The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - 2002

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (a.k.a. Chavez: Inside the Coup) is a 2002 documentary about the April 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt which briefly deposed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. A television crew from Ireland's national broadcaster, RTÉ happened to be recording a documentary about Chavez during the events of April 11, 2002. Shifting focus, they followed the events as they occurred. During their filming, the crew recorded images of the events that they say contradict explanations given by Chavez's opposition, the private media, the US State Department, and then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. The documentary says that the coup was the result of a conspiracy between various old guard and anti-Chavez factions within Venezuela and the United States. Synopsis The portrayal of Hugo Chavez in the documentary has been described as that of a "colourful unpredictable folk hero", beloved by Venezuela's working classes and opposed to "a power structure that would see him deposed". The documentary portrays Chavez's first years as president before the coup and the support the government had among the working class and the poor, referencing educational plans, distribution of the oil revenue and grassroots democracy and participation of people previously excluded from politics as a key to this. It then explains the privately owned television channels, business and upper class opposition, who accuse Chavez of being an insane communist dictator. The documentary then moves to show how the media promoted demonstrations against Chavez and worked together with some military and big businessmen opposition to create an anti-Chavez climate leading to the day of the coup. On 11 April 2002, the opposition finally organised a big demonstration that went to Miraflores presidential palace to demand Chavez's resignation. But a huge crowd of Chavistas was waiting at Miraflores to support the president. The film shows Chavez's supporters being shot down by snipers, and then some controversial footage of Chavistas shooting back, which the private media channels then used to say the Chavez's supporters shot at the unarmed anti-Chavez crowd, when they were actually shooting towards an empty street with armoured vans from where the shots against them were coming. It then goes on to show an interview with a journalist claiming that he resigned from one of the privately owned TV channels after being forbidden to talk about any pro-Chavez demonstrations taking place at the time. Filmmakers Kim Bartel and Donacha O'Briain were inside the presidential palace on 11 April 2002 when Chavez was deposed and two days later when he returned to power, recording "what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état." The pivotal role of the media before and during the coup is highlighted throughout its 75 minutes, with emphasis in the importance that both Chavez government and the opposition who executed the coup gave to gaining control over channel 8, the only TV Channel owned by the state, shut down the day of the coup and recovered afterwards to communicate the news that the rest of the channels were not communicating, such as the fact that Chavez had not resigned but was actually being held as a prisoner and the fact that what was happening was not a democratical transition but actually a coup d'état. Directed by Kim Bartley, Donnacha O'Briain Produced by David Power Cinematography Kim Bartley, Donnacha O'Briain Editing by Ángel Hernández Zoido Running time 74 min Torrented by: www.paxmundi.info