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‘Christ is with the Revolution’:  Watch Hugo Chavez doc, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’
10.08.2012
11:10 am
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I first saw Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised about six years back, the day after a very late night, “heroically” hauling myself out of bed and dragging myself up the road to the local cinema before sinking deep into a generously cushioned chair for the afternoon screening. If my viewing neighbors were delighted to be watching a film alongside what must have smelled something like a six-foot tall bottle of booze, their joy can only have redoubled when – approximately thirty-five seconds into the screening – this rancid alcohol-human hybrid (talking about myself, here) burst into tequila tinged sobs that rang out for the entire film…

Transpires, of course, that my extravagant and half-cut sentimentality was in aid of one of the most controversial documentaries of all time, one that has since even inspired a dedicated effort at debunkery, X-Ray of a Lie, which takes the unmistakable partiality of the filmmakers to task and accuses them of all sorts of questionable editing and bias.

What seems ultimately incontestable, however, is that the film captures – and from the eye of the storm – the attempted military overthrow of a democratically elected government, and its reversal by a popular uprising. And it is this – a familiar story with a less-familiar ending – that gives The Revolution Will Not Be Televised its awesome emotional pull, late night or not.

Whatever can be said against him, give me Hugo Chavez’s backslapping humanity (he appears to cuddle about a third of Venezuela in the course of this documentary alone) over the baby-kissing misanthropy of our own political class any day. Congratulations to him on winning another six year term. I hope he survives it.
 

Posted by Thomas McGrath
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10.08.2012
11:10 am
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Hugo Chavez joins Twitter: Socialist leader’s social media volte-face
04.27.2010
09:49 pm
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It seems that someone’s had a lil’ change of heart where it comes to social media. Known for his radio and television speeches which can go on and on and on and on, Venezuelan el Presidente Hugo Chavez will be forced to learn a little brevity when he starts Twittering. Can Twitter’s 140 character limit accommodate the loquacious leader?

From the Telegraph:

In January Mr Chavez said that using Twitter, the internet and text messaging to criticism his regime was “terrorism.”

He has now decided to use the social networking tool for his own purposes.

“Comandante Chavez is going to open his Twitter account soon to wage the battle online,” Diosdado Cabello, director of Venezuela’s state-run telecommunications agency, said on Venezuelan television, according to Bloomberg News.

“I’m sure he’ll break records for numbers of followers.”

And he’ll probably prove to be much more interesting than Ashton Kutcher or John Mayer!

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.27.2010
09:49 pm
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Oliver Stone Goes South Of The Border
09.04.2009
01:08 am
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The trailer for Oliver Stone‘s new documentary on Hugo Chavez, South of the Border, just popped up on YouTube.  I see Stone co-wrote it with Tariq Ali, the New Left Review editor (and inspiration for the Stones’ Street Fighting Man), so expect the usual shitstorm of controversy.  And who’s that behind the camera?  How nice—Gimme Shelter‘s Albert Maysles

In the LAT: Oliver Stone Heads “South Of The Border” To Chat Up Chavez And Others

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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09.04.2009
01:08 am
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