The Toronto Film Festival has announced the initial lineup of speakers joining this year's TIFF Industry events as part of its 39th year. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is set to participate in a keynote conversation at Doc Conference. Cinema technology pioneer and visionary Douglas Trumbull is also speaking, and the opening keynote speaker for Asian Film Summit is Legendary East's Peter Loehr."We are excited to announce the participation of these visionary filmmakers in our industry programming," said Justin Cutler, Director, Industry Office. "Our programmes will connect 180 top-calibre speakers with an extensive industry audience of filmmakers from over 80 countries, making this year's programming a true global film summit. We aim to attract the best and brightest industry professionals to inspire, motivate and transform the way our attendees think about the art and business of content creation."
Doc Conference is an in-depth series of keynote sessions, panels and presentations on the current landscape of documentary production, financing and distribution. It takes place September 9 and 10 and will feature Moore, among other guests still to be announced. Moore will be attending the Festival for the 25th anniversary of "Roger & Me," and he kicks off the Doc Conference with a keynote conversation moderated by TIFF Docs programmer Thom Powers. Moore will share his experiences in muckraking and his hopes for the future of documentary.
Twenty-five years after its premiere at TIFF, Michael Moore's first feature, the 1989 documentary "Roger & Me," will also be returning for a special anniversary screening.
"Roger & Me" documents the efforts of General Motors as it turns its hometown of Flint, Michigan, into a ghost town. In his quest to discover why GM would want to do such a thing, Michael Moore -- a Flint native -- attempts to meet the chairman, Roger Smith, and persuade him to come and visit Flint to see the destruction first-hand.
"The 25th anniversary release of my first movie, 'Roger & Me,' is definitely a bittersweet milestone. On the one hand, the film has affected the millions who've seen it and it has strongly influenced what is a now-thriving documentary movement. I'm thrilled that a 25th anniversary screening is being held at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it premiered and was awarded the Festival's major prize, the People's Choice Award," said Moore. "The fact that 'Roger & Me' is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago is a travesty. Actually, it's more than that. At least in 1989, there were still 50,000 General Motors jobs left in Flint. Today, there are but 4,000 GM jobs that remain in Flint, the birthplace of General Motors."
"In 1989 'Roger & Me' took Toronto by storm: the irreverent, persistent and radical doc seized the attention of media, industry and audiences alike. The premiere at once brought attention to the situation in Flint, Michigan and signaled the emergence of an original and irrepressible voice in documentary filmmaking," said Piers Handling, Director and CEO, TIFF. "Twenty-five years later, welcoming Roger & Me back to Toronto will be a highlight of the 2014 Festival."
The 2014 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 4 - 14.
