Say Anything Blog

Michael Moore interviewed, or at the very least is in possession of an interview, with Nick Berg before he left for Iraq (via Ace 'o Spades).

Salon - Filmmaker Michael Moore filmed an interview with American Nicholas Berg in the course of producing his documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11" before Berg left for Iraq, where he was taken hostage and killed, Moore confirmed to Salon in a statement Thursday. The 20 minutes of footage does not appear in the final version of "Fahrenheit 911," according to the statement.

Word of the footage reached Salon through a source unaffiliated with Moore or his film "Fahrenheit 9/11"...

In a statement released to Salon, Moore said, "We have an interview with Nick Berg. It was approximately 20 minutes long. We are not releasing it to the media. It is not in the film. We are dealing privately with the family." Moore's camp declined to comment further on any aspect of the interview. Because the footage is not in the film, a spokeswoman for Miramax Films, the production company behind "Fahrenheit 9/11," said the company had no comment.

From what I've gathered of interviews with Berg's friends and acquaintances he was quite in favor of the war in Iraq. I wonder if that could be why the footage didn't make it to Moore's final cut?

I also wonder what kind of political spinning Michael Moore and Michael Berg (Nick's father) will put on the interview and whether or not it will ever be released publicly.

Ace is calling for the footage to be subpoenaed as part of the murder investigation. I'm inclined to agree and feel it should be done quickly before Moore gets a chance to use it in a way that will further demean Americans and undermine the war effort.

Update:

Berg's sister isn't buying into it.

Knight Ridder - The sister of Nick Berg, the contractor from the Philadelphia suburbs who was beheaded earlier this month in Iraq, says she's dumbfounded by reports that liberal icon Michael Moore had filmed an interview with her late brother for his new anti-war film.

"I'm very skeptical of this," said Sara Berg, a Virginia attorney whose brother's beheading sparked a global uproar.

But she said there was no way to confirm that Moore had sent a tape of the reported 20-minute interview to their parents' home in West Chester, as the filmmaker suggested in a statement Thursday, because the couple has been away.