Did You Know?

By 1989, all movie theaters had closed in the city limits of Flint. The premiere was held at Showcase Cinemas, 5205 East Court Street, Burton, MI a small town next to Flint.

The robot featured in the "My Buddy" segment from Autoworld is located in the Sloan Museum, 1221 E. Kearsley Street, Flint, MI. The Roger and Me premiere banner and original cardboard stand up sign are located just a few feet from the robot but no connection is mentioned.

When Michael Moore decided to start a documentary about Flint, Michigan and General Motors in the mid-1980s, he knew very little about the technical side of filmmaking (camera-work, lighting, etc.). He met a fellow low-budget documentary filmmaker, Kevin Rafferty, who helped him learn this side of the director's job on the project, and served as one of the cinematographers.

This is the only movie where there has been a successful lawsuit against Michael Moore - filed by former friend Larry Stecco who successfully argued that his portrayal in the movie was not an accurate reflection of his character ("False light invasion of privacy" is the legal term) and won. Stecco was interviewed attending a society fund raising ball and was made out to be a high-society rich pig who partied while people where starving outside. He was actually a lawyer who worked pro-bono for the poorer residents of Flint.

This documentary exposes the reality of corporate downsizing and outsourcing - General Motors opening facilities in Mexico and shuttering their facilities in Flint, Michigan has became a trend during the mid-1980s where the Rust Belt employment sector has declined - the use of automation where Detroit's Big Three implemented the use of industrial robots resulted in the decline of the blue collar factory worker. When GM initiated this, they were consolidating their vehicle lines by sharing bodyshells which became known as platform sharing in the automobile industry. The Flint, Michigan assembly plants that GM shuttered - the corporate downsizing and outsourcing trend has influenced GM's rival Ford Motor Company with The Way Forward during the mid-2000s (Ford shuttered its Wixom, Michigan assembly plant and in late 2011, its St. Thomas plant in Canada).

Michael Moore:  [flint]  Most of the film takes place in Flint, Michigan.