The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

[Supply Side Jesus]

While a nice tagline for the best political forum on the internet, it is also the title of a new documentary by Kim Bartley & Donnacha O Briain, who happened to be making a doc about President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela when the coup went down.

The Film's Website.
http://www.chavezthefilm.com/index_ex.htm

Some thoughts:
Before my days of DU addiction I mostly got my news from the BBC driving home from work at night on NPR. I remember the story about the attempted coup of Chavez, but it quickly dropped off the radar when he got back into power and something about the CIA having something to do with it. I definitely recall the days of the oil strikes and Chavez catching a lot heat about it, the whole time I was thinking, "What the hell is this guy doing wrong." After seeing this film I understand what he did wrong, he defied the IMF/WTO/World Bank, critical of the U.S and its war of/on terror, and most importantly, he was concentrating a lot of his efforts to helping the poor and illiterate of his country. Chavez refused to let the economic chains restrict his responsibilities to his people. He blasted the Bush administration on Afghanistan, and did this by displaying a photo of a dead afghani family killed by an American bomb and stated “You do not fight terror by committing acts of terror” on national TV. His aid to the poor of Venezuela (which makes up 80% of the pop) was met with fierce upper and middle class opposition. The interviews of the people from both sides of the economic chasm were starkly contrasted by the obvious quality of life they lived. The people blasting Chavez were adorned with jewelry, teeth in great condition and driving Mercedes in protest marches all the while proclaiming how hard they worked for their riches, and the other 80% are just lazy. (Sounds familiar?) The private media accused Chavez of ridicules accusations such as having sexual attractions to Castro, affairs, and murders (Sound Familiar?)
This was obviously a true class conflict.
Now, I don’t want to give away the ending…;) or how the people rose up reinstalled Chavez, but it is remarkable and truly inspiring to see the will of the people actually carried out.
If this film is showing at a festival near you, go see it! I am keeping an eye on it, and once available I am defiantly going to purchase it.

Thoughts?
Or any other Docs you might recommend?

[dweller]

1. props

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

Gil Scott-Heron
http://www.interlog.com/~mushroom/gil.html

dp

[Supply Side Jesus]

2. nice

had to do a google on the name since I wasn't sure who that was (though it did sound familiar).
Thanks for sharing.