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The
Revolution will not be televised
It is an award winning compelling documentary on Venezuela’s coup;
reminding all of us how frail democratic rights and liberties are
under the shadow of the U.S. Empire and the various privileged
oligarchies profiting from its rule
On the 11th April 2002,
the world awoke to the news that elected Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez had been removed from office and had been replaced by a new
self-appointed "interim" defacto-government.
News report after news
report carried stories of the mayhem in Caracas, where 11 people had
been killed in what were alleged to have been bloody street battles
between Chavez supporters and an opposition march. According to the
private corporate media in Venezuela, Chavez had ordered the
killings, and had therefore been forced to resign. What in fact took
place was the first coup of the twenty first century, and probably
the world's first mediatic coup.
Venezuela is the
world's 4th largest exporter of oil, and the third highest supplier
to the United States. In 1999 Hugo Chavez had been democratically
elected president by a landslide majority, promising to end
corruption and re-distribute the oil revenue to the 80% of the
population who lived in poverty. But from his first day in office
Chavez faced powerful enemies both inside and outside Venezuela.
Just over 12 months ago two Irish documentary-makers, Kim Bartley
and Donnacha O Briain travelled to Venezuela to make a film about
this charismatic and unorthodox world leader.
They met with Chavez
and secured his permission to have full access to film, what was to
be, an up close and personal profile. It turned out to be something
completely different. "The Revolution will not be
Televised" is a thrilling insight into Chavez, charting the
last seven months in the run up to the coup and his dramatic return
to power some 48 hours later.
Never has such a range
of footage of Chavez, the new icon of the left and the thorn in the
side of the US Administration, been assembled in one
documentary.
It is a Power Pictures 2002 production and has received funding from
a number of sources, including The Irish Film Board, RTE, BBC, ZDF/ARTE,
NPS and YLE. The documentary, which was filmed and directed by Kim
Bartley and Donnacha O Briain, was produced by David Power. | 
