by private charters, paid for by the administration, to get them out without interrogation or anything.”

But the story he needed to tell evolved with the passage of time in the project. “It was the same with Columbine,” he says. We started out with one agenda, and then it shifted. The discovery of the fact that there are more people in Canada who hunt than play hockey, that there are tons of guns and lots less violence led us on a different path than the one we began on.”

“We started out with 9/11 to disclose the connections to the Saudi friends and to the Bin Laden family by the Bush administration. Then Iraq happened. That really changed the film.”

Of course there will be DVD sales and rentals. By the score. Bart asks will making the DVD with additional information offer more opportunities to explore the issues. “Yes. Um.Yes.” Moore is mum.

For less than a moment. “We have an imperative to try to do some additional piece about the release. We want it out before the election so we can reach more prospective voters. We screened this thing in the Midwest, and no one didn’t have an overwhelming response. People who were on the fence are not on the fence anymore. We had publicists in tears.”

Bart weighs his words and then asks, “So does that mean, plainly, Michael, that you won’t dick around with Nader again?”

“We plan to do all we can to get Bush out of office. See good Democrats don’t blame Nader; they blame Gore. How could a man who is that smart lose to the dumbest man who was ever president?”

“He won because voters didn’t turn out. In Cleveland, Ohio, a good representative example, precincts that are overwhelming Democrat had total voter turnout of 13% or lower.”

“We must inspire people who are already democrats to get up and vote. We need to provide a left flank to pull candidates more to the left. I see that as my mission.”

Moore says he is a reluctant savior. “I wish I could just ignore it sometimes, just have a normal life. But it’s my duty to save the country. I have to keep the democrats from f_ _ _king us over again.”

Bart asks him if he plans to emigrate, to settle, for example, in Europe.

“No,” Moore laughs. “I’m sure there’re a few people who’d like me to. But my job is to prevent my country from doing more harm. A good American needs to be there to turn things around, and I intend to do that. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t’ think it’d be so much easier not to do this. I’d rather just be boringly normal.”

Which is how he felt, he says, when he knew he had to speak at the Oscars.

“When they announced we’d won, I started walking up the aisle and it was bizarre. There were all these actors saying ‘go get ‘em, Mike, cause we can’t.’ There are two voices in my head. One voice says, ‘just blow a kiss, thank all the little people, and walk off the show.’ The other is saying, ‘You have a job to do. Tell them what’s wrong. There’s a war going on.’ I was like the Gollum.”

Moore has rehearsed this bit; he nails an imitation of Gollum. “Oscar bad. Bad Oscar.” But, as we know, his politics won.

Bart asks a question, and Moore says, “Wait a minute, Peter. I have to repeat this. For the press. The Editor of Variety has just said, ‘I did not see anyone booing. I was close to the front, and the booing sounded like a soundtrack.‘ You’re right. There was no one booing. I dunno. All I know is that the applause was deafening.”

“We still don’t have distribution. They intend to stop the film and prevent Americans from seeing it. But Harvey won’t let that happen. I won’t let that happen. I will make sure people will see the film by hook or crook.”

“I will get this film out to the American people. I have promised to save them. Even if I have to do something weird, something illegal . . . . .”

Carla Stockton, writer/producer of Bagel Fish Productions, frequently contributes to Imagine. She is currently busy with the exciting new developments in progression of Bagel Fish's first feature film BAGEL KING and in writing a memoir with/for a "retired" spy.