Michael Moore gets the Michael Moore treatment in Nick Tucker’s new documentary “Do As I Say.”
It’s only fitting, since Tucker learned much of what he knows about making documentaries that entertain as well as enlighten from the Oscar winner himself.
Tucker’s film, which debuts at 7 p.m. tomorrow (Oct 2) at the American Film Renaissance’s fourth annual festival in Washington, D.C., skewers liberal hypocrites like Moore, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Noam Chomsky.
It’s based on Peter Schweizer’s best-selling book “Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy.”
The film’s signature bit has Tucker leaving an interview request, along with a cake, outside Moore’s home. Instead of sampling the cake and inviting the young filmmaker inside, Moore calls the police.
“He’s definitely someone we looked to for inspiration for the film. The segment is an homage to him,” he says.
Tucker says he “stole from as many sources as you could” to make the low-budget feature, citing “The Daily Show” as well as “Borat” as comedic inspiration. But Moore’s imprint on Tucker’s film is the most obvious. The director inserts himself into the narrative repeatedly, sharing personal stories about his attempts to speak with Moore as well as other amusing snippets that echo Moore’s guerilla brand of filmmaking.
“Do As I Say’s” unabashedly conservative bent is a departure for the young filmmaker, whose previous films weren’t politically based.
He didn’t initially think twice about embracing his own ideology, which leans toward the libertarian side of the street.
He’s had a few second thoughts since then.
“I probably was less concerned about it when I started out than I am lately,” he says, especially the rough treatment Jon Voight received recently for speaking out against Sen. Barack Obama. “I feel a little bit more like, ‘whoah, maybe I shouldn’t have stepped out of the conservative closet so quickly.”
Ultimately, the industry’s reaction to his work took a backseat to his overall vision.
“I didn’t want to be part of the studio system. I just want to make movies on my own,” he says. “I think we’ll have no problem finding an audience for this film.”
Tucker started shooting his new documentary, “Do As I Say,” before he secured the film’s complete funding.
His initial proposal attracted some financing, and he immediately started shooting scenes to convince other benefactors to pony up.
“It wasn’t as hard to raise money for it once we had something to show,” Tucker says. “It meant starting before we knew where we were going.”
The documentary doesn’t have a distribution deal in place yet. Tucker hopes to see his film in theaters nationwide, but if that doesn’t happen he plans to hit the college circuit and show “Do As I Say” to students.
“Young audiences really respond to it,” he says, adding students can visit the film‘s web site and request the film be shown at their university.
Conservative films like “Do As I Say” are suddenly springing up across the country, but they still can’t match the economic power of their liberal counterparts.
Tucker credits the increase, in part, to right-leaning think tanks realizing they need to channel their resources not just into policy papers but toward communicating their ideas in more compelling ways.
That doesn’t always inspire great cinema, though, he contends. It’s one reason he’s hopeful that David Zucker‘s “An American Carol” will be a smash.
“It’s not someone who’s conservative who decided to be a filmmaker,” he says. “Zucker knows the craft. He knows how to make a good comedy.”
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