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Documentary Rhetoric Gets a Little Hotter

(Citizens United)

• Converting Fahrenheit to Celsius: Conservatives are launching a cinematic counterstrike against Michael Moore's incendiary hit "Fahrenheit 9/11" with a quickie documentary titled "Celsius 41.11." The 80-minute film, funded by Citizens United, a D.C. conservative advocacy group, will premiere Sept. 28 in Washington. "What we have done is debunk some of the main lies and distortions of Michael Moore's movie," the group's president, David Bossie, tells us.

As for the title, that's part of the well-calculated message: 41.11 degrees Celsius converts to 105.998 degrees Fahrenheit. Okay, let's call it 106, the temperature at which a fever can cause brain damage and even death.

So, fans of Moore's movie are almost brain-dead? "We believe they are not thinking straight," says Bossie, former investigator for Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton (a legislator who, we should point out, once shot a melon in his back yard to test a theory related to Vince Foster's suicide). "We take that title from all of the anger, rage and hatred that Michael Moore and his ilk, the MoveOn.orgs of the world, direct at President Bush."

Yet the main focus of the $1 million documentary actually is not Moore: "The movie is inherently and extensively about John Kerry," explains Bossie, author of a recent book bashing the Democratic senator. The film's stars include Fred Thompson, a real actor and former Republican senator, and various conservative pundits: Charles Krauthammer, Michael Medved, Michael Barone and Fred Barnes. Made-for-TV movie veteran Lionel Chetwynd (recent credits include "Ike: Countdown to D-Day" and "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis") is co-producer.

Will "Celsius 41.11" receive wider release after the premiere at the Loews Georgetown Cinema? "We're close" to finding a distributor, Bossie said. "This movie will be seen in theaters around the country; it's just a matter of how many at this point."

Coincidentally, there's another premiere in D.C. the same night: Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, will screen her latest documentary, "Diary of a Political Tourist."

So many election movies, so little time before the election.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25117-2004Sep16.html

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