Tuesday night, after the 7 pm showing of F 9/11, Enzian theater hosted a panel discussion entitled "MESSENGER OR MANIPULATOR?" which basically asked whether or not F 9/11 is a doc, how introducing bias effects credibility and what is the larger impact of the film.

Enzian assembled an incredible collection of panelists, including Ambassador Ulric Haynes, Jr. - former American Ambassador to Algeria and one of the negotiators for the release of the American hostages in Iran, veteran film critic Jay Boyar, Steve Schlow - Writer/Producer/Director of documentaries and narrative films for nearly 40 years and Peter Brown - former Chief Political Writer/White House correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service and current Insight Editor/Columnist for the Orlando Sentinel.

Surprisingly, only Schlow, the established doc filmmaker, felt that Moore's work is not a documentary. I was not clear on why he made the distinction but he still felt the film was powerful and he even said that Moore finally "got it right" (he called Roger & Me and sophomoric work.) Most of the other panelists agreed that it was indeed a doc but also stated that they didn't really care what genre label it was given, I believe it was Boyar who said that the label only effects the Academy Awards.

I found Mr. Haynes to be the most engaging panelist and his excitement about the commercial viability of truth was particularly compelling. The idea being that if there is a demand for something, in this case, truth, the market will meet that demand. So when the mainstream press fails it's duty to inform the public, people like Michael Moore will pick up the slack. He also cited several specific examples where F 9/11 contained important news that was not covered by the mainstream press, further emphasizing the importance of films like F 9/11 in this day and age.

Not surprisingly, the majority of the audience was very liberal and passionately leftist. Being worked up by the film, the audience was not interested in hearing anything that did not suite their view. More than once, the seemingly conservative Peter Brown expressed contrarian views and was already getting grumbles when he offhandedly called the film humorous. The audience pounced, "What's funny about death and war?!" some members angrily shouted. People stopped asking questions and started just shouting out and stirring in their seats. All the panelists looked confused and it seemed to me things were on the verge of getting very ugly when Mr. Brown responded and, with help from fellow panelists and the moderator, calmed the crowd a bit. Clearly the film contains a good amount of humor, the crowd knew that, they just wanted to someone to lash out at, someone to vent their frustrations on.

F 9/11 is a very powerful film and one that stirs passions. I almost wish Moore had made this into two different films, one being critical of Bush and the other critical of the war. My fear is that the most important argument made by the film, that war is horror, will be lost because of the political agenda. Greed, deception and treason are deplorable but war is even more heinous and this is a message that can transcend political lines.