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Filmed just months before the presidential election in 2004, Slacker Uprising serves as both documentary and self-portrait of Michael Moore as he toured colleges throughout the country, aiming to woo non-voting “slackers” to the voting booth by offering care packages of underwear and free ramen noodles in exchange for attending engagements of his rolling pep-rally-slash-concert tour.

The tour was met with resistance from conservative groups that sought to prevent Moore from making university stops by both offering donations to the schools if they cancelled his events, or by theatening legal action and Moore’s arrest.  The documentary itself was also met with less than enthusiastic reviews last year (many saw it as a clumsy vanity project) and failed to be picked up by a mainstream distributor. Now though, Moore has teamed up with Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films to release Slacker Uprising for free via digital download during a three week window beginning September 23rd, just prior to a proper DVD release with additional bonus features. Whether Moore opted for the giveaway route as a new opportunity to be a catalyst for change in the Oval Office, or merely because the film was a clunker, is up for debate. (via Film Junk)