Wednesday evening, Michael Moore was scheduled to join Kirsten Johnson and Laura Poitras in conversation to celebrate Johnson's new documentary Cameraperson, a collection of footage she gathered over the years behind the camera and weaved together like a visual memoir. Johnson had been a camera operator on Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and a cinematographer on Poitras' Citizenfour, and has many other works under her belt. But following the upsetting election results, the talk shifted into more of a group therapy session.
"There is a state of profound shock and a real sense of fear that these are dark days ahead," Citizenfour director Poitras said. After getting nabbed by protestors at Union Square to speak, Moore arrived late to the reception and spoke further on the Trump presidency he had predicted many months ago. He addressed the "next wave of fascism" he had tweeted about earlier that day, prompting an audience member to ask, "How do we stop them?"
"I don't know how to answer that," Moore replied, solemnly. "I've been screaming bloody murder he was gonna win. Everybody laughed and thought it was a joke. I'm so upset and angry."
He added, "Even the most awful people have a sliver of empathy. Trump is a complete sociopath."
Last month, Moore released his surprise documentary, Michael Moore in TrumpLand, and said the most interesting part of the rollout was Trump's reaction to it. "Instead of coming after me, he embraced it and put out a doctored clip of the film that made it seem like I'm endorsing him."
He then went on to talk about our "illusion of progress" and how it's still very much a gender apartheid in the U.S., despite the fact that statistically, the era of "white men running the show is over."
Though there was a dense air of fear and shock in the room—and far less comforting words from Moore than people had been longing to hear—he did write a to-do list on Facebook that has been widely shared. You can read it here, or below:
Morning After To-Do List:
