Hugo Chavez Funds State-Run Film Studio

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Hugo Chavez Funds State-Run Film Studio
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ – 5 hours ago

GUARENAS, Venezuela (AP) — Lights! Camera! Revolution! Unhappy with what he considers Hollywood's monopoly on the silver screen, President Hugo Chavez is bankrolling Venezuelan movies through a state-run film studio.

Now rolling are biopics about national heroes and villains, including Luis Posada Carriles, the former CIA operative who allegedly masterminded a jetliner bombing and tried to kill Fidel Castro.

Scenes are being shot in and around Caracas this month for the movie about Posada, considered by Chavez to be a Latin American version of Osama bin Laden. Scheduled for international release next year, it's one of a growing number of films the socialist government is financing in a fusion of politics and art.

The trend is a boost to homegrown cinema in Venezuela, but critics say it reeks of Soviet-style propaganda efforts.

Chavez has long demanded that the United States extradite Posada to stand trial in the 1976 Cuban jetliner bombing, which killed 73 people. Posada allegedly masterminded the attack while living in Venezuela, where he was a member of a secret police force dedicated to rooting out Marxist rebels.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gGZmkKQz7R5DJAmwoobgYoQDePmQ

---

DU'ers allegedly have a grasp of Luis Posada's history!

AP's FABIOLA SANCHEZ is allegedly a simple journalist, too.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Actor Kevin Spacey meets Hugo Chavez in Venezuela

Actor Kevin Spacey meets Hugo Chavez in Venezuela
September 26, 2007 12:00am

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5672397,00.jpg

Kevin Spacey's meeting with President Hugo Chavez,
during which the actor praised the Venezuelan
government's efforts to support film-making.
Picture: AFP

AMERICAN actor Kevin Spacey met privately with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last night and praised his government's efforts to support film-making.

Spacey met with Chavez over dinner, and state television later carried footage of the actor saying the country's film studio offers Venezuelans a valuable opportunity to "make films about their own country and their own culture."

"I think every country should have this," said Spacey, who earlier visited the $US13 million ($A14.99 million) film studio founded last year by Chavez's government.

Spacey - who has won Academy Awards for roles in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty - shook hands warmly with Chavez on the red carpet as he left the presidential palace.

More:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22484554-2902,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Here you can read the article based on the interview bomber/mass murderer, Luis Posada Carriles

gave to New York Times reporters Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rohter:

Part I
Sunday - July 12, 1998

A BOMBER'S TALE: Part I

Taking Aim At Castro

Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles' Backing

By ANN LOUISE BARDACH and LARRY ROHTER

MIAMI - A Cuban exile who has waged a campaign of bombings and assassination attempts aimed at toppling Fidel Castro says that his efforts were supported financially for more than a decade by the Cuban-American leaders of one of America's most influential lobbying groups.

The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, said he organized a wave of bombings in Cuba last year at hotels, restaurants and discotheques, killing an Italian tourist and alarming the Cuban Government. Mr. Posada was schooled in demolition and guerrilla warfare by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960's.

In a series of tape-recorded interviews at a walled Caribbean compound, Mr. Posada said the hotel bombings and other operations had been supported by leaders of the Cuban-American National Foundation. Its founder and head, Jorge Mas Canosa, who died last year, was embraced at the White House by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

A powerful force in both Florida and national elections, and a prodigious campaign donor, Mr. Mas played a decisive role in persuading Mr. Clinton to change his mind and follow a course of sanctions and isolation against Mr. Castro's Cuba.

Although the tax-exempt foundation has declared that it seeks to bring down Cuba's Communist Government solely through peaceful means, Mr. Posada said leaders of the foundation discreetly financed his operations. Mr. Mas personally supervised the flow of money and logistical support, he said.
(snip/...)

http://www.bardachreports.com/articles/nyt_19980712main.htm

Part II

Monday - July 13, 1998

A BOMBER'S TALE: Part II

Decades of Intrigue

Life in the Shadows, Trying to Bring Down Castro
By ANN LOUISE BARDACH and LARRY ROHTER

Two years after the Bay of Pigs invasion ended in ignominious failure on the beaches of Cuba, two young Cuban exiles stood next to each other in the spring sun at Fort Benning, Ga., training for the next march on Havana.

It was 1963, a time of feverish American plotting against Fidel Castro's rule. The two men were among the exiles who had survived the bungled operation to overthrow the Cuban leader and had enlisted in the United States Army, confident that President Kennedy would mount another attack that would banish Communism from the hemisphere.

The orders never came, and both men soon quit the Army to begin their own three-decade war against Mr. Castro.

Jorge Mas Canosa, the younger of the two, emerged as the public face of the movement, a successful businessman who as chairman of the powerful Cuban-American National Foundation courted Presidents and politicians, raised money and relentlessly lobbied the White House and Congress to get tough on Cuba. By the time Mr. Mas died of cancer last

November, after two decades of denying any direct role in the military operations of exiles seeking to destabilize Cuba, he had become perhaps the most influential voice in tightening America's official policy of economic and political quarantine.
(snip/...)

http://www.bardachreports.com/articles/nyt_19980713.html

~~~~~~~~~~~If you haven't read much about this scum, this article should help a great deal.



The three faces of Luis!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Ooh, this is sinister....just like the

National Film Board of Canada! :-)

[Lautremont]

4. I was going to say just the same thing! (nt)

[Mika]

5. "Posada, considered by Chavez to be a Latin American version of Osama bin Laden"

Ha. :spray:

Chavez and 20,000,000+ other folks too.


-

[Tian Zhuangzhuang]

6. I'm rooting for a Murphy's War remake

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067458/

[northzax]

7. propaganda is propaganda

no matter how well it is produced.

and yes, the National Film Board of Canada is a propaganda outlet as well.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. You mean like propaganda like...

"The Fast Runner"
"Double Happiness"
"The Boys of St. Vincent"
"Strangers in Good Company"
"Jesus of Montreal"
"Ive Heard the Mermaids Singing"
and countless marvelous animated cartoons?

[northzax]

12. read the mission statement of the National Film Board

it is to promote Canadian culture to Canadians and overseas. that's the whole point. Sure, there have been some that have no doubt been critical of the Canadian government, but then, that's part of Canadian culture.

wanna place a bet on the first movie that comes out of Caracas that is critical of the Chavez government?

[dailykoff]

10. Hollywood movies are propaganda too.

Mainly for capitalism (they don't call it the movie business for nothing) and frequently for US imperialism.

[northzax]

11. true

but they aren't funded by and therefore controlled by, the government. That, there, is the primary difference.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. If you believe that, then you don't know much about the history of the CIA

:shrug:

or the countless war films that have received the cooperation of the U.S. armed forces.

[northzax]

14. Wait, the CIA runs hollywood?

I thought it was the Jews? My fucking rabbi lied to me! And on rosh hashannah, no less.

look, do hollywood studios produce a measure of propaganda? Of course. When it sells. But when anti-government stuff is popular, they make that, instead. if you think the CIA is telling hollywood what to make, you are sorely mistaken.

andyes, to secure the cooperation of the armed forces, it helps to make the armed forces look good. But that helps with anyone you want to cooperate with, right? Would you help someone make a movie, for their profit, not yours, that you didn't like? Why?

[dailykoff]

15. The CIA, the Pentagon, the IRS, the HUAC, the Hayes Commission,

while it existed, and on and on. The US government has lots of ways of making sure Hollywood gets its messages out.

[northzax]

16. Your evidence is stuff from the 50's?

hUAC? Really? hayes? Honestly? This is what you got?

[dailykoff]

17. And their successor organizations.

I'm not up on the latest configurations, but it's well known for example that the armed forces have a lot to say about what goes into those 2-hour Top Gun type commercials they rely on. And let's not forget the "filmmakers express thanks for the cooperation of the FBI" titles you see at the end of credit rolls after most people have left the theater.

[killbotfactory]

19. The military lets hollywood use it's resources if the movie is pro-US

And just a few years ago they were caught trying to bribe television shows into incorporating government messages into the program.

[1932]

20. A recent example: Transformers.

[northzax]

21. Obviously

Would you participate in making a movie that made you look bad?

[Beerboy]

18. Not all U.S. domestically produced films

are produced entirely by the private sector, for example the State of Minnesota maintains a state film board to try to lure productions here. I doubt that apparatchiks of the board make the actors eat lutefisk and praise it, or else!:P

[Warren Stupidity]

22. Hmmm...

so if a corporate elite controls (or at least dominates) our government through decades of corruption and corrupt practices and that same corporte elite controls (or at least dominates) the american film industry, what is this primary difference you speak of?

[IsItJustMe]

8. First he takes over the schools and now he is taking over the movies. He is a horrible dictator.

:sarcasm:

So says the chimp, Pat Robertson and thus our beloved m$m.

[devilgrrl]

23. Has he gotten around to denying the holocaust yet?

:sarcasm:

[Warren Stupidity]

24. He shook hands with Ahmadinejad

which we have been told right here means he has the Ahmadinejad on him.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Chavez, Strengthening Hollywood Ties, Visits With Kevin Spacey

Chavez, Strengthening Hollywood Ties, Visits With Kevin Spacey

By Matthew Walter

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose ``Bolivarian revolution'' has piqued the interest of some of Hollywood's biggest stars, visited yesterday with Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey in Caracas.

During a tour of the presidential palace, Spacey, 48, questioned Chavez about his proposal to rewrite the constitution, and his offer to help broker the release of hostages held by guerillas in neighboring Colombia, according to a government statement.

Spacey's trip to Venezuela follows visits by actors Sean Penn and Danny Glover and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. They have been attracted by Chavez's attacks on U.S. President George W. Bush and his plan to realign the South American country's power structure to benefit the poor. Chavez welcomes the high- profile attention.

The Venezuelan president in 2004 invited 24 international celebrities, including Barbara Streisand and Nelson Mandela, to observe a recall vote against him.

Spacey complemented Chavez on a government-sponsored cinema project. The two also discussed Venezuela's cacao, an ingredient used to make chocolate, which Chavez said was the best in the world, according to the statement. The president complemented Spacey for his work in the film ``The Life of David Gale.''
(snip/...)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=awgWdAMPyfU8&refer=latin_america

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kevin Spacey Meets Venezuela's Chavez
1 day ago

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Actor Kevin Spacey met privately Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's most outspoken critics in Latin America.

Neither Spacey — who has won Academy Awards for roles in "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty" — nor Chavez spoke to the press after the nearly three-hour encounter in the presidential palace in Caracas. They shook hands warmly on the red carpet as Spacey left after a dinner with Chavez.

Hours earlier, the actor visited a $13 million film studio founded last year by the government to support Venezuelan filmmaking. Details were not released about the rest of Spacey's itinerary.

Chavez has said Venezuela hopes to produce its own films as an alternative to the "cultural imperialism" of Hollywood. Yet, Chavez speaks highly of some Hollywood films.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5haT2Z-xyL4d3Z4A_kRE8lGjhZ7JQ