The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Much like Go Further, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised documents the efforts of a revolutionary opposed by powerful forces. The revolutionary in this case is Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela. Much has been made of the recent and continuing unrest in the country since Chavez has come to power. As the fourth largest oil producer in the world, Venezuela's difficulties -- along with the impending war in Iraq -- has sent gas prices skyrocketing and has the Western world grousing. The reasons behind the turmoil, however, have been little explored, and never with the depth or access that this film provides.
Shot by an Irish crew with intimate access to Chavez and his ministers, Revolution chronicles Chavez's rise to power as a champion of socialism, putting forth a program of wealth redistribution and private enterprise reform. Chavez, the film reminds us, was democratically elected by a majority of poor and working class Venezuelans, who, despite the state owned oil industry, never received the benefits reaped by the aristocrats that held power before Chavez's election.
The film begins rosily enough, as Chavez waves to a capacity crowd while parading victoriously through the streets of Caracas. We soon learn, however, that Chavez's leftist leanings do not sit well with the Venezuelan upper class. In one scene, the crew visits what appears to be a neighborhood association meeting in a posh, hillside community on the outskirts of Caracas. An elegantly dressed woman denounces Chavez's supporters as freeloaders before another man in a tailored suit cautions the group to keep an eye on their domestic servants, who might be passing messages of pro-Chavez support. While this seems a bit laughable, it's clear how serious the situation is when he begins to give a lesson on how to operate a gun.
This scene foretells what comes next, as, a few days later, an anti-Chavez demonstration collides with a pro-Chavez group near the presidential palace. Shots ring out and chaos erupts. The crew is on the scene to capture the mayhem first hand, including the deaths of protestors as they run for cover. Over these scenes of violence, a narrator informs us that shots were coming from elevated positions, indicating the organized and pre-planned actions of snipers, not spur of the moment violence of the part of protestors.
Whatever the cause, blame for the violence that erupts is placed squarely at the feet of Chavez. While the film shows Chavez supporters running for cover and being shot, the United States, along with Venezuelan opposition, paints Chavez and his supporters as the instigator. Chavez's opponents, consisting of business leaders, religious figures, and a handful of military leaders, use the violence as a pretext for removing the elected president, and a coup d'etat unfolds before the unblinking eye of the camera.
Revolution is remarkable for the unfettered access it enjoys as Chavez is forcibly removed from, and promptly restored to, power. The crew holes up with the embattled president and records, uncensored, the chaotic events that unfold. Beyond the human drama of the story, though, the documentary is also a study in media manipulation, tracing the battles Chavez fights on Channel 8, the only state owned television station, with the myriad private stations, which all clamor for his removal. In addition to these private stations, Western television is also shown to get it wrong. Statements made by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and Colon Powell condemning Chavez are directly contradicted by the events recorded in the documentary. Disturbingly, US oil interests are frequently mentioned as the reason for this misinformation and CIA involvement is hinted at in the orchestration of the failed coup.
What might be even worse than the campaign of misinformation about Chavez and the goings on in Venezuela, however, is the utter lack of any kind of information in the global community. With Iraq dominating headlines and televisions, Revolution reminds us that crises loom elsewhere and bears important witness to the suffering of a country, the violence of repression, and the danger faced by those who would buck the system.