Madonna has presented I Am Because We Are, a documentary about Malawi orphans on which she serves as producer, at the Traverse City film festival in northern Michigan.

The star was met at the screening on Saturday (August 2) by director and fellow Michigan native, Michael Moore. “It’s great bringing my movie to a place that I feel familiar,” said Madonna. “There’s something poetic about coming back to the place where I used to come for holidays.”

Madonna’s husband, the filmmaker Guy Ritchie, was not present. She was accompanied by her 11-year-old daughter, Lourdes, and the film’s director, Nathan Rissman.

Moore co-founded the film festival in 2005. He said Madonna had “such an incredible heart and such a generous spirit”.

He added: “She does so much out of the glare of the lights to make the world a better place.”

Madonna hit out at the Cannes Film Festival saying the Traverse City event was better because at Cannes “nobody’s speaking English”.