NEXT SCREENING - DECEMBER 3TH

The Hands Off Venezuela Cinema Series “Venezuela: a Revolution on Film” continues with “No Volverán” (Melanie McDonald & Will Roche, 2007), a documentary shot by Hands Off Venezuela supporters during the Venezuelan presidential campaign on December 2006.

The victory of Hugo Chávez in 2006 was the result of a mass mobilisation that turned the presidential campaign into a political and social battle involving millions of Venezuelans. As a result of this momentum, a new phase of the Venezuelan Revolution opened, and a few days after being re-elected Chávez announced the opening of the debate on socialism.

The documentary explains how the landslide victory was possible and investigates the most important political and social issues at stake. The film-makers also met the international delegation of Hands Off Venezuela members who monitored the elections, and travelled with them to several factories including Sanitarios Maracay, a ceramics factory under workers' control.

This film is a key visual document to understand December 2006, a turning
point in the Venezuelan revolutionary process. The documentary makers will attend the screening and the Q&A session that will follow.

WEDENESDAY, DECEMBER 3TH AT 6:45 PM
BOLIVAR HALL - 54 GRAFTON WAY, LONDON
WARREN STREET TUBE STATION.

NEXT SCREENING - THE BATTLE OF CHILE I

On September 11, 1973, the Chilean army led by its recently appointed chief of staff, Augusto Pinochet, overthrew, with the active support of its national bourgeoisie and the government of the United States, the democratic government of Salvador Allende.

The bombing of the Presidential Palace, La Casa de la Moneda, ended the Chilean experiment to socialism, where “for first time in the history of the revolutionary processes, the path towards social change had been opened via elections, through a pacific via. An event unique in history, the first of its type”, as Fidel Castro remarked in his speech at the National Stadium in Santiago during his three week visit to Chile in 1971.

In "The insurrection of the bourgeoisie", the first part of the legendary documentary film "The battle of Chile", Patricio Guzmán captures and analyses with surgeon’s precision the dynamics of the revolutionary process that brought Allende to the presidency, his relationship with the Chilean masses of workers and poor peasants, and the destabilising actions of the Chilean counter-revolutionary forces aided by the helping hand of the US administration in the events that led the failed attempted coup of June 29th.

“I would declare “The battle of Chile” a film of “democratic interest”; its screening should be compulsory in schools”. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Mundo Obrero.

"Great films rarely arrive as unheralded as The Battle of Chile." – Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

"The major political film of our times - a magnificent achievement." – Tom Allen, Village Voice

SCREENING WILL BE FOLLOWED BY DEBATE WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 - BOLIVAR HALL (WARREN STREET) - 6:45 PM

VENEZUELA BOLIVARIANA - NEXT SCREENING AT BOLIVAR HALL

Venezuela Bolivariana is a 76-minute documentary by Venezuelan film maker Marcelo Andrade which examines the Venezuelan Revolution as connected to the worldwide movement against capitalist globalization.

Venezuela Bolivariana shows how the Bolivarian revolution, thanks to its incredible grassroots and networking power, transcends the national frontiers of Venezuela and contributes with concrete alternatives in the fight against neoliberal capitalism. Covering the period from the 1989 "Caracazo" to the April 2002 coup against Chavez and beyond, this is a must-see film."



The screening will be followed by a debate with special guests.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, AT 6:45 PM
BOLIVAR HALL, 54 GRAFTON WAY, (WARREN STREET TUBE STATION)

JUNE 18, NEXT SCREENING AT BOLIVAR HALL

In December 2001 the Argentine financial system collapsed. The life savings of millions of people evaporated overnight, while billions of dollars had been taken abroad by corporations and millionaires. The effects on the real economy were devastating: mass unemployment, hunger and pauperisation. On the 20th and 21st of December 2001, millions of people took on the streets of Buenos Aires. In fifteen days country had three presidents.

Six months earlier the IMF was presenting Argentina as the example to follow for Latin America. What happened to the promises of modernity, employment and welfare made by politicians, businessmen, economists and their media communicators? “Memory of a plunder” is the chronicle of the neo-liberal roaring 90’s and its consequences in Argentina and, by extension, in the whole of Latin America.




“Memory of a plunder” means Fernando “Pino” Solanas’ return to social documentary. The result is, once again, a remarkable document and a breathtaking film.

6:45 PM FREE ENTRY AT BOLIVAR HALL - 54 GRAFTON WAY (WARREN STREET TUBE) see map