CHAVEZ: INSIDE THE COUP
Kim Bartley & Donnacha O'Briain, Ireland, 2002
Wednesday 18 November 2003 11pm-12.05am
An intimate profile of the charismatic and unconventional Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the coup attempt against him and his dramatic return to power some 48 hours later. Winner of the 2003 Grierson Awards for Best International Documentary and Best Newcomer.
HUGO CHAVEZ
Profile of the president from BBC News
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Commissioner's
Comment Nick Fraser
Storyville Series Editor
When a coup was launched in April 2002 against Hugo Chavez, the elected President of Venezuela, some young Irish filmmakers were lucky enough to be on hand to witness the events.
They were actually inside the Presidential Palace - a filmmakers' dream - when the soldiers came to take Chavez away. But they were also there 48 hours later when the same soldiers switched sides reinstalling the president.
The result is a brilliant piece of journalism but it is also an astonishing portrait of the balance of forces in Venezuela. On one side stand the Versace wearing classes, rich from many decades of oil revenues, and on the other the poor in their barrios and those within the armed forces who support Chavez.
The media, who ought to be merely reporting the conflict splitting the country down the middle, are in fact adjuncts of the coup-makers.
Watch this film and you may truly for the first time in your life understand the term media bias.
