Panic Industry

She might be known worldwide as the Material Girl, but there's more than a little of the small-town Michigan girl left in Madonna. The pop superstar arrived in this northern Michigan resort town Saturday to introduce her documentary, "I Am Because We Are," a highlight of the Traverse City Film Festival. The event was co-founded by filmmaker, author and fellow Michigan native Michael Moore.

Hundreds of fans cheered from behind barricades as Madonna, wearing a black dress, high heels and sunglasses, stepped out of a black sport utility vehicle that pulled up in front of the State Theatre. She hugged a waiting Moore, who sported an orange baseball cap, and posed for photos with him.
Madonna and Moore shared the stage at the theater before a screening of the movie, which deals with the orphans of Malawi, the African nation where she and husband Guy Ritchie adopted a son.

"It's great bringing my movie to a place that I feel familiar," Madonna told the audience. "Not like the Cannes Film Festival, where nobody's speaking English, or the Tribeca Film Festival, where no one sits down.

"There's something poetic about coming back to the place where I used to come for holidays - camping trips with my dad and stepmother and my very large family," said the 49-year-old singer, born to the southeast in Bay City and raised in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills.

Madonna was accompanied by her 11-year-old daughter, Lourdes, and the film's director, Nathan Rissman.

Moore, who won an Oscar for his 2002 documentary "Bowling for Columbine," said he was humbled to be able to call Madonna a friend.
"She has such an incredible heart and such a generous spirit," he said. "She does so much out of the glare of the lights to make the world a better place."

Madonna had praise of her own for Moore, 54, a Flint-area native who has a home near Traverse City.
"There aren't a lot of role models for us in the world, or people we can look up to," she said. "People who are not afraid to stick their neck out, people who are not afraid to stand up for things and be unpopular, to go against the grain, think outside the box.
"And we need, and I need, Michael Moore in my life."

"Madonna, we love you!"
The cheers started pouring out shortly after the pop superstar -- days away from turning 50 -- hit the red carpet in front of the State Theatre at the Traverse City Film Festival on Saturday night.

A short while later, she told the audience inside that "you can take the girl out of Michigan, but you can't take the Michigan out of the girl" and recalled vacations to the region with family.

Madonna later told the audience her next world tour would stop in Detroit. It would be her first Detroit engagement since 2001.
That news came during a question-and-answer session that followed the screening of her documentary "I Am Because We Are" about orphans in Malawi. The session was closed to the press.
Festival founder Michael Moore confirmed that Madonna said she would include Detroit. No specifics were released.

Moore said Madonna had "an incredible night" at the theater, describing how moved she was by the reception.

Dressed in black, her blond hair falling in loose waves, the Material Girl from Michigan waved and posed for photos before entering the theater, the site of a screening of her documentary.
And she thanked festival founder and Flint native Moore, who was standing next to her, for his inspiration and advice on the documentary.

"This movie means so much to me, for so many reasons," she said. "Making this film was the journey of a lifetime."

The documentary is about bringing attention to the plight of the 1 million orphans in Malawi, a nation ravaged by AIDS and poverty.

Madonna brought her daughter, Lourdes, 11, to the event. Her father, Silvio Ciccone, and stepmother, Joan, were there, too (the Ciccone winery is in nearby Suttons Bay).
Although Madonna's visit drew coverage from some celebrity news sources like "Extra" and People magazine, the atmosphere surrounding it was more like an oversize family reunion than a Hollywood bash.
Before bringing the star onstage, Moore joked that he didn't know the last time she'd played a venue with 540 seats. Later, she corrected him, saying she'd just done a gig in Paris that was about the same size.

Moore also shared memories of going to a party for one of her CDs on his birthday, where she surprised him with a cake and candles and he was coaxed by her husband, Guy Ritchie, to try break dancing.
He described Madonna as "one of the kindest and giving people that I've met, one of the smartest people I know" and applauded her for adopting her 2-year-old son, David, who's from Malawi.

The proceeds from two Saturday screenings of "I Am Because We Are" (at the State, where Madonna appeared, and another at the nearby City Opera House, which had a live simulcast of her remarks) will go to Madonna's foundation, Raising Malawi.

One of the first fans in line for the State Theatre screening, Chris Divine, 37, of Portland, Ore., said he paid "less than $2,000" for two tickets on eBay.
"I'm a fanatic, so I had to come," said Divine.

Tickets sold out immediately when they went on sale in June for $25. People lined up in Traverse City to purchase them. There also was a lottery to buy them for Friends of the Traverse City Film Festival.

The line to see Madonna was officially supposed to start at 5 p.m.
But fans had been waiting for months for the chance of an up-close glimpse at the queen of pop.

Giovanni Avoledo, 39, of Ferndale was near the front of the line for the general admission seats. "I don't think she gets the credit she deserves" for her humanitarian work, he said. "Everybody seems to be focusing on her personal life, but I could care less."

"This is her baby, something that is intimate for her," Philippe Van Den Bossche, who manages Madonna's philanthropy around the world, said of the film.

"She really wants to use the opportunity of her celebrity, her fame, her power, her wealth, to really help those who need it the most, the vulnerable children and all of their caregivers," said Van Den Bossche, who came to Traverse City in connection with the film.

Source: Detroit Free Press.

The critics who say Madonna’s presence in her film about Malawi’s orphans is a distraction are missing the point, says the director of "I Am Because We Are."
And that point is we're all connected - and that includes mega-celebrities.

"It's easy to point your finger and say, "Why should she be telling me about people who are suffering?" And I think she's really tried to curb that attitude and say, "I have a responsibility to live a life that's going to help people,"" says Nathan Rissman, who's in Traverse City for the film festival.

Rissman says Madonna was encouraged to show her emotions in the documentary by festival founder Michael Moore, who saw an early cut of the film.
And in several scenes, she does open up, at one point sharing details of meeting the child she eventually adopted, her two-year-old son, David.

Madonna appears briefly in several scenes and provides narration. There also are interview with famous figures like Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton, and world-renowned expert on fighting poverty Jeffrey Sachs (who's a Detroit native).

According to Rissman, the film has gotten picked up by an international distributor and by the Sundance Channel. He expects more details soon about possible theater showings in America.

Asked to compare Traverse City's festival to the famous one in Cannes, he gives the Michigan one high marks for the camaderie of the filmmakers and fans who’ve gathered here.
But Cannes, which he attended with Madonna, was pretty cool, too, what with "100,000 clapping as you take the red carpet."
He adds, "Of course, it was for the blonde lady next to me."

Source: Detroit Free press.

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