Madonna's documentary to play Michael Moore's fest

Michael Moore has picked up Madonna’s documentary I Am Because We Are for his Traverse City Film Festival. The piece premiered at Tribeca and also played at Cannes this month. The film was inspired by the icon’s own difficult experience adopting a Malawian child whose mother had died during childbirth. The AIDS epidemic has orphaned over one million children in Malawi, and with adoption laws seemingly nonexistent, they are left with few options.

“She’s sort of entered my realm,” Moore told the Press Association. “When I saw it, I thought ‘Wow, it’s like she’s been making these films for years’.”

The festival takes place July 29-Aug. 3. Madonna will take time off rehearsals for her forthcoming tour to attend the premiere on Aug. 2. Moore also encouraged Madonna throughout the making of the piece.

The pop icon commissioned her friend Nathan Rissman to direct the film. Rissman and his wife have worked for Madonna in the past in childcare and gardening, but he rose to this challenge with a particular fervor.

“There were times that I had the camera and the headphones on filming something, and it would get really hot, so I would take a break, and all of a sudden become overwhelmed with emotion because I was not just witnessing what was happening, I was a part of what was happening,” Rissman told Papermag.

Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie adopted Malawian child David Banda in October 2006, facing opposition from the media about the legitimacy of the adoption because Banda's father is still alive. Madonna has also began construction on a school for girls in the country.

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