MICHAEL MOORE BAILS ON TRAVERSE CITY…ONE YEAR AFTER FILM FESTIVAL HE FOUNDED RECEIVED $993,000 TAXPAYER BAILOUT (“I now have the chance to try to make a huge difference regarding what this country is facing and I’ve chosen to jump into the fray this week.”)
Well, Michael Moore has officially ditched this year’s Traverse City Film Festival.
In a July 22, 2022 email sent to the “Friends of the Film Festival” (full disclosure: I am a “Friend” and former TCFF volunteer), Moore casually dropped the news that he’d chosen his “career” over the eager horde of cinéastes who arrive in Michigan’s “Cherry Capital” in late July.
Moore founded the Festival in 2005, and this year’s post-COVID return after a three year hiatus was hyped by Moore himself.
Couple the kiss-off email with $933,000 in federal pandemic relief funds received in June 2021 (money that Moore confirmed would help restart two Traverse City movie theaters and the 2022 Festival) and you can see why his last-minute “Hoboken hustle” has enraged Traverse City residents.
“I’m not being hyperbolic when I say this has saved the festival,” said Michael Moore, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and TCFF’s founder and president.
Moore’s last-minute “absence excuse note” was not the first time he’s roiled the waters of the Grand Traverse Bay.
In its 2017 annual financial report (“Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax”), made publicly available by the IRS, the Traverse City Film Festival declared “a significant diversion of its assets”, information previously kept under wraps: a “$262,920 loss” the TCFF attributed to “an employee”.
In the Supplemental Information filed with its 2017 report, the TCFF revealed additional details presumably linked to the sudden departure of its former Executive Director in late December 2017:
“In December 2017, the organization learned that an employee directed the use of $198,020 of temporarily restricted funds without board authorization or approval. In addition, monies were raised and paid out of the organization in the amount of $64,900 for the benefit of a community member outside the scope of the organization’s charitable purpose.
This fundraising and funds dispersal was also done without the authorization from or approval of the board of directors. The involved employee was terminated from the organization. The fundraising activity for the community member has been terminated.
The organization has strengthened internal financial controls and an independent forensic investigation is underway. The organization has contacted the county prosecutor and is sharing information with him as it becomes available.”
In December, the board terminated (the former director), and we did so because of our ethical obligations, our legal obligations. We made an informed decision.”
The former TCFF Executive Director disputed Moore’s version of her departure from the Festival in a statement released on her behalf by an attorney:
“I believe that the decision was made unilaterally by Michael, as almost all decisions made by TCFF were during my 13 years with the festival. The implication that the board had an ethical or legal duty to terminate my employment with TCFF is also false.”
In a follow-up report on a blog I previously published, I revealed the “forensic audit” and financial transparency promises Moore made during an August 2, 2018 community meeting at the Old Town Playhouse never materialized:
“Beginning in a few months, at the end of 2018, we’re going to begin issuing annual reports,” he said.
“We’re going to actually publish on the website not only the 990s (nonprofit IRS statements), but also the quarterly financial statements. You’ll be able to look at what the bank has, and what we have, and you’ll be able to see everything. That’s the way it’s going to be from now on.”
Moore also said the festival had ordered a forensic audit of its finances this year.
So why is anyone surprised?
If someone tells you (or, in this case, shows you) who they are, believe them.
