Filmmaker Michael Moore has rejected an invitation to visit the Iran Intl. Documentary Festival, slated to take place from October 15 to 19 in Tehran.
Washington, July 7 : Filmmaker Michael Moore has rejected an invitation to visit the Iran Intl. Documentary Festival, slated to take place from October 15 to 19 in Tehran.
The country's Documentary and Experimental Film Center, which is organising the festival, had intimated Moore that his controversial documentary about the US health system, 'Sicko', had been selected for the inaugural event.
Officials had also invited Moore and his producers to attend the festival.
"His film is selected for the international competition section and, according to the rules, we invite the director or producer from every film," Variety magazine quoted Shirin Naderi, DEFC's head of international business, as saying.
"We have sent the invitation to him but until now we haven't received any confirmation on whether he's coming or not," Naderi added.
Meanwhile, rumours spread that the director and his team had accepted the invitation to attend the documentary festival.
But 'Sicko' producer Meghan O'Hara has now scotched Internet reports that sparked such rumours.
"There is absolutely no truth to the right-wing promoted rumour that Michael is going to Iran -- none, zero, zip," O'Hara said in a statement posted on Moore's website.
"This inaccurate rumour is an urban myth right up there with alligators in the sewers of New York City, and it is getting pushed around out there by conservative opponents of Michael who would rather make up stories out of whole cloth than actually engage in a debate on the merits of our broken health care system or why it is that George W. Bush took us to war in Iraq," the statement added.
ANI