South of the border - Oliver Stone

The documentary examines the free-market economic policies pushed by the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund over the last several years, and how they have largely failed to alleviate Latin America's chronic income inequality. The film suggests that financial calamities such as the Argentine peso collapse of 2001, combined with Latin suspicions of U.S. drug-eradication efforts and resentment over the selling off of natural resources through multinational companies, also have contributed to the rise of socialist and social-democratic leaders across the region. Tariq Ali who collaborated with Stone to make the film has remarked that" "These changes that are taking place are not coming about through armed struggle or guerrilla warfare or Che Guevara. All these changes have come about through democratic elections. And that makes it a very, very significant development in that continent." According to the Associated Press, "Stone said he didn't see it necessary to present the opposition's case in his film. 'He is a democrat and there is opposition to him, and he's not perfect. But he is doing tremendous things for Venezuela and the region.'" US economist Mark Weisbrot advised Stone on the documentary and was credited as one of the writers alongside Tariq Ali