So, uh, yeah – four months absence huh? In my defence I was away on holiday in North America for two (no three) weeks due to volcanic ash and when I returned I was busy with a new job and the election campaign. Then I properly started new job only for my laptop to promptly pack-in. It was almost as if someone didn’t want me twittering on about nonsense. But this morning I finally secured my own wireless router and thus, have internet access to my laptop. So expect a few more posts in the future (certainly a lot more than two in four / five months). Onwards and upwards as they say.
Last night I went to see Oliver Stone’s documentary South Of The Border, at the excellent Filmhouse on Lothian Road in Edinburgh (highly recommended my friends – the cinema that is). I’ve waited over a year to see this documentary after hearing about it through the grapevine and then Stone and Chavez’s appearance last year at the Venice Film Festival. So straight from work I headed to see the 6.30 screening. I wasn’t disappointed – initially I thought South Of The Border was going to be a documentary all about the much maligned leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. However, Stone took the documentary crew all over South America to look at the social and political changes that have occurred in the continent for the past decade or so (that Chavez was very much the vanguard of).
Stone makes no claim to be making an impartial documentary – from the outset he is trying to counter the claims and misunderstandings that the US (and international) media portray. As someone who studied Latin America in university and has continued to read on the subject following, I found the documentary to be sympathetic towards these leaders and perhaps too pally with the leaders of these nations. However, it did portray them in a different light to the devils and dictators we are told they are in media over here.
A very worthwhile and enjoyable trip to the cinema, whilst at the same time I left inspired. I may not necessarily share all their politics but it is clear these men and women are giving hope where there once was none and moving power away from oligarchs and United States’ influence. For this, they should be applauded and I thoroughly recommend this documentary to anyone.
Tags: Hugo Chavez, Oliver Stone, South America
