[NYTr] Venezuelan Film Industry Enjoying Govt Encouragement Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:12:57 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Excerpted from VIO Venezuela News Roundup - Sep 26, 2007 [US actor Kevin Spacey met President Chavez in Caracas on Monday. Bloomberg reports that the two discussed topics including Chavez's role in the Colombian peace negotiations, and a constitutional reform proposal put forth last month. Perhaps inspired by Hollywood visitors like Spacey as well as Sean Penn and Danny Glover, the Venezuelan government is giving a funding boost to its own national film industry. The Associated Press reports that a first feature film about Venezuelan independence hero Francisco de Miranda will be released in October, and another about the notorious CIA-trained terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is planned. -VIO] Bloomberg - September 25, 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=awgWdAMPyfU8&refer=latin_america Chavez, Strengthening Hollywood Ties, Visits With Kevin Spacey By Matthew Walter Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose ``Bolivarian revolution'' has piqued the interest of some of Hollywood's biggest stars, visited yesterday with Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey in Caracas. During a tour of the presidential palace, Spacey, 48, questioned Chavez about his proposal to rewrite the constitution, and his offer to help broker the release of hostages held by guerillas in neighboring Colombia, according to a government statement. Spacey's trip to Venezuela follows visits by actors Sean Penn and Danny Glover and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. They have been attracted by Chavez's attacks on U.S. President George W. Bush and his plan to realign the South American country's power structure to benefit the poor. Chavez welcomes the high- profile attention. The Venezuelan president in 2004 invited 24 international celebrities, including Barbara Streisand and Nelson Mandela, to observe a recall vote against him. Spacey complemented Chavez on a government-sponsored cinema project. The two also discussed Venezuela's cacao, an ingredient used to make chocolate, which Chavez said was the best in the world, according to the statement. The president complemented Spacey for his work in the film ``The Life of David Gale.'' Spacey, who is now the artistic director at the Old Vic Theater in London, will head to Cuba next as part of a Latin American tour, Venezuela's state-owned Venezolana de Television reported today. *** AP via FOX News - September 25, 2007 http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Sep25/0,4670,FilmHugoChavez,00.html Hugo Chavez Funds State-Run Film Studio By Fabiola Sanchez The Associated Press GUARENAS, Venezuela--Lights! Camera! Revolution! Unhappy with what he considers Hollywood's monopoly on the silver screen, President Hugo Chavez is bankrolling Venezuelan movies through a state-run film studio. Now rolling are biopics about national heroes and villains, including Luis Posada Carriles, the former CIA operative who allegedly masterminded a jetliner bombing and tried to kill Fidel Castro. Scenes are being shot in and around Caracas this month for the movie about Posada, considered by Chavez to be a Latin American version of Osama bin Laden. Scheduled for international release next year, it's one of a growing number of films the socialist government is financing in a fusion of politics and art. The trend is a boost to homegrown cinema in Venezuela, but critics say it reeks of Soviet-style propaganda efforts. Chavez has long demanded that the United States extradite Posada to stand trial in the 1976 Cuban jetliner bombing, which killed 73 people. Posada allegedly masterminded the attack while living in Venezuela, where he was a member of a secret police force dedicated to rooting out Marxist rebels. "The film argues he should be condemned and returned here to Venezuela or to Cuba to be tried for his actions," director Eduardo Barberena told The Associated Press during one recent filming session. Cameras rolled last week among the wooden shacks of a modern-day shantytown in Guarenas, near the film studio east of Caracas. An actor playing a communist rebel in 1970s Venezuela rode a bicycle down a dirt road, destined for a shootout with Posada, as lights illuminated a row of shacks where barefooted children stood watching. The movie (budgeted at $900,000) is one of several being produced by the Cinema Villa studio, which Chavez founded last year with $13 million in government money as an alternative to the "dictatorship of Hollywood." The studio's first feature film will be released next month. It's about Venezuelan independence hero Francisco de Miranda and has Danny Glover in a supporting role. A third production in the works is about Ezequiel Zamora, who led a 19th century land revolt in Venezuela and is a key ideological figure for Chavez. "Venezuelan cinema for the world," Chavez exclaimed, praising what he called a "cultural revolution" as he excitedly described the films during his radio and TV program Sunday and criticized the global influence of U.S. films. "They make us admire Superman, Spider-Man," Chavez said. "Spider-Man 3" was a hit in Caracas, both in theaters and through pirated DVDs sold in the streets, and most Venezuelans, like people all over the world, continue to be big Hollywood fans. But left-leaning documentaries are already altering Venezuelan television, appearing on government-supported channels alongside the traditional soap operas of commercial channels. Barberena, who has mostly made TV commercials, sees Cinema Villa as a chance for Venezuela to expand a tiny movie industry _ which has made only a few internationally known movies, such as "El Pez que Fuma" (The Smoking Fish) in 1977 and "Secuestro Express" (Express Kidnapping) in 2005. Three dozen feature films, documentaries and TV programs are now in production at the center, according to Culture Minister Francisco Sesto. They include "Imagining Revolution," about the development of Chavez's socialist movement, and "Venezuela Petroleum Company," about corporate exploitation. The new film center is both financed and controlled by the government, similar to how Cuba runs its Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry. Scripts are selected by a committee that includes Venezuela's culture minister, who reports directly to Chavez. Cinema Villa director Lorena Almarza said the goal of the state film center is nothing less than the "transformation of the cultural hegemony" that has long bombarded Venezuelans through their TV and movie screens. Some critics see a heavy government hand that will result in lousy art. Communications professor Antonio Pascuali of Venezuela's Central University accuses Cinema Villa of "putting political slogans above the quality of their productions," just as the Soviet Union did. But Barberena denies getting any pressure to make his movie conform to Chavez's political views. Although the thriller takes a clear stance on Posada, the script "allows a bit of freedom for him to defend himself," the director said. Posada, 79, denies involvement in the 1976 jetliner bombing off Barbados. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 and was detained in Florida in 2005 for entering the U.S. illegally, but was freed in May when a judge dismissed his immigration fraud case. The Cuban and Venezuelan governments want him tried for murder and treason in Venezuela, where he holds dual citizenship. But a U.S. immigration judge ruled in 2005 that he could not be deported to Venezuela, saying he faces a possibility of torture. Posada, who trained with the CIA for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, also allegedly plotted to assassinate Castro, and allegedly planned the 1997 bombings at tourists sites in Havana. Barberena says filming will move to Havana later this year to recreate the 1997 bombing of the Hotel Copacabana, which killed an Italian tourist. The movie's title, "Bambi C-4," combines the explosive allegedly used by Posada and the nickname he used years ago in Venezuela. * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================