This Day In History - “Roger & Me” opens in U.S. theaters

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“Roger & Me” opens in U.S. theaters - Dec 20, 1989 - HISTORY.com

On December 20, 1989, the provocative filmmaker Michael Moore’s satirical documentary “Roger & Me” opens in theaters across the United States. (It had made a brief tour of film festivals earlier that year, before it had a distributor.) The film chronicled Moore’s unsuccessful attempts to meet Roger B. Smith, the chairman and chief executive of General Motors, who had presided over the closing of 11 factories in Flint, Michigan, during the 1970s and 80s. As a result, nearly 40,000 people lost their jobs, and Moore wanted to interview Smith about the city’s subsequent decline; Smith, perhaps understandably, chose to avoid that conversation, and his dodges and evasions provided plenty of grist for the filmmaker’s mill. “Roger & Me” earned a great deal of critical praise, and put its director into the public eye.
 
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