Everyone should see the Chavez film. Here's why:

[AP]

I just wrote this in another post:

In the movie, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" there's a scene in which blood flows from a man’s head like a faucet has been turned on because pro-Carmona snipers shoot at Chavez supporters in the street. That night the private, pro-oligarch media splice together the news a report that Chavez supporters caused these deaths. The media plays over an over again a scene of Chavez supporters shooting handguns on an overpass, claiming that they're shooting DOWN into the crowd.

The filmmakers show another angle of the same shot that shows that the street below is empty, and it shows that the same people are actually trying to shoot at the snipers who were shooting pro-Chavez supporters in the head.

Also, there's a scene where the Chavez-supporters re-take Millaflores. Carmona has robbed the safe at the palace and has escaped. While Chavez's cabinet is REFORMING in the palace, and while MILLIONS of people are in the street around the palace, Carmona goes on CNN and CNN reports as the truth that Carmona is still in the palace, that the city is calm, and that the coup leaders are in power.

I shall think of those scenes now when I think of Andrew Sullivan. Blood flowing from innocent people's heads because oligarchs wanted a little money they couldn't get by working honestly for it, and the media doing everything it can to help those people.

There is so much MORE in this movie. It is unbelievable. I'd love to discuss it with people who have seen it. Anyone?

[AP]

1. There are two UNBELIEVABLY powerful scenes in this movie.

(1) There is a scene when the palace troops are preparing to take over the palace with the coup leaders inside. The cameramen follow the guards running through the basement. It is un-fucking-believable. There are millions of people on the street shouting for Chavez. The don't know which side the guards are on. One guard, pressed up against a door, after the guards have decided to take back the palace, covertly pumps his fist to the crowds chanting, for just a second, to let them know the guards are on their side.

(2) After of evening of the police cracking heads in the streets, trying to break up small groups of protesters on the first night of the coup. The morning breaks, and MILLIONS are on the streets. The camerman rush through the streets in cars just to film the mood as the crowds start forming. People, indvidually, walk up the camera, and just say, "Hugo Chavez", and "Chavez". They're crowds get bigger. It becomes clear that the emotional high point of the movie is not when Chavez returns later that evening. The high point is THAT moment, when the PEOPLE decided they want their consitution back.

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. "THAT moment, when the PEOPLE decided "

maybe if we all close our eyes and wish VERY HARD...

[AP]

2. There are FUNNY scenes.

There's a scene where the first minister calls the coup leaders and YELLS at him, "we're in the palace. It's over for you. We have a million people in the streets." He hangs up and says, "that freaked him out."

There's a scene where they go down to the basement where they're holding some of the coup leaders. They show the coup - Atty Gen'l, who, earlier that day, declared the constitution torn up, the National Assembly dissolved, etc., like it was a victory for democracy. They show him looking like he's going to shit his pants. When the real government reads him his rights...well, he looks pretty relieved that the constitution was still in effect, notwithstanding his peacock bullshit earlier that day.

[AP]

3. There are important lessons to be learned

It seems like the things that made a difference, that "made history" as Chavez says, were:

(1) Devolving knowledge and political power to the people. LIteracy is tought in Venezuela with the constitution. (And the constitution -- the rule of law -- was way more important than personality, when it came down to what got people in the streets.)

(2) Cell phones and controlling the state-owned station, Channel 8 were critically important.

(3) In the end, it was crucial that the people holding the big guns -- the palace guards and most of the troops -- were on Chavez's side (and there are plenty of scenes where they show him treating his guards like men, like human beings, and not like their pawns in a power play).

(4) The truth. Being on the side of truth and democracy was the most important thing.

[htuttle]

4. I hope the producers get enough money to do a DVD/VHS soon!

I've been waiting a year for this movie. I expect it to screen in Madison (where I am) one of these days, but I'd like to donate a DVD or tape of it to our public access cable station.

[AP]

6. Go see it in Chicago (or Minneapolis)

Chicago / Venue: Landmark's Century Centre Cinema,
opens October 31st 2003



Minneapolis
6-9 Nov

[knowledgeispower]

16. I'll be watching in Minneapolis

It is playing at the Oak Street Cinemas at Oak St. and Washington Ave. SE right near the University of Minnesota campus, if anyone is interested. I have been waiting for the film to get here for a month, I am so excited to see it.

[AP]

17. After you see it, please post here what you thought of it.

I want this discussion to continue.

Thanks.

[JackRiddler]

7. I've seen it on German TV

The reporters were in the palace during the coup after interviewing Chavez. They filmed the coup coming to power, then got the countercoup as well. I was sorry I'd missed a bit at the start and it was a late night - I'd love to see it in a theater.

It's amazing! Inspiring! Monumental!

Seriously. Like a fresh wind. You think politics can actually make a difference

[Minstrel Boy]

8. The retaking of the palace

is unbelievable.

The soldier clandestinely pumping his fist to the crowd - it gives me goosebumps just thinking of it. Also memorable for me is the scene of the man weeping for joy at the gate, reaching through the bars and vigorously shaking the hand of a soldier who has helped dislodge the oligarchs. So powerful.

Chavez showed astonishing restraint in dealing with the plotters. How many rulers cozy with the US, in similar circumstance, would have simply fired bullets in the backs of their traitorous heads?

[AP]

12. Yes. Great scenes!

It is so awful when the coup plotters are in the palace threatening to drop bombs on it if Chavez doesn't resign and all the staff are distraught. I couldn't believe I was watching something that was actually happening to real people. It was unbelievably intense.

And, yes, the closing scened, where Chavez basically says, this isn't about me, it's about the constitution -- that is the thread that unifies the whole movie. It's in the scene in which the vendors talk about how people learn to read by reading the constitution.

[charlie]

9. Any scenes with the US reaction?

Like the White House recognizing the "legitimate government" within hours of Carmona's installation? Or Condi deigning to lecture Chavez about governance, telling him to "respect constitutional processes" after his return? That coup had the stink of the Bushies all over it.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. there are some

I think Fleisher's response to the coup is in there.

[AP]

15. There was so much hissing, booing and laughing when Powell and Fleischer

were on the screen.

It was great.

Powell says something like "Chavez doesn't appreciate our style of democracy" at one point. That got a big big laugh.

But it turned out to be true. In Venezuela the constitution won. It didn't in the US.

[SeattleRob]

11. I can't wait to see it...

One of the fascinating things I have read about the entire coup was how people, through independent media - small low power radio stations - were able to bypass the BS from the big media and get the word out as to what was happening.

This is why the FCC and what's going on with our corporate media is so vital to the health of our fledgling Democracy.

[Judi Lynn]

13. This is a thread from heaven, AP

You've given the rest of us so much to look forward to, anticipating our chances to see the movie.

We read it here around the time of the coup that there were film-makers there, already, doing a film on Chavez who had it all down. This is a dream come true. How often does anyone really get a chance to see these right-wing monsters in action, and see them getting caught at it and defeated?

We NEED to be able to hope, after all!

[AP]

14. Wait 'til you SEE the movie!

Every time I open this thread, and think about the movie, it gives me goose bumps.

I thought I KNEW everything that happened, and I thought I couldn't be more outraged. You don't know half the truth until you've seen this movie. It is stunning.

I even knew how this chapter of Venezuela's history ended, and I STILL got really tense, anxious and empotional in the scene where the coup leaders are in the palace threatening to bomb it.

The way you can see in the faces of the Chavezistas goodness and in the faces of the coup leaders and the oligarchs stupidity, greed, and evilness is quite amazing. That's something you could never get from just reading the paper.

By the way, this movie is so much like Lumuba: Death of a Prophet (the documentary not the feature film). Except in this movie, the good guys win.

There's a point where they think it's all over and one person says, "we didn't have time. We didn't have enough time to use the media to tell the truth." Well that's why Lumumba's dead, actually. Because in the Congo, the CIA acted so quickly, that there was no time. In Venezuela, the people were on the street by Saturday morning, and they made the difference before Chavez could be disappeared (but, actually, they would have had to disappear 80% of the population for this to have worked).

[Judi Lynn]

18. Perfect!

The way you can see in the faces of the Chavezistas goodness and in the faces of the coup leaders and the oligarchs stupidity, greed, and evilness is quite amazing.

You really CAN tell a great deal about people observing their facial expressions, their demeanor, even their posture, their gestures, their voices, all without even understanding their language. I certainly have always believed this, with no exceptions.

It comes through in still photos, too!

[AP]

19. There's a scene where Chavez sings a song at a rally with a development'ly

disabled boy. He's in a crowd and everyone is singing. The boy's mother says to Chavez, you met my boy 20 years ago...the scene is really touching.

It's amazing how Chavez is so good, but it isn't a cult of personality or megalomania. He is so good because his version of democracy is so much about the people, and the people all see themselves in him.

I just don't have the words.

It's amazing.

You have to see this movie.

[Minstrel Boy]

20. It's great to be reminded the bad guys don't always win, isn't it?

Let's do whatever little we can for Chavez and Venezuela to ensure that the good guys keep winning.

[AP]

21. Don't you wish the good guys had a Channel 8 in the US?

I want a good president again and I want a Channel 8.