U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore still hasn’t accepted invite to Iran

TEHRAN,Nov.2(MNA) -- It is still unclear if U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore will travel to Tehran to attend the Cinéma Vérité festival, the festival’s secretary said at a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday. Shafi Aqamohammadian said that Moore has neither accepted nor rejected the festival’s invitation. “However he still has tendencies toward coming to Iran and we hope that he would come,” he added. The Cinéma Vérité, the Iranian international festival for documentary films that is annually organized by the DEFC, will be held in Tehran from November 7 to 12. In August 2011, Deputy Culture Minister for Cinematic Affairs Javad Shamaqdari announced that Michael Moore plans to visit Iran in autumn. “He has asked [for permission] to travel to Iran, and we are trying to invite him to the Cinéma Vérité,” Shamaqdari said during a meeting at the Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) in Tehran on Wednesday. “He has said that he wants to visit Iran to do research about the country. In addition, he is an opponent of U.S. government policies and he wants to show his objection by traveling to Iran,” Shamaqdari stated. On two previous occasions, DEFC officials announced that Moore planned to travel to Iran, but he never came. In 2007, the DEFC announced that it had invited Moore and his producer Meghan O’Hara to promote “Sicko”, their highly acclaimed documentary attacking the U.S. medical system, at the Cinéma Vérité festival. However, O’Hara denied the announcement and said, “There is absolutely no truth to the right-wing promoted rumor that Michael is going to Iran -- none, zero, zip.” The DEFC again announced in May 2008 that Moore was planning to travel to Iran to attend the Cinéma Vérité festival, but he did not visit Iran this time either, and the DEFC had no comment about the Moore no-show.