Oliver Stone's Hugo Chavez Film Makes Venice Premiere

[IndianaGreen]

Oliver Stone's Hugo Chavez Film Makes Venice Premiere

COLLEEN BARRY | 09/ 7/09 12:17 PM |

VENICE, Italy — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received a movie star welcome Monday at the Venice Film Festival, where he walked the red carpet with director Oliver Stone for the premiere of the documentary "South of the Border."

Hundreds of admirers, some chanting "president, president," gathered outside of the Casino for the leader's arrival. Chavez threw a flower into the crowd and touched his heart, and at one point took a photographer's camera to snap a picture himself.

Security outside the Casino was tightened in advance of Chavez's arrival with military police checking bags.

Stone says "South of the Border" is meant to illustrate "the sweeping changes" in South America in recent years as a direct counterpoint to what some say is Chavez's depiction as a dictator by U.S. and European media.

Stone spent extensive time with Chavez for the 75-minute documentary, which is premiering at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, and also interviewed the leaders of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba and Paraguay, whom Stone said "are on the same page" as Chavez.

"He's a guy you should meet and get to know. ... He's the star of the movie," Stone said in an interview before the premiere.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/07/oliver-stones-hugo-chavez_n_278641.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. I'm very glad to see someone countering what looks, to me, like pre-war psyops--

the very intense lying and disinformation against Chavez, never moreso than recently, which is aimed at creating a bogeyman "dictator" of Venezuela, and which is at complete variance with the facts, when you bother to look into it. It is the sort of campaign that almost always precedes a war. They count on most people--the people funding the war; the people whose children will be the "cannon fodder"--not bothering to look into the facts, and not particularly caring if this "dictator" is overthrown (and tens of thousands of people are killed). There is growing evidence that such a war has been in preparation for some time, and that US war assets are still being put in place for this purpose (for instance, the seven new US military bases in Colombia), but even if it doesn't come to that, the propaganda has other uses to our Corpo/Fascist rulers, for instance, denying our people the information that Venezuela's elections are far, FAR more transparent than our own, and that Venezuelans enjoy free universal health care, and free university educations.

I hope that Oliver Stone does a good job of obliterating the lies and revealing the truth. Truth is a value unto itself, but he may also be helping to head off another oil war. As someone said, "Truth is the first casualty of war." They should have said, "Truth is the perennial casualty of all pre-war psyops and disinformation"--because that is the point at which war can still be prevented.

[Peace Patriot]

2. I just want to rage a bit against our Corpo/Fascist 'news' monopolies...

I haven't seen Stone's documentary on Chavez yet, but if descriptions of it are accurate, it simply reveals that, a) Chavez is democratically elected, enjoys continual approving ratings of nearly 60% in that most passionately democratic of countries, Venezuela, is a good president (maybe even a great one, comparable to FDR), and is no "dictator"; and b) enjoys close friendships with many of South America's other leaders, and has cordial relations and alliances with almost all Latin American leaders.

A news organization's owners and editors may not agree with some, or even all, of the Chavez government policies, but their purported obligation is to provide the news in a generally objective manner, so that readers/viewers have at least a little room to think for themselves. Would Venezuela's free universal health care system work in the US, for instance? Maybe not. But you can't even consider that question if you never hear anything at all about Venezuela's health care system. And that's where they have left their readers and viewers on the Chavez government and Venezuela: with no information by which to judge its policies, on the one hand, extremely distorted information, up to and including outright lies, on carefully chosen and crafted 'news' items, aimed at painting Chavez as a "dictator."

It is simply appalling to me that this is the case--that our Corpo/Fascist press doesn't leave even a little bit of room for people to think for themselves, but constantly hammers on "Chavez the dictator," so that an entirely phantom image is created--a bogeyman--that seeps into peoples' brains unconsciously. This is brainwashing. And it is quite sickening to behold.

And all there is to counter it is a couple of filmmakers' documentaries--this one, and "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," are the most well-known--and internet research, for the people who have the time and ability to do it. Our people in general get NO objective, or even semi-objective, information, with which to make their own judgments of Chavez policy, of Chavez, of the people of Venezuela and of the remarkable leftist democracy movement in Latin America.

I am also appalled at individual so-called journalists--Simon Romero at the NYT, Mary O'Grady at the WSJ, and others--whose writings on Chavez are nothing short of disreputable. They are in the Judith Miller category--conveying lies from Rumsfeld's "Office of Special Plans" to unwary readers on the front page of the NYT, in the service of war profiteers. I don't know whose "Office of Special Plans" Romero, O'Grady and others are copying and pasting their disinformation from--maybe that same office-in-exile (there is evidence that Rumsfeld may be involved in South America)--but it stinks as badly as the WMDs that weren't in Iraq. And you really can't help but notice that both countries have LOTS OF OIL!

[Peace Patriot]

3. I've got to hand it to the Associated Pukes' reporter who wrote this article,

which was posted at Huffington Post--Fabiola Sanchez--who holds off until the end of the article to put the Associated Pukes' spin on it. Here it is...

"'I used the real man,' Stone said. 'I hope you realize how dynamic he is in the movie. What I like about the film is you see how sincere he is on camera. You don't see a guy who is a phony. He's not a dictator.'

(SNIP)

"Stone said he didn't see it necessary to present the opposition's case in his film.

"'A dark side? There's a dark side to everything. Why do you seek out the dark side when the guy is doing good things?' Stone asked. 'He is a democrat and there is opposition to him, and he's not perfect. But he is doing tremendous things for Venezuela and the region.'

(AP: ) "Chavez's critics accuse him of growing increasingly authoritarian while sidelining key opponents and trying to clamp down on the private media.

(AP: ) "Opponents also say Chavez's international crusade against U.S. influence is misguided, and accuse him of ignoring problems at home ranging from rampant crime to corruption."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/07/oliver-stones-hugo-chavez_n_278641.html

(The "AP:" is my interpolation, cuz that's what's happening here. AP is saying these things--no quotes, no names, no attribution.)

--------------------------------------------

Thus the Associated Pukes, getting nothing of their spin to work with, from Stone, go to...who? Nobody! Anonymous "...critics accuse," and "opponents say...". They have used this journalistic trickery often, in Chavez articles, and they use it here. Credit to Sanchez for holding off so long, and letting Oliver Stone talk about his own movie in the first part of the article, without having to answer fascist "talking points." But they had to get it in there--"dictator," "dictator," "dictator"--without even bothering to find some fascist, coup-plotting, rich, Venezuelan CIA asset, or rightwing "think tanker" in Washington DC, to say it!

This is the "dark side" of the Associated Pukes peeking out at you from its disinformation black hole. Get a job with an honest business, Fabiola, before your soul is entirely sucked into it, so that no light can get out.

[amyrose2712]

4. I wonder what kind of reception the film will get in the US,

I can't wait to see it.

[Mika]

5. Video of Chavez and Stone walking red carpet +more.

El presidente de Venezuela llegó el lunes al Festival de Cine de Venecia
para el estreno mundial del documental del director Oliver Stone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX52zpPkt_Q