Michael Moore infuriates me as much he fascinates and provokes.

Ditto for Canadian documentarians Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine. They pursue that dichotomy in their deceptively Moore-like film, Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore.

It is new to DVD this week after a brief theatrical release: A film about Moore can never gain the notoriety and box office of a film by Moore. But it is just as valid an experience and useful in assessing all of Moore's own films, no matter your politics.

Melnyk, the on-screen presence, openly admits she is on Moore's side on many political issues, starting with outrage over the Iraq War and respect for Moore's now famous Oscar acceptance speech.

Then she and Caine methodically go about reconstructing Moore's life and career, back to his days as a student radical in Davison, Mich.

On the journey, they uncover or at least document Moore's factual transgressions, the "small picture" manipulations that showman Moore indulges in to get to his "big picture" political points. They also experience the Roger & Me syndrome as Moore deliberately avoids talking to them for this film, after virtually promising to do so.

The beauty of Manufacturing Dissent is that it does not pander to the Moore apologists, nor the anti-Moore cult.

Instead, it addresses fundamental issues of truth-telling in the documentary form -- and it seems to do so truthfully. Extras on the DVD, more talking heads, further the debate.

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