Chavez film puts staff at risk, says Amnesty

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1090702,00.html

Chavez film puts staff at risk, says Amnesty

Recriminations after documentary on Venezuelan coup
attempt is dropped from a Vancouver festival

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Saturday November 22, 2003
The Guardian

An award-winnning documentary about the coup last year
that briefly ousted the Venezuelan president, Hugo
Chavez, has become the subject of a bitter dispute.
Last week, it was withdrawn from an Amnesty
International (AI) film festival because Amnesty staff
in Caracas said they feared for their safety if it
were shown.
The film, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, was
made by two Irish film makers, Kim Bartley and
Donnacha O'Briain. They were preparing a documentary
about Mr Chavez, with his cooperation, before the coup
and were inside the presidential palace in April 2002
when the events unfolded.

The film has since been shown on television by the
BBC, by RTE in Ireland, and elsewhere in Europe. This
week it won two prizes at the Grierson documentary
awards in Britain.

Mr Chavez was briefly removed from office by a
military coup but returned to power after 48 hours.
The political situation was then, and remains, highly
polarised. The president as portrayed by his opponents
is a dangerous, anti-US communist, while Chavez
supporters see the opposition as the privileged
seeking to preserve their powers from the
underprivileged.

The film portrays Mr Chavez in a sympathetic light. It
was shown on the public television channel in
Venezuela earlier this year. The private television
channels are all opposed to Mr Chavez.

Last week, the film was due to be shown at the AI film
festival in Vancouver. The organising committee came
under pressure from Chavez opponents in Venezuela and
eventually decided not to show it.

John Tackaberry of AI said yesterday that the decision
had been taken only after Amnesty staff in Venezuela
had said that, if it were shown, it would present
"some degree of threat to their physical safety".

They told colleagues that, even if Amnesty ran a
standard disclaimer, the organisation would be
associated with the film, thus endangering its staff.

Mr Tackaberry said the withdrawal was not to do with
the film's quality or its politics, as Amnesty did not
endorse any of the films at its festivals.

Other festivals due to show the film, and broadcasters
who plan to show it, have been urged not to do so, or
to allow a right to reply.

A Venezuelan TV producer and engineer, Wolfgang
Schalk, is leading the campaign against the film. He
said yesterday, in an email, that the film presented a
distorted version of events. Mr Schalk said he had
spent five months investigating the film.

"It tells a nice story with 'true' images of a 'coup'
from the inside. But my 24 years of experience with
TV, and a lifetime of living in Venezuela, told me
something was wrong." He assembled a forum with a
general, a news executive of a private television
station and the chief of police to analyse it, he
said.

He claimed it became clear that the producers had
"changed the order of the events to fit a story that
appeals to audiences."

An online petition was organised to complain about the
film, which Mr Schalk said did not meet the ethical
standards of the BBC.

The film makers are angry that attempts are being made
to stop the film from being shown and defend its
accuracy. "Our film presents a perspective on the
events of April 2002 which is different to the one
presented by the privately owned media in Venezuela,"
they said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, this perfectly legitimate decision by
AI to protect the safety of their workers has been
distorted by some in order to claim that AI dropped
our documentary because of its content."


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