Want a crash course in contemporary south-of-the-border politics? Six fascinating documentaries that comprise The New Latin American Left Film Festival, co-sponsored by Rice University’s Department of Hispanic Studies and the University of Houston’s Department of Political Science, help illuminate the complex, contradictory and controversial nature of modern Latin America. In today’s installment, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Irish TV filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha OยBriain get swept up in the two-day 2002 Venezuelan coup d’รฉtat against Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chรกvez. With some seeing him as a folk hero and others as an iron-fisted dictator, supporters and members of the opposition had wildly different accounts of the coup’s unfolding events. Were unarmed civilians shot upon by Chรกvez’s troops? Were snipers targeting Chรกvez’s military supporters? Had Chรกvez resigned or been overthrown? The total truth will probably never be known, in large part because, although outlets like CNN en Espaรฑol managed to broadcast live images for a short while, Venezuela’s state-run media was shut down during the event. The Revolution screens today at 7 p.m. Rice University Media Center, 6100 Main. For a complete schedule, call 713-348-4882 or visit www.ricecinema.rice.edu. Free.
Fri., Oct. 9, 7 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 10, 7 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 11, 7 p.m.; Mon., Oct. 12, 7 p.m.; Fri., Oct. 16, 5 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 18, 7 p.m., 2009
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.
