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July 31, 2005Event attracts mediaInternational, national press covering festivalBy GARRET ELLISONRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY -- Michael Moore was offered political asylum in Switzerland by a Swiss journalist at his panel on Thursday. "I'll just build a garage on my home in Antrim County," Moore said, declining the offer, but thanking the man. Claude Buhler, a journalist from Blick, the largest daily newspaper in Switzerland with a 350,000 circulation, is in Traverse City this week for the film festival, along with a variety of other press from around the U.S. Blick caught wind of the film festival from the Associated Press wire and sent Buhler to Michigan when they saw Michael Moore's name attached to it. "Michael Moore is a big personality in Europe," Buhler said. "Second only to Lance Armstrong. "He was known before (Fahrenheit) but very small. I think 'Columbine' and 'Fahrenheit' gave him the big push." At the film festival office, over 40 press credentials were issued to national and international media. "Every major city in Michigan has covered this, and all the major newspapers in the region," said film festival spokesperson Tracy Kurtz, who was interviewed by CBS radio Thursday morning in a segment aired nationwide. "They just basically wanted to know all about the film festival and Traverse City," she said. The Washington Post and Chicago Sun-Times have sent people, as well as the Film Festival channel in Los Angeles and several film critic Web sites. "There's a lot of critics coming to review these movies at their screenings," Kurtz said. That's because eight of the films are being shown here months before their national release.
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