reelVENEZUELA: Film Festival

MARIN INTERFAITH TASK FORCE ON THE AMERICAS' VENEZUELA COMMITTEE

& LA PENA CULTURAL CENTER PRESENT

reelVENEZUELA: Film Festival

Four nights:  April 4 & 5  and April 11 & 12 (Wednesdays and Thursdays), 2007

La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, California

Twelve different videos describe the accomplishments, aspirations, and difficulties confronting political and regular life in Venezuela today. The truth about Venezuela has been and continues to be badly served by most U.S. media, so anyone who wants to see the “real deal” about Venezuela and its visionary and “controversial” leader, Hugo Chavez, should attend as many of the reelVenezuela films as they can.

Wednesday, April 4, 7:30 PM

Venezuela  Bolivariana: People And Struggle Of The Fourth World War

76 min., 2004 

Covers the political process in Venezuela, from the anti-IMF uprising (the “Caracaso”) February 1989, until the present revolutionary process in the context of the world-wide anti-globalization battle, the Bolivarian Revolution, and its incredible grassroots and networking power. 

With the Poor of the Earth

57 min.., 2006

Produced by noted Chilean journalist Marta Harnecker, this documentary relates the history of Hugo Chávez' struggle to create a new Venezuela free of poverty, illiteracy and misery; and the involvement of the Venezuelan people in their own liberation. 

Coup at Daybreak

95 min., 1998   

Takes place during the military coup that saw the overthrow of the Venezuelan government in 1992. A number of Caracas' wealthiest citizens attempt to figure out their status when soldiers march into town and they are unable to trust reports from radio and television. The film follows-up on how these people deal with the new reality they face.

Thursday, April 5, 2007, 7:30 PM

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

74 min., 2003

Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when President Chavez was forcibly removed from office. A unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of Chavez and one of history's shortest-lived coup d'états.

Venezuela From Below

67 min., 2004

Focuses on the rank and file and their enormous strength and the capacity for self organization, of taking matters into their own hands, in the process of transformation that is occurring in Venezuela.

Llaguno Bridge: Clues to a Massacre

105 min., 2004

Features images, testimonies and facts by Cuban filmmaker Angel Palacios relating to the Venezuelan coup d'etat of April 2002. The film unmasks the conspiracies and plots leading up to the so-called massacre at the Llaguno Bridge. Palacios explores how the Venezuelan media twisted facts and news reality to blame the massacre on President Chávez. This work also shows how the people defended themselves against the Caracas Metropolitan Police who helped execute the attempted coup d'etat. The film uses never before seen techniques to place the events of April 11, 2002 in their true chronological order.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 7:30 PM

Venezuela Rising

60 min., 2005

Gladys Bolivar, grandmother and community organizer, is followed, as are  her compatriots, five days before a popular referendum, unique in the world, will decide whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will continue in office or step down.

Chavez:  Venezuela, and the new Latin America

55 min., 2005

Aleida Guevara (daughter of you-know-who) conducted an extended interview with Hugo Chavez that offers a glimpse through the U.S. information blockade into a country rich with hope, dreams, and oil.

The Rescue of PDVSA’s Brain

45 min., 2003

Invaluable document in which the workers who saved the automated  oil production and distribution system that had been sabotaged by opponents of Chavez in December 2002.

Thursday, April 12,  2007, 7:30 PM

Venezuela: Talking of Power

62 min., 2005

Sex, race & class in revolutionary Venezuela. From the hills of Caracas to the banks of the Orinoco, the grassroots tell us how they are changing our world. Clips of President Chavez; Nora Castañeda, Women’s Development Bank, and others.

5 FACTORIES: Worker Control in Venezuela

81 min., 2006

Features inspiring stories from workers in five industrial production centers (textile, aluminum works, a tomato factory, a cocoa factory, and a paper factory) about how the revolutionary changes are transforming their lives — economically, socially and emotionally. 

The Old Man and Jesus: Prophets of Rebellion

70 min.

El Viejo (the old man) and Jesus live under a bridge in Caracas. They are marginalized but definitely not without a critical and lucid opinion of their society. They believe in the revolutionary process of President Hugo Chavez and in a better future, despite the attempted Fascist coup in 2002 which shook the country. The wisdom of el Viejo and the runaway dialectics of Jesus are a tribute to thedignity and revolutionary vision of a people who resist poverty.

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