-Our first guest tonight is the Academy Award-winning filmmaker
of documentaries like "Roger and Me,"
"Bowling for Columbine," and "Fahrenheit 9/11."
He's the executive producer of "Planet of the Humans,"
which is available on YouTube.
His podcast, "Rumble with Michael Moore,"
is available on all podcast platforms.
Please welcome back to the show Michael Moore.
Welcome back, Michael. It's always so good to see you.
-Thanks for having me here in your home, sort of.
-Sort of. And the same with you.
So, you've fought for societal change
pretty much your whole career, your whole life.
How do you feel about this moment right now
when we're seeing people from sort of all walks of lives,
all diverse backgrounds, basically risking their lives
being on the street to fight for this moment?
-I am so uplifted by the response.
And you're right -- they are risking --
Everybody who goes out there and marches in demonstrations
is risking their life for this.
When history looks back on this, when they see
that literally millions around the world
took to the streets during a pandemic, it's, um --
it gives me a lot of hope, actually.
I'm in a hopeful mood right now
in terms of what we're going --
First of all, just with what's happened
in the last couple of weeks.
That, um --
That, uh, white citizens
didn't leave it up to black Americans
to have to go and fight this alone.
And that these demonstrations,
black, Hispanic, white,
Asian Americans, Native Americans --
I mean, all men, women, old, young.
It's the country I want to live in, if I can say that.
I, um...
I believe very strongly that we have to change this.
I believe in defunding the police
and explaining exactly what that means.
Obviously, nobody wants to get rid of the police
in the sense of our safety.
But the way we've been doing it is wrong.
It's wrong for the police.
You know, there was an officer
on one of the cable news shows this week
saying 90% of their calls... -Yeah.
-...are for things they're not trained to do.
Why not when we call 911 --
You know, it's not just a police 911.
You call, and you say, "My house is on fire,"
they send the fire department.
You call and you say, "My husband's had a heart attack,"
they send the EMT.
Why not when they call for something
that's a mental-health issue,
something that's a drug or alcohol addiction issue,
something that --
I mean, you need the police obviously
for homicide, rape, robbery, men abusing women --
you know, dangerous situations.
And the ones who are trained to do that are trained well,
go through a review process
to make sure that we're not hiring any racists.
They should be embraced
and paid well for taking that risk for us.
Um, you know, I mean, I just --
I can't stress enough that this is our moment to fix this.
We don't have to see another person say, "I can't breathe."
We just -- We can't let that happen again.
We all have to commit to that.
-You mentioned how we don't want to see anyone ever say
"I can't breathe" again.
And, of course, this was a case
where we only saw it because someone filmed it.
You, obviously, as a documentarian
try to change people's minds.
Yet, you, I think, would admit
and have said that the young girl who filmed this
made the documentary of the year.
-Yes, I said that on my podcast last week, that --
Her name is Darnella Frazier.
And she made the most important nonfiction film maybe in years.
This brave young girl --
she's a teenager, she's a high-school student --
stood there, stood there with the cops with guns
right there with her.
Anything could have happened.
And then all of a sudden, um, you know, she --
Whatever in her gave her that bravery,
that cool, calm, collected --
She shot that for almost nine minutes.
No experience. No, you know --
Just completely -- It was -- She should be honored.
I said this on my show that at the Oscars next year,
we should acknowledge the most important nonfiction film
was not by a filmmaker.
But my point is, is that I want all young people --
People are watching this now.
You are filmmakers now, thanks to --
Steve Jobs had the idea to put a camera in a phone.
I would have loved to have been there in that brainstorming
session where, you know, Steve says,
"Let's put something else in this phone."
And then they're at the whiteboard.
Somebody says, "How about a rotisserie set?" "No, no, no."
"Maybe just a fork, spoon, and knife."
"No, no, no, no, no. Uh, how about a camera?!"
That idea right there may end up saving so many lives.