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{{short description|2003 documentary about Venezuelan coup}}
{{Otheruses|The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (disambiguation)}}
{{Expand|date=February 2010}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{use Hiberno-English|date=December 2013}}
{{Infobox film {{Infobox film
| name = The Revolution Will Not Be Televised | name = The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
| image = The Revolution will not be Televised.gif | image = The Revolution will not be Televised.gif
| image_size = | alt =
| caption = | caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Kim Bartley<br /> Donnacha Ó Briain | director = Kim Bartley<br /> Donnacha Ó Briain
| producer = David Power | producer = David Power
| writer = | narrator = Donnacha Ó Briain
| starring = ]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]
| narrator =
| cinematography = Kim Bartley<br /> Donnacha Ó&nbsp;Briain
| starring =
| music =
| cinematography = Kim Bartley<br /> Donnacha Ó Briain
| editing = Ángel Hernández Zoido | editing = Ángel Hernández Zoido
| distributor = | studio = Power Pictures
| distributor = ] (US)
| released =
| runtime = 74 min | released = {{Film date|2003}}
| runtime = '''''Chavez: Inside the Coup'''''<br />52 minutes<br />'''''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'''''<br />74 minutes
| country = {{IRL}}<!-- Being filmed in Venezuela does NOT qualify the addition of "Venezuela" to the infobox. See usage guide-->
| language = | country = Ireland
| budget = | language = English<br />Spanish
| gross = | budget = €200,000
| gross = $200,000 (€171,000){{refn|Exchange rates are based on the ]'s historical records of average ] from the period.| group="nb"}}
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}} }}
'''''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised''''' (Spanish: '''''{{lang|es|La revolución no será transmitida}}'''''), also known as '''''Chávez: Inside the Coup''''', is a 2003 ] ]. It focuses on events in ] leading up to and during the ], which saw President ] removed from office for two days. With particular emphasis on the role played by Venezuela's private media, the film examines several key incidents: the protest march and subsequent violence that provided the impetus for Chávez's ousting; the opposition's formation of an interim government headed by business leader ]; and the Carmona administration's collapse, which paved the way for Chávez's return. ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' was directed by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó&nbsp;Briain. Given direct access to Chávez, the filmmakers intended to make a ] biography of the president. They spent seven months filming in Venezuela, following Chávez and his staff and interviewing ordinary citizens. As the coup unfolded on 11&nbsp;April, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain filmed on the streets of the capital, ], capturing footage of protesters and the erupting violence. Later, they filmed many of the political upheavals inside ], the presidential palace.


Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain conceived of the film after Bartley returned from documenting the aftermath of the ] for an Irish charity. Following a visit to Venezuela to determine the feasibility of a film project, the pair formed a production company and applied to Ireland's film board, ] (BSÉ), for a development grant. At BSÉ's request, the filmmakers partnered with a more experienced producer and shot a short pilot to show to potential investors. Funding for the €200,000 production was provided by BSÉ and several European broadcasters. Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain shot more than 200&nbsp;hours of material; editing focused on identifying footage that would make the film entertaining and drive the plot. It was at this stage that the film's coverage narrowed to concentrate more on the coup attempt.
''' ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' ''' (a.k.a. '''''Chavez: Inside the Coup''''') is a controversial 2002 ] about the ] which briefly deposed ]n President ].


The film was positively received by mainstream film critics and won several awards. Reviewers cited the filmmakers' unprecedented proximity to key events and praised the film for its "riveting narrative";<ref name="schiller 488">Schiller (2009), p. 488.</ref> criticism focused on its lack of context and pro-Chávez bias. First shown on television in Europe and Venezuela in 2003, ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' later appeared at film festivals and secured a limited theatrical release on the art house circuit. Independent activists held unofficial screenings, and Venezuelan government officials encouraged its circulation to build support for Chávez's administration. The film is regularly shown on Venezuelan television, and in the capital it is often broadcast during "contentious political conjunctures".<ref>Schiller (2009), p. 494.</ref> ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' paints Chávez in a favorable light,<ref name="burr"/><ref name="holden"/> which has led to disputes over its neutrality and accuracy; particular attention is paid to its framing of the violence of 11–13&nbsp;April, the filmmakers' editing of the timeline, and the omission of incidents and personnel. The film is variously cited as an accurate portrayal or a misrepresentation of the events of April 2002.
A television crew from Ireland's national broadcaster, ] happened to be recording a documentary about Chávez during the events of April 11, 2002. Shifting focus, they followed the events as they occurred. During their filming, the crew recorded images of the events that they say contradict explanations given by other sources,{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} the private media,{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} the ],{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} and then White House Press Secretary ].{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} The documentary's premise, in disagreement with other sources,<ref name=CuriousCoup/> is that the coup was the result of a conspiracy between various old guard and anti-Chávez factions within Venezuela and the United States. The film has received critical acclaim, mixed with charges of that it is manipulated and portrays Chavez in a favorable light.

==Background==
{{further|History of Venezuela|Media representation of Hugo Chávez#Coverage of the 2002 coup}}
Throughout much of the twentieth century, Venezuela was beset by political, civil and military unrest. After ]'s long reign as president ended in 1935, a series of military rulers followed, concluding with ]'s overthrow by general uprising in 1958. Although the military remained influential, Venezuela's government has since been chosen by civilians through democratic processes.<ref name="stoneman 5">Stoneman (2008), p. 5.</ref> Until 1998, the dominant political parties were ] and ], who shared seven presidencies between them. In 1989, during the second term in office for Acción Democrática's ], Venezuela was hit by a severe economic crisis. A wave of protests known as the '']'' engulfed the country and dozens were killed in rioting.<ref name="stoneman 6">Stoneman (2008), p. 6.</ref>

]
], then a ], had formed a secret revolutionary group (]) in the early 1980s and was planning a "rebellious intervention".<ref name="stoneman 6" /> He later felt the ''Caracazo'' was a missed opportunity for his movement.<ref name="stoneman 6" /> Three years later, Chávez saw another chance; in February 1992, he led an ] and was imprisoned. A second coup attempt, without his involvement, also failed. Chávez enjoyed some popular support for his actions. Released from prison in 1994, he recast his revolutionary group as a legitimate ] political party, the ].<ref name="stoneman 7">Stoneman (2008), p. 7.</ref> The movement adopted former Venezuelan leader ] as its "iconic hero" and "reference point"; Bolívar had played a key role in Latin America's successful ] in the 1820s.<ref name="stoneman 5" /> In the ], Chávez won 56.2% of the vote, on a promise to "end the corruption of several decades" and institute a new ] that he felt would secure Latin America's true independence from the outside world.<ref name="stoneman 7" />

Chávez strengthened his support among the poor with a series of social initiatives known as the ], and created a network of grass-roots workers' councils, the ].<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 8.</ref> Nevertheless, by early 2002, Venezuela was "embroiled&nbsp;... in a severe political crisis" as Chávez sought to bring more of the country's vast oil wealth under state control.<ref name="gunson" /> Although the state-owned radio and television stations remained staunch advocates of Chávez's stated policies—to redistribute the nation's wealth to the poorest—the private media was more hostile.{{refn|According to Phil Gunson in '']'', in Venezuela, "It is hard, if not impossible, to find an impartial observer. Most of the country's private news media have openly joined the opposition. State radio and TV are crude cheerleaders for the government."<ref name="gunson" />|group="nb"}} The crisis reached a head when Chávez attempted to remove the management of the state oil company, ] (PDVSA), provoking a showdown. "Oil managers, business leaders, and large segments of organized labor" called a general strike.<ref name="gunson" /> The strike was backed by a large segment of the population, "particularly the country's increasingly impoverished middle class" and army officers upset at the increasing politicization of the military.<ref name="gunson" />

On 11&nbsp;April 2002, hundreds of thousands of people marched in protest against the government. Abandoning their planned route, the marchers advanced towards the palace, a path that took them close to government supporters who had come out in opposition to the protest. Journalist Phil Gunson wrote, "Shooting broke out on all sides. A score of civilians died and more than 150 suffered gunshot wounds. The military high command called for Chávez to resign, and at 3:20 the next morning they announced he had agreed to do so. The presidency was assumed by a business leader, ] Estanga, but his government collapsed in less than forty-eight hours and Chávez returned to power."<ref name="gunson" />


==Synopsis== ==Synopsis==
''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' opens in 2001{{refn|This synopsis describes the 74-minute cut of the film,''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised''. The 52-minute television version, ''Chávez: Inside the Coup'', begins differently but covers the same major incidents.|group="nb"}}<ref name="product">McKay, Alastair (Winter 2008). "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, But The Coup Attempt May Be Sexed Up". ''Product Magazine'' (Red Herring Arts and Media): 10. ] .</ref> with footage of Chávez as he tours the country. Met with "popular enthusiasm", he speaks at rallies, decrying ]ism and the international community's attacks on his character.<ref name="stoneman 29" /> The film outlines Chávez's rise to power, before covering his day-to-day routine and appearances on his television show, '']'', which includes a phone-in for citizens to speak with the president.<ref name="stoneman 29" /> Chávez outlines his aspiration to be seen as a modern-day Bolívar.<ref name="product" /> Clips from Venezuelan and United States news reports demonstrate a "relentless campaign" against the president.<ref name="stoneman 30">Stoneman (2008), p. 30.</ref>
The portrayal of Hugo Chávez in the documentary has been described as that of a "colourful unpredictable folk hero",{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} beloved by Venezuela's working classes and opposed to "a power structure that would see him deposed". The documentary portrays Chávez's first years as president before the coup and the support the government had among the working class and the poor, referencing educational plans, distribution of the oil revenue and grassroots democracy and participation of people previously excluded from politics as a key to this.


Interviews with communities from both sides of the political divide indicate how Chávez is seen by the rich and poor.<ref name="stoneman 30" /> The latter support his stated aim to redistribute the country's oil wealth;<ref name="chapter 6">Bartley & Ó&nbsp;Briain (2003), chapter 6.</ref> the former fear totalitarianism and are worried Chávez will institute communism. In February 2002, the media war intensifies after Chavez takes control of PDVSA.<ref name="stoneman 30" /> The film states that the company was previously run as a private interest for the benefit of a minority, despite being state-owned. Business leader Pedro Carmona and union boss ] are the main voices of the opposition. After the pair visit Washington, D.C., the CIA and ] express concern about Chávez's rule and stress the importance of Venezuela's oil. A Venezuelan general appears on private television to voice similar disquiet. Carmona appeals for a public protest at the offices of PDVSA.<ref name="chapter 7">Bartley & Ó&nbsp;Briain (2003), chapter 7.</ref>
The film then explains the ], business and upper class opposition, who accuse Chávez of being a dictator. The documentary then moves to say the media promoted demonstrations against Chávez and worked together with some military and businessmen opposition to create an anti-Chávez climate leading to the day of the coup.


On 11&nbsp;April, opposition protesters begin their march outside PDVSA's headquarters in Caracas; Chávez's supporters gather outside the presidential palace. The protest route is changed to take it to the palace; shots ring out and civilians are killed. The private media blames Chávez's supporters, citing footage that shows them shooting at opposition protesters from a bridge.<ref name="stoneman 30" /> The narration states, "What the TV stations didn't broadcast was , which clearly shows that the streets below were empty. The opposition march had never taken that route."<ref name="chapter 8">Bartley & Ó&nbsp;Briain (2003), chapter 8.</ref> Later, the state television signal is cut; rumors circulate that the opposition has taken over the studio.<ref name="chapter 10">Bartley & Ó&nbsp;Briain (2003), chapter 10.</ref> At the palace, members of the military high command demand Chávez's resignation, threatening to bomb the building. The president refuses to resign, but submits to their custody.<ref name="stoneman 30" /> He is led away, and Carmona announces on television that a transitional government will be established.<ref name="chapter 10" />
On 11 April 2002, the opposition finally organized a big demonstration that went to Miraflores presidential palace to demand Chávez's resignation. But a huge crowd of Chavistas was waiting at Miraflores to support the president.


On 12&nbsp;April, opposition leaders appear on private television, where they disclose their plan to unseat Chávez.<ref name="stoneman 30" /> Carmona is sworn in as president while images play of unrest on the streets. Defying media censorship, Chávez's supporters disseminate the story that the president did not resign.<ref name="chapter 11">Bartley & Ó&nbsp;Briain (2003), chapter 11.</ref> On 13&nbsp;April, they gather to protest outside Miraflores,<ref name="stoneman 31">Stoneman (2008), p. 31.</ref> while palace guards plot to retake the building. The guards take up key positions and, at a prearranged signal, take members of the new government prisoner.<ref name="chapter 12">Bartley & Ó&nbsp;Briain (2003), chapter 12.</ref> The state television channel is relaunched and urges the army to back Chávez.<ref name="chapter 13">Bartley & Ó&nbsp;Briain (2003), chapter 13.</ref> "Full military control" is returned to the Chávez administration and the president arrives at the palace amid celebratory scenes.<ref name="stoneman 30" /> Chávez makes an address in which he says it is fine to oppose him, but not the ]. The closing titles say Carmona fled to Miami while under house arrest, and that Ortega went into hiding, only reappearing to help lead the opposition after Chávez said there would be no repercussions. Most of the dissident generals, after being expelled from the army, fled to the US. Others remained as part of the opposition.<ref name="chapter 15">Bartley & Ó&nbsp;Briain (2003), chapter 15.</ref>
The film alleges to show Chávez's supporters being shot down by snipers, and then some controversial footage of Chavistas shooting back, which the private media channels then used to say the Chávez's supporters shot at the unarmed anti-Chávez crowd, when they say they were actually shooting towards an empty street with armoured vans from where the shots against them were coming.


==Production==
It then goes on to show an interview with a journalist claiming that he resigned from one of the privately owned TV channels after being forbidden to talk about any pro-Chávez demonstrations taking place at the time.


===Development===
Filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donacha Ó Briain were inside the presidential palace on 11 April 2002 when Chávez was deposed and two days later when he returned to power, recording "what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état."<ref name="websitesynopsis">{{Cite web|url=http://www.chavezthefilm.com/html/film/synopsis.htm|title=The Revolution will not be Televised -Film Synopsis|accessdate=2007-06-18|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080105035819/http://www.chavezthefilm.com/html/film/synopsis.htm|archivedate=2008-01-05}}</ref>
In December 1999, independent Irish filmmaker Kim Bartley visited Venezuela as part of ]'s emergency response team, to document the aftermath of the ] that had devastated much of ] in the north of the country. Bartley become fascinated with how those affected by the tragedy perceived Chávez, and in late 2000,<ref name="stoneman 11">Stoneman (2008), p. 11.</ref> she and Donnacha Ó&nbsp;Briain—a filmmaker and former colleague who shared her interest in "Latin American politics and issues around globalization"<ref name="king">King, Michael (7 March 2003). . '']''.</ref>—spent two weeks in Caracas to determine the feasibility of a film project.<ref name="stoneman 11" /> The pair formed a production company, Runway Films, and in January 2001 applied to Ireland's film board, ] (BSÉ), for a development grant.<ref name="stoneman 12">Stoneman (2008), p. 12.</ref> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain proposed a fly-on-the-wall documentary,<ref name="king" /> a "personal profile and intimate portrait" of Chávez<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 1.</ref> that would be "broadly supportive" of him.<ref name="stoneman 13">Stoneman (2008), p. 13.</ref> During their 2000 visit, the filmmakers had sensed that "something genuinely was happening" in Caracas,<ref name="stoneman 11" /> and felt an urgency to get the project underway; even so, it wasn't until April 2001 that BSÉ approved the £6000 (€9500) grant.<ref name="stoneman 12" />


The project was at this point named ''Aló Presidente'', a working title taken from Chávez's weekly television and radio program.<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 4.</ref> BSÉ set about exploring avenues of funding;<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 14.</ref> the organization persuaded Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain to make a short pilot to show to potential investors,<ref name="stoneman 15">Stoneman (2008), p. 15.</ref> but refused the filmmakers' application for a €60,000 grant towards their €131,000 production budget. BSÉ felt the pair needed to partner with a production company that had experience in the field, and which could help raise the remaining funds. Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain approached Power Pictures and, with the addition of David Power as a producer, reapplied for the grant.<ref name="stoneman 15" /> Even as filming began, the full budget—now at €200,000<ref name="stoneman 15" />—had not been secured. David Power pitched the project at several documentary festivals and markets. At Dublin's Stranger Than Fiction festival in September 2001, the ], ] and ] declined to invest. ] (RTÉ) expressed interest in providing development funds; no such deal was made, but RTÉ did offer €10,000 (subsequently €20,000) for the Irish broadcast rights. In October, the Dutch broadcaster ] also committed €10,000. At a November market in Amsterdam, Power once again approached the BBC and was turned down, as the organization believed the film's subject was "too far away to be relevant to lives".<ref name="stoneman 16" /> However, RTÉ's Kevin Dawson pushed the film at a ] pitching session, securing the interest of German television channel ], which subsequently provided funds.<ref name="stoneman 16">Stoneman (2008), p. 16.</ref> In late 2001, BSÉ finally approved a production grant of €63,000.<ref name="stoneman 17">Stoneman (2008), p. 17.</ref>
The pivotal role of the media before and during the coup is covered throughout its 75 minutes, with emphasis on the importance that both Chávez government and the opposition gave to gaining control over channel 8, the only TV Channel owned by the state, shut down the day of the coup and recovered afterwards to communicate the news that the rest of the channels were not communicating, such as the allegatioins that Chávez had not resigned but was actually being held as a prisoner<ref name="ElMundo20020413" /> and that what was happening was not a democratical transition but actually a coup d'état.


==Reception== ===Filming===
]
In 2000, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain had been promised "exclusive access" to Chávez by the government's Minister of Communications.<ref name="stoneman 17" /> They arrived in Venezuela in September 2001.<ref name="gunson" /> While filming the pilot they met the president,<ref name="stoneman 17" /> after which they reconsidered their approach.<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 18.</ref> Bartley explained, "We had&nbsp;... this notion of investigating Chávez—was he a demagogue? Was the media persona just that? What makes him tick? My sense had changed as we got closer; what we're seeing here is a guy who is motivated, driven, not the demagogue with another side, drinking, carousing. I began to see him as more transparent—what you see is what you get."<ref name="stoneman 13" /> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain began by attempting to build a relationship with Chávez that would allow them the access they required. At first, the president's staff treated the filmmakers with suspicion and made filming difficult. After numerous delays, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain finally got through to Chávez. They calculated that they needed to "press the right buttons" to gain his support, so they presented him with an old edition of the memoirs of the general ], who had fought alongside ].<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 19.</ref> Inside, they had written a quote from the Irish socialist playwright ].{{refn|"You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea; you cannot put an idea up against the barrack-square wall and riddle it with bullets; you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell your slaves could ever build."<ref name="stoneman 20" />|group="nb"}} Slowly, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain gained their subjects' trust, "dissolving any self-consciousness as a result of their cameras".<ref name="stoneman 20">Stoneman (2008), p. 20.</ref>


Although ensconced with Chávez and his entourage, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain felt a disconnect from the events of the outside world. During a "chaotic" road-trip with Chávez, they "knew something was coming", and divined that Chávez's trip was intended to bolster his support and "get people used to being on the streets".<ref name="stoneman 20" /> Chávez had recently "upped the ante" with the introduction of the Land Law.{{refn|Introduced in November 2001 as one of ], the Land Law aimed to increase the country's food production by breaking up and redistributing unused or underused land.|group="nb"}}<ref name="stoneman 20" /> Increasing tensions further, in February 2002, Chávez took control of PDVSA;<ref name="stoneman 30" /> the private media stepped up its criticism of Chávez, which for Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain "marked the beginning of an exciting phase".<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 21.</ref> By April 2002, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain were in Caracas and spent much of their time filming at ], following Chávez and his staff.<ref name="king" /> As the 11&nbsp;April crisis unfolded, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain filmed outside the palace, first capturing footage of the demonstrations and subsequent violence,<ref name="chapter 8" /> then events inside the palace during the afternoon, evening and early hours of 12&nbsp;April. Through their previous contacts at the palace, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain were able to continue filming without interference: "no one paid any attention to us—we just blended in."<ref name="king" /> Later that day, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain stayed away from the palace through fears for their safety. Unable to leave the country—the ] was closed—the filmmakers instead took to the streets, "to document the repression were witnessing".<ref name="king" /> At the same time, a press office cameraman was in the palace, "reluctant to lose his job despite the change in government".<ref name="king" /> He filmed the formation of the interim government. When Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain returned to the palace on 13&nbsp;April, the cameraman let them have his footage.<ref name="king" /> They remained filming in Venezuela until July 2002, interviewing residents<ref name="stoneman 22">Stoneman (2008), p. 22.</ref> and recording "witness" accounts from those who had been present during the coup—ministers, security guards and journalists.<ref name="stoneman 26">Stoneman (2008), p. 26.</ref>
]
]


===Editing===
Reception of the film was overwhelmingly positive, with a 98% rating based on 48 reviews on ] as of February 2010;<ref> ]. Retrieved 27 February 2010.</ref> the consensus view of the film was that it is "as persuasive and engrossing as it is unapologetically biased".
{|class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:40em; max-width: 35%;" cellspacing="5"
|style="text-align: left;"|"While I'm editing a film, I never forget that it is entertainment&nbsp;... Something that people are going to pay for to watch and thus make them think, laugh, or learn things they didn't know before. So you must never ever let them get bored.&nbsp;... There are always hundreds of stories sleeping inside the material and you have to find them and wake them up. But you have to organise them in a way that they become entertainment."
|-
|style="text-align: left;"|—Editor Ángel Hernández Zoido<ref name="stoneman 23" />
|}
Using two ] (DV) cameras,<ref>Schiller (2009), p. 483.</ref> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain shot over 200 hours of material<ref name="schiller 485">Schiller (2009), p. 485.</ref> on 300 DV tapes.<ref name="stoneman 22" /> They intended that editing take ten weeks;<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 28.</ref> instead, it took six months.<ref name="stoneman 25">Stoneman (2008), p. 25.</ref> Rod Stoneman, BSÉ's CEO at the time, described the amount of footage compared to the film's final length as "exceptional".<ref name="stoneman 23" /> The 200:1 ratio was far above the norm for most documentaries, which usually have a ratio of 10:1 or 15:1. When the filmmakers returned to Ireland, they decided they needed an editor who spoke Spanish. Bartley remembered a documentary she had seen about baseball in Cuba, ''El juego de Cuba'', so they hired its editor, Ángel Hernández Zoido. Zoido approached the film as if it were entertainment, feeling that the primary concern was to ensure the audience did not get bored.<ref name="stoneman 23">Stoneman (2008), p. 23.</ref> He tackled each scene the same way. After watching the ] with Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain, Zoido asked them, "What do we want to tell in this scene?"<ref name="stoneman 24" /> He focused on two factors: how much information would be necessary to drive the plot, and provide an emotional core. Preferring to work alone, Zoido would then send the filmmakers from the edit suite. After Zoido completed the scene, the trio discussed whether those aims had been realized.<ref name="stoneman 24">Stoneman (2008), p. 24.</ref>


The large amount of footage, and the fact that the filmmakers were "in a sense&nbsp;... looking at it for the first time", meant that the film's concept only became clear during editing.<ref name="stoneman 23" /> The events of 11–13&nbsp;April gave it "a new dramatic centre",<ref name="stoneman 24" /> although Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain were keen that the film did not concentrate entirely on the coup. They had intended to include more historical and political context;<ref name="stoneman 24" /> it wasn't until late in post-production that the focus narrowed<ref name="stoneman 25" /> to include more emphasis on the media's role in Venezuelan politics.<ref name="stoneman 26" /> In October 2002, a two-hour "rough cut" was shown to Stoneman and Brendan McCarthy, BSÉ's head of Production and Development.<ref name="stoneman 25" /> This version included the "witness" accounts that Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain had captured after April 2002. Stoneman felt that these sequences reinforced the film's claims, but "diluted its originality".<ref name="stoneman 26" /> He argued that they be cut, and that to compensate, Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain should record a voice-over and place themselves more in the frame as witness-protagonists, ideas that the filmmakers initially resisted.<ref name="stoneman 26" />
The film has been widely debated among both supporters and critics of Venezuelan President ]. The film has been criticized by those who say that it omits or misrepresents important events—such as a televised announcement of Chávez's resignation by General-in-Chief, ]—resulting in a distorted version of the events as a coup.<ref name=Chavezfilm>Campbell, Duncan (22 November 2003). Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2010.</ref><ref name="nacional20031003">Correia, Alexis (3 October 2003). "Cineastas denuncian manipulación en documental sobre el 11-A." '']'', p. B-6</ref><ref name=Gunson/> Chávez refused to sign the resignation letter that military presented him; according to military present, when they refused to suppress the demonstration, he did agree to step down if given safe passage to Cuba.<ref name=CuriousCoup/><ref name="ElMundo20020413">{{es icon}} {{cite web|url=http://www.elmundo.es/2002/04/13/mundo/1130419.html|title=El Ejército derroca a Chávez y pone en su lugar al líder de la patronal |last=Del Naranco|first=Rafael|publisher='']''|date=13 April 2002|dateformat=dmy|accessdate=2009-02-08}}</ref>


As editing progressed, budget shortfalls prevented BSÉ from finalizing contracts. The organization also restricted post-production funds to "limit exposure" in the event the project was not completed.<ref name="stoneman 26" /> Stoneman contacted a former colleague at the BBC, Nick Fraser,<ref name="stoneman 27">Stoneman (2008), p. 27.</ref> who had declined to help finance the film in 2001.<ref name="stoneman 16" /> Fraser was ] for the BBC's '']'' documentaries series. According to Stoneman, Fraser was "still undecided", having been told by the head of ] that "we've done Chávez".<ref name="stoneman 27" /> Nevertheless, the BBC pre-purchased the film and in December 2002 received a rough cut.<ref name="stoneman 27" /> At the BBC's behest, the opening of the television version was made more dramatic. Fraser was unsure about the voice-over; he asked for a more "opinionated" narration that, according to Bartley, would "get the boot in".<ref name="stoneman 27" /> Although the BBC did not ask outright, Bartley's impression was that the organization wanted the film to be "against Chávez".<ref name="stoneman 27" /> Fraser later said he had asked for the filmmakers to "include with someone not a Chávez supporter".<ref name="product" /> He also suggested that a more experienced director be employed to help edit the film. The filmmakers "made a few minor concessions", but resisted major edits.<ref name="stoneman 27" /> Ó&nbsp;Briain's voice-over in the final cut was "polished up but not significantly changed".<ref name="stoneman 27" />
The film critic ] called it a "remarkable documentary" because the filmmakers has access to palace sources and obtained an inside view of the coup, adding that it is "biased in favor of Chavez".<ref>Ebert, Roger (2005). Andrews McMeel Publishing, p. 568. ISBN 0740755382.</ref>


The filmmakers created two versions of the film. ''Chávez: Inside the Coup'', intended for television broadcast, lasts 52&nbsp;minutes.<ref name="stoneman 29">Stoneman (2008), p. 29.</ref> The feature-length ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised''—which takes its name from the ] song ]<ref name="burr" />—is 74&nbsp;minutes long.<ref name="stoneman 29" />
Phil Gunson, writing in the '']'' says the "narrative is, unfortunately, somewhat at odds with the complex, messy reality of April 2002", " a close analysis of the film reveals something worse than political naivete", the film has a "deliberate blurring of responsibility for the coup", and that the film has an "alternative reality" with sequences inserted out of order from archives. Gunson concludes that it is "ironic that a film purporting to set the record straight should itself turn out to he{{sic}} an exercise in propaganda".<ref name=Gunson>{{cite journal|title=Director's cut: did an acclaimed documentary about the 2002 coup in Venezuela tell the whole story? |format= subscription required| journal= Columbia Journalism Review |date= May 1, 2004 |author= Gunson, Phil}}</ref> Brian A. Nelson, who wrote a book about the coup using primarily interviews with participants, shares Gunson's view and says the film contained "many manipulations" and quotes Gunson, saying it constructs "a false picture of a classic military coup" by "twist the sequence of events to support their case, and replace inconvenient images with others dredged from archives."<ref>Nelson, Brian A. (2009). Nation Books, p. 265. ISBN 1568584180.</ref> The filmmakers say Gunson is "guilty of omission and inaccuracy" and that "limited number of recent archive images were used in the documentary to set the scene at the pro-and anti-Chavez gatherings", adding that they do not "claim that film is the definitive or only narrative of what happened during the coup".<ref name=Gunson/>


==Release==
Frank Scheck, for '']'', says:<ref name=TELEVISED>Scheck, Frank (1 April 2003). ''The Hollywood Reporter''.</ref><blockquote>
While the filmmakers were necessarily limited to filming what was in their immediate orbit, their close proximity to the events at hand results in often gripping footage, and the finished product resembles a taut if at times confusing and inadvertently comic political thriller. One might have hoped for a little more in the way of analysis and historical context, but on the other hand, with its mere 74-minute running time, the film earns points for brevity and succinctness.</blockquote>


===Television===
Writing for '']'', ] comments:<ref name="nyt20031105">{{Cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E3D7153BF936A35752C1A9659C8B63&scp=1&sq=kim%2Bbartley&st=nyt|title=Film review; Tumult in Venezuela's Presidential Palace, Seen Up Close |accessdate=2008-06-15|work=]|year=2003-11-05|first=Stephen|last=Holden|authorlink=Stephen Holden}}</ref> <blockquote>
''Chávez: Inside the Coup'' aired on ] on 18&nbsp;February 2003, as an installment of the channel's ''True Lives'' documentary series. The broadcast prompted a passionate public and critical response, and "lively debate" on radio and in newspapers; RTÉ soon arranged for a repeat broadcast.<ref name="stoneman 31" /> In the United Kingdom, it aired on BBC Two on 16&nbsp;October 2003, as part of the channel's ''Storyville'' documentary strand,<ref name="ofcom">Staff (27 November 2006). "Fairness and Privacy Cases". ''Broadcast Bulletin'' (]) (74).</ref> and on ] on 18&nbsp;November 2003.<ref>. ]. Retrieved 30&nbsp;March 2010.</ref> ''Chavez: Inside the Coup'' also aired in Canada, Japan, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark.<ref name="stoneman 2">Stoneman (2008), p. 2.</ref> The speed of the television broadcasts left a full theatrical run unlikely—a fact the filmmakers later regretted.{{refn|Stoneman speculates that the television broadcasts may have prevented the film from being nominated for the ] (the Academy's rules disqualify broadcast features).<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 119.</ref>|group="nb"}} The film also failed to be picked up by a television company in the US, although ] was interested at one point.<ref name="stoneman 33">Stoneman (2008), p. 33.</ref> In Venezuela, ''La revolución no será transmitida'' premièred on 13&nbsp;April 2003,<ref name="disassemble">{{in lang|es}} Lebon, Manuel (16 November 2003). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905061657/http://www.eluniversal.com/2003/11/16/cul_art_16264A.shtml |date=5 September 2012 }}. '']''. "...&nbsp;que fue mostrado por primera vez por VTV el 13 de abril de 2003. Posteriormente, el Gobierno hizo 10 mil copias en Cuba de esta producción para mostrarla en diversas partes del mundo.&nbsp;... La pieza audovisual 'tiene un lobby millonario que cuenta con apoyo de las embajadas venezolanas y hasta agencias de relaciones públicas que manejan presupuestos enormes para exhibir la cinta gratuitamente en las universidades o en cines comerciales de urbes como San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago o Nueva York'."</ref> on state television channel ] (VTV).<ref>Schiller (2009), p. 496.</ref> It has since been shown regularly on Venezuelan television; the state-funded community station ] often broadcasts the film during "contentious political conjunctures", such as the ], the ], and in 2007 to "help build support" for the government's controversial attempt to not renew the license of private television network ].<ref>Schiller (2009), p. 495.</ref>
More than a scary close-up look at the raw mechanics of a power grab, the film is also a cautionary examination of the use of television to deceive and manipulate the public. ... And Mr. Chávez is portrayed uncritically as a heroic reformer and robust man of the people. </blockquote>


===Festivals and theatrical run===
Duncan Campbell, writing for ], says:<ref name=Chavezfilm/><blockquote>
] in November 2003.<ref name="schiller 488" />]]
The film portrays Mr Chavez in a sympathetic light. ... A Venezuelan TV producer and engineer, Wolfgang Schalk ... claimed it became clear that the producers had "changed the order of the events to fit a story that appeals to audiences."</blockquote>
''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' screened at several film festivals in 2003, winning numerous awards.<ref name="stoneman 33" /> Beginning with the ] festival on 7&nbsp;March,<ref name="king"/> its festival appearances included the ], the ], the ], the ],<ref name="stoneman 34">Stoneman (2008), p. 34.</ref> the ],<ref name="nyawards">. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved 3&nbsp;March 2010.</ref> the ], the Galway Film Fleadh and the Los Angeles Wine & Country Festival.<ref name="power" /> In March 2003, a VHS copy of the film screened to under 100 people as part of an ] Irish film festival in Los Angeles. Among the viewers was the president of Vitagraph Films, David Schultz, who bought the rights for theatrical distribution and paid for the film to be converted from video. Schultz initially struggled to secure the support of exhibitors; they were skeptical of the film's commercial prospects, and believed "the environment was not hospitable" for a film critical of the US so close to the start of the ].<ref name="schiller 486-487" /> They only became receptive a few months later, when political perceptions shifted and the public became more aware of Venezuela because of its oil wealth.<ref name="schiller 486-487">Schiller (2009), pp. 486–487.</ref> One such exhibitor was the ] in New York City. Mike Maggiore, a programmer at the theater, worked to market the film and raise its profile with film critics. He created ]s and circulated information to appeal to "a particular audience".<ref>Schiller (2009), pp. 487–488.</ref>


''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' premièred to the public at the Film Forum in November 2003. The showing was accompanied by protests outside the theater from supporters and detractors of the film, both of whom "attempted to influence audience reception".<ref name="schiller 488-489">Schiller (2009), pp. 488–489.</ref> A few weeks previously, the film had been withdrawn from an ] film festival in Vancouver; staff at the organization's Caracas arm said they "feared for their safety if it were shown".<ref name="atrisk">Campbell, Duncan (22 November 2003). . '']''.</ref> The film's success at the 2003 ] was also overshadowed by a letter to the Grierson jury from London-based Venezuelan filmmakers, who disputed its version of events.<ref name="stoneman 34" /> Opposition demonstrators at the Film Forum première attempted to throw doubt on the film's "impartiality, precision, veracity, editorial integrity, and ideological independence", while supporters "encouraged theatergoers to denounce censorship" and sign a petition.<ref name="schiller 488-489" /> Opposition protests also greeted showings in Canada, Australia and France.<ref name="schiller 488-489" /> The run at the Film Forum earned $26,495 (€22,600)—several thousand above Maggiore's expectations.<ref name="schiller 479" /> After a limited run in theaters in six cities,<ref name="stoneman 2"/> the film had earned over $200,000 (€171,000),{{refn|The $200,000 figure is supported by Stoneman,<ref name="stoneman 2"/> but box office tracking websites The Numbers and ] both say the film earned $153,859 (€131,300) from eight theaters over 59 days.<ref>. ]. ]. Retrieved on 22&nbsp;April 2010.</ref><ref>. The Numbers. Nash Information Services. Retrieved on 22&nbsp;April 2010.</ref>|group="nb"}}<ref>Schiller (2009), p. 490.</ref> not quite profitable, but still considered "a significant sum for a documentary".<ref name="schiller 479" />
'']'', reporting on the book ''The Silence and the Scorpion: The Coup Against Chavez and the Making of Modern Venezuela'' by Brian A. Nelson, says:<ref name=CuriousCoup> (Retitled to "Riddle wrapped in a mystery", subscription required). ''The Economist'', 11 June 2009. "Mr Nelson interviewed more than 40 of the main actors ... He concludes that Mr Chavez's brief ouster was 'not a coup in the classic sense', nor a premeditated conspiracy, and he exonerates the United States of direct involvement. He finds that the National Guard and CHAVISTA gunmen started the shooting, and were responsible for most of the bloodshed, ... When Mr Chavez ordered the army to suppress the demonstration, his top generals refused. They rightly argued that the order was unconstitutional. ... Though he did not sign a written resignation, he did agree to step down in return for safe passage to Cuba. But the generals failed to broker a constitutional transition. Within days his government began 'a multi-million dollar campaign to rewrite the history of the coup'. According to Mr Nelson, it destroyed evidence of the killings, blocked all attempts at police and judicial investigation, and swiftly shut down hearings by the CHAVISTA-controlled National Assembly. It offered money and benefits to those willing to say they or their relatives had been shot by the opposition, writes Mr Nelson, and harassed those who truthfully claimed the opposite. In this enterprise, Mr Chavez was abetted by foreign admirers, including the Irish makers of an award-winning documentary on the coup which, Mr Nelson finds, contains 'many manipulations'."</ref><blockquote>Within days his government began "a multi-million dollar campaign to rewrite the history of the coup". According to Mr Nelson, it destroyed evidence of the killings, blocked all attempts at police and judicial investigation, and swiftly shut down hearings by the CHAVISTA-controlled National Assembly. ... In this enterprise, Mr Chavez was abetted by foreign admirers, including the Irish makers of an award-winning documentary on the coup which, Mr Nelson finds, contains "many manipulations".</blockquote>


===Informal distribution===
Nick Fraser, ''Storyville Series'' Editor for ], on his ''Commissioner's Comment'' said:<ref name=BIAS> Storyville. BBC UK 18 November 2003.</ref> <blockquote>
Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain showed the film to Chávez in February 2003. They recalled his response as "quite emotional".<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 35.</ref> BSÉ waived Venezuelan licensing fees for the film; on 13&nbsp;April, it was screened simultaneously with the television broadcast at a cinema in Caracas, before which Chávez made a speech saying, "Watch this film and you will see the face of the coup."<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 36.</ref> Pro-Chávez activists also distributed the film unofficially. The ] screened the film in New York City, where ] members "accepted donations" for bootleg copies.<ref>Schiller (2009), pp. 490–491.</ref> '']'' said the Venezuelan government had 10,000 copies made,<ref name="disassemble" /> and according to '']'', the ] (VIO) "encouraged art-house theaters" to screen the film.<ref>Miller, John J. (27 December 2004). "Friends of Hugo: Venezuela's Castroite boss has all the usual U.S. supporters". '']''.</ref> Government representatives aided the film's distribution officially and unofficially.<ref name="schiller 492-493">Schiller (2009), pp. 492–493.</ref> Venezuelan filmmaker Wolfgang Schalk said the film counted on the worldwide support of Venezuelan embassies and a public relations effort to show the film free at universities and theaters in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.<ref name="disassemble" /> Peace Action New York was given permission for a screening during a fund raiser in the ], where 250 people paid $35 (€30) each to see the film and take part in a "question-and-answer session" with guests such as Leonor Granado, the Venezuelan Consul General.<ref name="schiller 492-493" /> The consulate office made DVDs of the film available to "anyone who wanted a copy", as Granado said the film was vital to "building support in for the Venezuelan government".<ref name="schiller 492-493" />
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 Chávez. ... 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. </blockquote>


Journalist Michael McCaughan invited a group of people who held anti-Chávez views to a screening of the film. He said some among the audience changed their opinion of Chávez after seeing it, although many remained hostile. McCaughan said the consensus opinion was that the film was {{"'}}excellent' and reasonably objective", but that "Chávez remained a dictator leading the country to a totalitarian grave".<ref name="stoneman 37">Stoneman (2008), p. 37.</ref> As of 2006, groups such as ] were arranging tours to Venezuela that included a screening of the film.<ref>Forero, Juan (21 March 2006). . '']''.</ref>
], for '']'' says:<ref name="VillageVoice20031104">{{Cite web|url=http://www1.villagevoice.com/film/0345,hoberman2,48373,20.html|title=Recall Sequel in Venezuela? Hugo Your Way, We'll Go Ours|accessdate=2008-06-15|work=]|year=2003-11-04|author=Hoberman, J.|authorlink=J. Hoberman}}</ref>
<blockquote>
In addition to reporting a scoop, Bartley and Ó Briain do an excellent job in deconstructing the Venezuelan TV news footage of blood, chaos, and rival crowds. As befits its title, ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' is nearly a textbook on media manipulation.</blockquote>


==Analysis==
'']'' says the film is a "pro-Chavist docu", adding that another film, '']'', "exposes the manipulation behind ''The Revolution''".<ref>{{cite news |date= June 18, 2007 - June 24, 2007 |title= Venezuelan nets tread lightly: RCTV closure quiets Chavez foes |author= de la Fuente, Anna Maria |page= 20 |work = Variety |format = via LexisNexis |quote= RCTV is not the only web struggling against the threat of government closure. "In Latin America, the new populist regimes like the ones in Ecuador (and Bolivia) are using their popularity to suppress all dissident media to maintain 'good taste and integrity,' " says Wolfgang Schalk, helmer of "X-Rays of a Lie," a docu that exposes the manipulation behind pro-Chavist docu "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."}}</ref> Wolfgang Schalk and Thalman Urguelles were commissioned to "produce a response to the propaganda piece by Bartley and O'Briain", according to AC Clark in ''The Revolutionary Has No Clothes: Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Farce''. Clark says the film accurately uncovers the "mendacity and tendentiousness of ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised''".<ref name=Clark>{{cite book |title = The Revolutionary Has No Clothes: Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Farce |author = Clark, AC | year= 2009 |page=91 |publisher = Encounter Books}}</ref> Urgelles and Schalk say that the images showing the Baralt Avenue without any people and the ] video showing the shooters of Puente Llaguno were filmed at different times. They also argue that the film ignores or misrepresents other important details.<ref name="ElUniversal20031116"> {{es icon}} {{cite news |url= http://www.eluniversal.com/2003/11/16/apo_art_16264B.shtml |title = Observaciones específicas |work= ] |date= 16 November 2003 |accessdate = 25 February 2010}}</ref> According to ], the Venezuelan government "allegations have never been examined in court", and the ''X-Ray'' documentary accuses Bartley and O'Briain of "omissions and distortion".<ref>{{cite book |title= VENEZUELA A Decade Under Chavez Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela |publisher= ] |author= Holland, Alisha |year= 2008|page= 69}}</ref>


===Disputed accuracy===
Groups like ] arrange tours to Venezuela which include viewing ''The Revolution'', which ''The New York Times'' says is "a documentary favorable to Mr. Chávez".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/international/americas/21venezuela.html |title= Visitors Seek a Taste of Revolution in Venezuela |date= 21 March 2006 |work = The New York Times | author= Forero, Juan |accessdate = 25 February 2010}}</ref> According to '']'' the ] "encouraged art-house theaters to show a propaganda movie on Chavez called ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised''".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_24_56/ai_n27801637/pg_2/?tag=content;col1 |work=The National Review |author= Miller, John J |title= Friends of Hugo: Venezuela's Castroite boss has all the usual U.S. supporters |date= 27 December 2004 |accessdate = 25 February 2010}}</ref>
In Venezuela, debate about ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' is "often acrimonious".<ref>Schiller (2009), p. 480.</ref> The film has become key to framing people's understanding of the events of April 2002.<ref>Schiller (2009), p. 499.</ref> The previously accepted international view was that Chávez's ousting came from a "spontaneous popular response" to the repression of his regime; the film "directly contradicts" this position,<ref name="king" /> and since its release it has rapidly become "the prevailing interpretation of ".<ref name="gunson">Gunson, Phil (May–June 2004). "Director's cut: did an acclaimed documentary about the 2002 coup in Venezuela tell the whole story?". '']'' '''43''' (1): 59–61.</ref> The film's critics charge that it omits or misrepresents important events. Much of the criticism is centered on the filmmakers' "use of stock devices", such as compositing clips from several events to present them as one incident.<ref name="schiller 485-486" /> Parallel editing also depicts sequences as if they occurred at the same time, when some of the footage was captured on different days. Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain justify these methods as standard practice in the construction of documentary realist films.<ref name="schiller 485-486">Schiller (2009), pp. 485–486.</ref> Caracas-based journalist Phil Gunson, writing in '']'', says that most of the film critics who embraced the film ignored "the complex, messy reality" of the situation.<ref name="gunson" /> He charges that the filmmakers "omit key facts, invent others, twist the sequence of events to support their case, and replace inconvenient images with others dredged from archives".<ref name="gunson" /> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain argue that Gunson's points are "issues of dispute" that "continue to divide opinion" in Venezuela.<ref name="respond">Bartley, Kim; Ó Briain, Donnacha (May–June 2004). "Who's Right? The Filmmakers Respond". ''Columbia Journalism Review'' '''43''' (1): 62–63.</ref> Author Brian A. Nelson says that Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain—in their initial meeting with Chávez—did more than merely invoke the Irish general ] to gain the president's support for filming; Nelson alleges that they offered to portray the president positively in return for open access, with a "you scratch my back if I scratch yours" understanding that he says was ultimately reflected in the film's "unabashed pro-Chavismo."<ref name="nelson 337">Nelson (2009), p. 337.</ref>


===BBC and Ofcom investigations===
Another documentary, '']'' by Ángel Palacios (desribed as a "staunch supporter" of Chavez<ref name="ips20050426"/>), argues that "anti-Chávez opposition alliance manipulated coverage ... to make it look like the government used gunmen to shoot and kill opposition demonstrators".<ref name="ips20050426">{{Cite web|url=http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=28456|title=Film-Venezuela: Documentary Revolution|accessdate=2008-06-14|publisher=]|year=2005-04-26|first=Alejandro|last=Kirk}}</ref>
{|class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:40em; max-width: 35%;" cellspacing="5"
|style="text-align: left;"|"Controversy and contention began to build around , with a high level of complaints and responses reaching organisers, distributors and curators, culminating in the publication of articles, a petition and formal complaints.&nbsp;... From the point of view of those who opposed Chávez, ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' 'constitutes the main weapon of the Venezuelan government to disseminate internationally a biased, manipulated and lying version of what happens .{{'"}}
|-
|style="text-align: left;"|—Rod Stoneman, former CEO of BSÉ<ref name="stoneman 39" />
|}
Soon after the film's October 2003 broadcast on BBC Two, Venezuelan engineer and filmmaker ] began a campaign against ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'', representing ''El Gusano de Luz'' ("The Worm of Light"), an organization associated with the Venezuelan opposition. In July, Schalk had complained to RTÉ about its broadcast of the film.<ref name="stoneman 37" /> On 21&nbsp;October, ''El Gusano de Luz'' published a "detailed critique" as part of an internet petition<ref name="stoneman 47">Stoneman (2008), p. 47.</ref> that attracted 11,000 signatories, 85% of whom self-identified as Venezuelan.<ref name="stoneman 39-40">Stoneman (2008), pp. 39–40.</ref> Directed at the European broadcasters that financed and aired the film,<ref name="disassemble" /> the petition said in part, "''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' is being presented as an author's film, as an objective journalistic research film, while it is really a very well plotted and accomplished propaganda operation, supported logistically by the Venezuelan government, with the aim of misleading unprepared spectators of countries who do not know the totality of events."<ref name="stoneman 39-40" /> The petition submitted 18 specific points of contention with the film.<ref name="stoneman 39-40" /> Venezuelan private television soon aired two programs "dissecting and denouncing" the film, and similar newspaper articles followed.<ref name="stoneman 38">Stoneman (2008), p. 38.</ref>


Much of the anger about the film stemmed from its high-profile internationally;<ref name="stoneman 38" /> that it had been "blessed with the imprimatur of the BBC&nbsp;... with its connotations of fair and authoritative reporting" only made matters worse.<ref name="stoneman 39">Stoneman (2008), p. 39.</ref> John Burns, writing in '']'', restated many of Gunson's arguments,<ref name="stoneman 43-44">Stoneman (2008), pp. 43–44.</ref> and the BBC received 4,000 e-mails demanding that ''Storyville''{{'}}s commissioning editor, Nick Fraser, be sacked.<ref name="product" /> Toward the end of 2003, the weight of criticism forced the BBC to act.<ref name="stoneman 43-44" /> The corporation's complaints unit opened an investigation, and Fraser said the BBC would not show the film again until it had concluded. He wrote to David Power expressing particular concern over an error with the end titles and the use of out-of-chronology footage, saying the latter was "a real problem—particularly&nbsp;... since it has been used in a film dedicated to exposing the frauds of Venezuelan TV".<ref name="stoneman 43-44" /> The furor came at a difficult time for the corporation, which was under the spotlight of the ], the official investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of ]; the BBC had been criticized for reporting that intelligence dossiers had been "sexed up" by the UK government to justify the ].<ref name="product" />
==Soundtrack==


The petition's claims were also taken up by the UK's independent telecommunications regulator, ].<ref name="stoneman 47" /> The body investigated official protests made by several Caracas residents. The concerns largely focused on footage of the residents' attending a neighborhood meeting in June 2002, which was positioned in the film as a prelude to the April coup attempt. The residents said that the filmmakers had used footage of them without consent and that the film had misrepresented their views.<ref name="ofcom" /> In September 2005, Ofcom provisionally ruled that it had not upheld the complaints, citing the BBC's internal review and rebuttal as grounds.<ref name="stoneman 67">Stoneman (2008), p. 67.</ref> A subsequent appeal by the residents was unsuccessful.<ref name="ofcom" /> Two weeks after Ofcom's initial ruling, the BBC announced it had closed the complaint and that no further investigations would take place.<ref name="stoneman 67" /> Stoneman believed the BBC had overreacted, saying its guardedness was merely a product of being a frequent victim of press attacks on its ethos. Fraser said, "The film was very good in many respects, but also misleading."<ref name="product" /> He believed the filmmakers considered Chávez honorable, but having written a book on ] was more skeptical himself. Fraser concluded, "I still think it's a good film, because of the coup sequence. It should be seen as a Venezuelan '']''—biased, of course, but highly entertaining."<ref name="product" />
Introductory song: ''La Soga'' by ].


===Responsibility for violence===
==Awards and film festivals==
One of the film's key contentions is that the private media aired footage selectively to make it look like the violence of 11&nbsp;April was caused by Chávez's supporters, portraying them as an "irrational and uncivilized mob".<ref name="schiller 479">Schiller (2009), p. 479.</ref> Private television repeatedly showed Chávez's supporters on ] as they shot at Baralt Avenue below, an area purportedly full of opposition marchers.<ref name="gunson" /> The film says this footage was edited to show the gunmen but not the people near them who were ducking to avoid being shot. It follows with images taken from above the bridge showing an empty Baralt Avenue, claiming that "the opposition march had never taken that route" and that Chávez's supporters were only returning fire.<ref name="chapter 8" /> Gunson charges that this edit is itself a misrepresentation, stating that the film does not mention that both sets of marchers were fired upon, and taking issue with the implication that "coup plotters" were the shooters.<ref name="gunson" /> In response, the filmmakers say, "Nowhere in the film did we say that only were shot&nbsp;... Nobody can say with certainty who orchestrated the shootings."<ref name="respond" /> Gunson also asserts that the footage of the empty street was taken earlier that day, citing an "analysis of the shadows" by Schalk,<ref name="gunson" /> who created a counter-documentary, '']'', to examine ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' "scene by scene to uncover narrative strategies and use of artifice".<ref name="schiller 485" /> Brian A. Nelson agreed with the analysis, claiming that Baralt Avenue was not as empty as the film portrays and that the filmmakers "put a black bar at the top of the frame to hide the Metropolitan Police trucks that were still there".<ref name="nelson 265">Nelson (2009), p. 265.</ref> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain reaffirmed their claim that the opposition did not pass below the Puente Llaguno bridge, citing eyewitness statements—including one from '']''{{'}}s deputy editor—and an Australian documentary, ''Anatomy of a Coup'', that "came to conclusions similar to our own".<ref name="respond" /> A Venezuelan documentary, '']'', also supported Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain's view.<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 55.</ref>
{{Refimprove|date=February 2010}}


===Timeline and media depictions===
* Banff Rockie Award, ], Best Information & Current Affairs Program.
Other issues of contention include the lack of historical context; the film does not cover some of the events leading up to Chávez's ousting, including the long-running political crisis and the general strike. Gunson also criticizes the filmmakers for showing events out of order. In June 2002, they filmed an opposition community group as its members considered "how to defend themselves against possible&nbsp;... attacks" from Chávez's supporters.<ref name="gunson" /> In the film, this sequence is placed before the march. Bartley justified the action, saying that the residents' opinions were representative of those held "long before" the events of April 2002.<ref name="respond" /> Responding to the critique, the BBC added a date stamp to the sequence for the film's repeat broadcast.<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 51.</ref> Gunson also cites footage of Caracas mayor ] as he sings to a happy group of Chávez supporters in front of the palace. Later images of a "differently dressed Bernal" reveal that the footage was from another day.<ref name="gunson" /> Similarly, Gunson says that until shot at, "The opposition march was entirely peaceful."<ref name="gunson" /> The film presents footage of its "violent finale"—including an image from another day—as if it occurred during the protest's approach to the palace, accompanied by the narrated claim that "some in the vanguard looked ready for a fight".<ref name="gunson" /> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain admit that they included a "limited" amount of archive footage,<ref name="respond" /> but say it was a "legitimate reconstruction"<ref>Stoneman (2008), p. 48.</ref> to build context "before the core narrative of the coup off" as they "could not be everywhere filming at all times".<ref name="respond" />
* Grand Prize, Banf World Television Festival.
* ], Silver Hugo, Best Documentary.
* ] Golden Link Award.
* ], Seeds of War Award.
* International Documentary Association, IDA Award, Feature Documentaries.
* ], Audience Award.
* ], TV Documentary - Current Affairs.
* ], Documentary Award.
* Seattle International Film Festival.<ref name=TV />


''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' claims that state television was "the only channel to which had access", but does not mention that during the violence he requisitioned "all radio and TV frequencies" to broadcast his two-hour address.<ref name="gunson" /> Private television circumvented the rules allowing this action by splitting the screen, showing Chávez's address on one side and footage of the violence on the other.<ref name="gunson" /> Chávez subsequently took television stations ] and ] off the air.<ref name="estrenan">{{in lang|es}} Linzalata, Ernesto (31 July 2004). {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710184552/http://caracas.eluniversal.com/2004/07/31/imp_til_art_31257A.shtml |date=10 July 2011 }}. ''El Universal''.</ref> The film's assertion that VTV was taken over by opposition "plotters" is also disputed; according to ''X-Ray of a Lie'' and Gunson, staff left willingly.<ref name="gunson" /><ref name="estrenan" /> Gunson further alleges that footage of VTV's signal being cut—mid-interview with a government legislator—was fabricated.<ref name="gunson" /> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain say they witnessed ministers' being unable to broadcast and that the ] corroborated their claim that opposition forces took over VTV.<ref name="respond" /> The film also presents footage of armored vehicles around the palace, which Gunson says were there at the request of the president, not the opposition. He also challenges the film for presenting Chávez's supporters as "invariably poor, brown-skinned, and cheerful" and the opposition as "rich, white, racist, and violent".<ref name="gunson" /> He says that the opposition protests were multiracial and that armed government supporters "made the center of Caracas a no-go area".<ref name="gunson" /> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain cite several commentators who uphold the claim that Chávez's supporters "were broadly poor and dark-skinned and the opposition broadly white and middle class", including Gunson himself in an April 2002 article in '']''.<ref name="respond" /> Gunson does agree that the film was right to point out that the private media "behaved disgracefully" by "systematically viewpoint from print, radio, and TV" during the period of the coup.<ref name="gunson" />
''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' won twelve awards at film festivals and was nominated for another four.<ref name=TV></ref><ref name=COUP>{{Failed verification|date=February 2010}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=February 2010}} Among those prizes were the ''Silver Hugo'' award for the ''Best Documentary'' in the ] (2003), the ''Banff Rockie Award '' as ''Best Information & Current Affairs Program''
at the ] (2003) and the ''International Documentary Association's'' ''IDA Award'' (2003).<ref name=TV />


===Military involvement===
Due to opposition pressure, ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' was withdrawn from an ] film festival in Vancouver in November 2003. The decision to withdraw the film was taken because of threats to the physical safety of Amnesty staff in Caracas if the film was shown in the festival. Bartley and Ó Briain stated that "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."<ref name="guardian20031122">{{Cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/22/film.venezuela|title=Chavez film puts staff at risk, says Amnesty|accessdate=2008-06-15|publisher=]|year=2003-11-22|first=Duncan|last=Campbell}}</ref>
Of greater concern, Gunson says, is the "deliberate blurring of responsibility for the coup".<ref name="gunson" /> The film presents the idea that the military commanders dispersed, "leaving a total power vacuum".<ref name="gunson" /> However, the high command's senior figure, General ] (who announced Chávez's resignation on television), was not part of the coup and remained in the government after April 2002.<ref name="gunson" /> The petition draws the conclusion, "(1) either General Rincón stated a truth that was accepted throughout the whole country&nbsp;... or (2) General Rincón lied, because he was an accomplice&nbsp;... that seems not to be the truth because he ."<ref name="stoneman 56">Stoneman (2008), p. 56.</ref> Only one of the high command joined Carmona's interim administration before contributing to its downfall by withdrawing his support. The military leaders shown withdrawing their support for Chávez were not the high command, and Vice-Admiral Hector Ramirez Perez was not the head of the navy, as the film claims. Gunson says, "With one solitary exception, these generals and admirals had not 'fled abroad' after the Carmona government collapsed."<ref name="gunson" /> Although Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain accept that Rincón said Chávez "had agreed to resign",<ref name="stoneman 56" /> they reiterate that "elements in the military force in the effort to make Chávez resign"; the filmmakers say it is "irrelevant" that the whole military did not join the coup, as this "is the case with most coups".<ref name="respond" /> General Rincón's announcement was omitted because they felt it was "supplementary to the main, key fact of the story",<ref name="gunson" /> that no documentary evidence of the resignation exists.<ref name="stoneman 56" />


===''X-Ray of a Lie''===
The annual IDFA, ], gives an acclaimed filmmaker the chance to screen his or her personal Top 10 favorite films. In 2007, Iranian filmmaker ] selected ''The Revolution will not be Televised'' for his top ten classics from the history of documentary.{{Dead link|date=February 2010}}<ref name="idfa">{{Dead link|date=February 2010}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.idfa.nl/en/extra/search/film.aspx?id=15090|title=The Revolution Will Not Be Televised|accessdate=2007-11-09|year=2007}}</ref>
Schalk investigated ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' for five months.<ref name="atrisk" /> Along with producer {{ill|Thaelman Urguelles|es}}, he was commissioned by the Federation of Venezuelan Movie Directors to "produce a response",<ref name=Clark>Clark, AC (2009). ''The Revolutionary Has No Clothes: Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Farce''. Encounter Books. p.&nbsp;91. {{ISBN|978-1-59403-259-2}}.</ref> and in 2004 they created the documentary '']'', which set out to expose its "manipulation".<ref name=VenezuelanNets>De La Fuente, Anna Marie (15 June 2007). . '']''.</ref> Schalk said the film "presented a distorted version of events&nbsp;... to fit a story that appeals to audiences". Schalk is associated with the Venezuelan opposition;<ref name="atrisk" /> Bartley and Ó&nbsp;Briain say that it is "not insignificant that Schalk has led the well-resourced campaign, linked to , to discredit and suppress ".<ref name="respond" />


===''Chavez: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised''===
== References ==
In 2008, Stoneman published ''Chavez: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – A Case Study of Politics and the Media''. A book "of film studies rather than politics", it nevertheless looks in detail at the petition's arguments.<ref name="product" /> Stoneman "broadly absolves" the filmmakers; he concludes, "There were some relatively small examples of slippage in the grammar of the piece, but overall the film was made with honesty and integrity. Of the 18 objections made, 15, if not 17, were wrong. The filmmakers spent a long time assembling evidence to show why they'd done what they'd done in the film and mostly it's true."<ref name="product" /> Stoneman conceded that the filmmakers' '']'' approach meant that for wider historical and political context, viewers should look elsewhere. Stoneman received an "Executive Producer" credit on the film, which he explains as an unasked-for gratuity that came by virtue of his position as head of BSÉ.<ref name="product" />
{{reflist|2}}


==Further reading== ==Reception==
* {{cite book |title= The Silence and the Scorpion: The Coup Against Chavez and the Making of Modern Venezuela |author=Nelson, Brian |publisher= Nation Books |year= 2009 |isbn= 1568584180}}
* {{cite journal |title= Framing the Revolution: Circulation and Meaning of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised |author= Schiller, Naomi | doi= 10.1080/15205430903237832 |journal =
Mass Communication and Society |volume= 12 |issue= 4 |date= October 2009 | pages= 478–502}}


===Critical response===
== External links ==
{{Rotten Tomatoes data|prose|consensus=The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is as persuasive and engrossing as it is unapologetically biased.|ref=yes}} {{Metacritic film prose|score=81|count=23|ref=yes|access-date=28 May 2022}} Almost all local and national film critics in the United States said the film presented a "riveting narrative", but conceded that it was a biased account of the events.<ref name="schiller 488" />
* {{Amg movie|288243|The Revolution Will Not Be Televised}}
* {{imdb title|0363510|The Revolution Will Not Be Televised}}
*


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{{Topics related to Hugo Chávez}}
|style="text-align: left;"|"''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' gets viewers inside these tense, emotional and occasionally terrifying events with immediacy and, given the confusion of the time, remarkable clarity. Bartley and O'Briain are clearly Chavez supporters—their glowing portrait of this controversial leader is never punctuated by critical questions about his policies or methods. But the filmmakers' biases don't stop ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' from being riveting drama."
{{RTEp}}
|-
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|style="text-align: left;"|—Ann Hornaday, writing in ''The Washington Post''<ref>Hornaday, Ann (12 December 2003). "In Venezuela, A Filmmaking, & Political, Coup". '']''.</ref>
]
|}
]
Frank Scheck, writing in '']'', said the film presented an enthralling story that "resembles a taut&nbsp;... political thriller",<ref name="shenk">Shenk, Frank (1 April 2003). "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". '']''.</ref> and ] in the '']'' called it a "remarkable documentary" full of "astonishing shots".<ref name="ebert">] (31 October 2003). . '']''.</ref> Both critics said the film was made so through the filmmakers' unique inside access to the events at the palace with Ebert calling that aspect "unique in film history".<ref name="shenk" /><ref name="ebert" /> Although Ebert was generally very praising of the film, he criticised the way in which Chávez's opponents were portrayed,<ref name="ebert" /> while Shenk faulted the lack of historical context; however, he said this was balanced by the film's "brevity and succinctness".<ref name="shenk" /> In '']'', Scott Foundas wrote that the film was a "superior example of fearless filmmakers in exactly the right place at the right time", and likely the best of a string of documentaries that have shone the light on US involvement in South America.<ref name="foundas" /> He had praise for the camera work and editing, and said the film was a "startling record" that reached "another level" when events shifted to the presidential palace.<ref name="foundas" /> He cited these scenes—along with those of the protesters' clashing—as ones that "spark with a vibrant tension and uncertainty".<ref name="foundas">Foundas, Scott (10 July 2003). {{dead link|date=November 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}. ''Variety''.</ref>
]

]
] of '']'' said the film was a "gripping" account that did "an excellent job in deconstructing the Venezuelan TV news footage of blood, chaos, and rival crowds", and said it was "nearly a textbook on ]".<ref>] (4 November 2003). {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511024649/http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0345%2Choberman2%2C48373%2C20.html |date=11 May 2008 }}. '']''.</ref> Writing for '']'', ] said the film was "a riveting documentary" that delivered "the suspense of a smaller-scale '']''", citing the way in which it examined how television can be used to "deceive and manipulate the public".<ref name="holden" /> He reproached the film's uncritical depiction of Chávez, and how it hinted at CIA involvement without presenting any proof.<ref name="holden">] (5 November 2003). . ''The New York Times''.</ref> ] in '']'' called the film "our best chance" to find out what really happened on 11–13&nbsp;April, but cautioned that the filmmakers' "pro-Chávez stance" meant that for wider context audiences should look elsewhere, as it left out too much of Chávez's record.<ref name="burr" /> Burr also said the film's attempt to make the US into a villain was ineffective. He said, "because view the chasm that divides Venezuela purely in the context of the Cold War and Latin American political instability, they downplay the class warfare that's exploding right in front of them."<ref name="burr" /> Nevertheless, Burr concluded that the film's narrow focus remained engrossing.<ref name="burr">] (6 February 2004). . '']''.</ref>

Desson Thomson of '']'' stated that the film successfully reproduced the "panic and fear" at the palace as events unfolded, saying it came across like a "raw, ]-style thriller" that was "worth watching down to the last thrilling minute".<ref name="thomson" /> He said that knowing how uncertain Venezuela's future was made the film even more powerful. Thomson believed the handheld video was put to good use, calling its "news-breaking immediacy&nbsp;... intoxicating".<ref name="thomson" /> He concluded, "''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' is an extraordinary piece of electronic history. And a riveting movie."<ref name="thomson">Thomson, Desson (12 December 2003). . ''The Washington Post''. {{ProQuest|409674979}}</ref> In the '']'', Brett Sokol agreed that the film was "never less than thrilling", but said that as history, it was "strictly agitprop".<ref name="sokol">Sokol, Brett (27 November 2003). . '']''.</ref> Similarly, Mark Jenkins wrote in the '']'' that the film was "unapologetically polemical", but "notable foremost as a gripping you-are-there account".<ref>Jenkins, Mark (26 December 2003). "The Bigger Picture Show". '']''.</ref>

===Accolades===
The film won several awards in 2003–04. It was also nominated for Best Documentary and Best Irish Film at the ].<ref>Staff (15 October 2003). {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002131209/http://www.irishfilmboard.ie/irish_film_industry/news/IFB_BACKED_PROJECTS_RECEIVE_OVER_70_IFTA_NOMINATIONS/121 |date=2 October 2011 }}. Irish Film Board. Retrieved 25&nbsp;March 2010.</ref> The annual ] gives an acclaimed filmmaker the chance to screen his or her Top 10 films. In 2007, Iranian filmmaker ] selected ''The Revolution will not be Televised'' for his top ten classics from the history of films.<ref name="idfa">{{in lang|nl}} {{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. ]. Retrieved 3&nbsp;March 2010. "Het is een van de films uit de Top 10 van filmmaker en journalist Maziar Bahari (Teheran, 1967), sinds 2000 vaste IDFA-gast&nbsp;...''The Revolution will not be Televised'', Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Brian (Ierland, 2003)."</ref>
{| align="center" width=94% style="text-align:center; font-size:87%; clear:both"
! style="background-color: #DBDABA; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" | <span style="font-size: small;">'''Film organization'''</span><br/>
! style="background-color: #F5F5EC; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" | <span style="font-size: small;">'''Award won'''</span><br/>
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Best Information and Current Affairs Program<br />
Grand Prize<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807131750/http://www.irishfilmboard.ie/awards/?year=2003&next=1 |date=7 August 2011 }}. ]. Retrieved 24&nbsp;March 2010.</ref>
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Silver Hugo<ref name="nyawards" />
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!style="background-color: #DBDABA; font-size: small;"|ESB Media Awards
|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Best Documentary<br />
Journalist of the Year<ref name="power" />
|-
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Golden Link Award (Best Co-Production)<ref name="rte awards">Staff (7 December 2007). {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090727063727/http://www.rte.ie/about/awards/page1176372.html |date=27 July 2009 }}. ]. Retrieved 25 March 2010.</ref>
|-
!style="background-color: #DBDABA; font-size: small;"|Galway Film Fleadh
|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Best Documentary<ref name="power" />
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Best International Feature Documentary<ref name="power">. ScreenWest. Retrieved 25&nbsp;March 2010.</ref>
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Best Feature Documentary (shared with '']'')<ref>Kay, Jeremy (3 December 2003). . Screen Daily. ]. Retrieved 24&nbsp;March 2010.</ref>
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Audience Award<ref>Halligan, Benjamin (October 2003). "Leeds International Film Festival, 2003". '']''. ] .</ref>
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!style="background-color: #DBDABA; font-size: small;"|Los Angeles Wine & Country Festival
|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Best Documentary<ref name="power" />
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Best International Feature Documentary<ref name="power" />
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Golden Nymph Award (Best European Current Affairs Documentary)<ref name="power" />
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Excellence in Television Broadcasting<ref>, May 2004.</ref>
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Television Documentary<ref name="rte awards" />
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|style="background-color: #F5F5EC;" |
Best Documentary<ref name="nyawards" />
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==References==
{{Portal|Film|Venezuela}}
'''Annotations'''
{{reflist|group="nb"|30em}}

'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
{{refbegin}}
*Bartley, Kim; Ó&nbsp;Briain, Donnacha (2003). ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised''. . (], Ireland: Power Pictures).
*Nelson, Brian A. (2009). '']'' (New York: ]). {{ISBN|978-1-56858-418-8}}.
*Schiller, Naomi (October 2009). "Framing the Revolution: Circulation and Meaning of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". ''Mass Communication and Society'' (Philadelphia, PA: ]) '''12''' (4), pp.&nbsp;478–502. ]:. ] .
*Stoneman, Rod (2008). ''Chavez: The Revolution Will Not be Televised – A Case Study of Politics and the Media'' (London: Wallflower Press). {{ISBN|978-1-905674-74-9}}.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* {{official website|http://www.vitagraphfilms.com/films.htm|The Revolution Will Not Be Televised}}
* {{IMDb title|0363510|The Revolution Will Not Be Televised}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|id=revolution_will_not_be_televised|title=The Revolution Will Not Be Televised}}
* {{mojo title|id=revolutionwillnotbetelevised|title=The Revolution Will Not Be Televised}}


{{topics related to Hugo Chávez}}
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Latest revision as of 20:34, 11 November 2024

2003 documentary about Venezuelan coup

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Theatrical release poster
Directed byKim Bartley
Donnacha Ó Briain
Produced byDavid Power
StarringHugo Chávez
Pedro Carmona
Jesse Helms
Colin Powell
George Tenet
Narrated byDonnacha Ó Briain
CinematographyKim Bartley
Donnacha Ó Briain
Edited byÁngel Hernández Zoido
Production
company
Power Pictures
Distributed byVitagraph Films (US)
Release date
  • 2003 (2003)
Running timeChavez: Inside the Coup
52 minutes
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
74 minutes
CountryIreland
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish
Budget€200,000
Box office$200,000 (€171,000)

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Spanish: La revolución no será transmitida), also known as Chávez: Inside the Coup, is a 2003 Irish documentary film. It focuses on events in Venezuela leading up to and during the April 2002 coup d'état attempt, which saw President Hugo Chávez removed from office for two days. With particular emphasis on the role played by Venezuela's private media, the film examines several key incidents: the protest march and subsequent violence that provided the impetus for Chávez's ousting; the opposition's formation of an interim government headed by business leader Pedro Carmona; and the Carmona administration's collapse, which paved the way for Chávez's return. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was directed by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain. Given direct access to Chávez, the filmmakers intended to make a fly-on-the-wall biography of the president. They spent seven months filming in Venezuela, following Chávez and his staff and interviewing ordinary citizens. As the coup unfolded on 11 April, Bartley and Ó Briain filmed on the streets of the capital, Caracas, capturing footage of protesters and the erupting violence. Later, they filmed many of the political upheavals inside Miraflores, the presidential palace.

Bartley and Ó Briain conceived of the film after Bartley returned from documenting the aftermath of the 1999 Vargas mudslides for an Irish charity. Following a visit to Venezuela to determine the feasibility of a film project, the pair formed a production company and applied to Ireland's film board, Bord Scannán na hÉireann (BSÉ), for a development grant. At BSÉ's request, the filmmakers partnered with a more experienced producer and shot a short pilot to show to potential investors. Funding for the €200,000 production was provided by BSÉ and several European broadcasters. Bartley and Ó Briain shot more than 200 hours of material; editing focused on identifying footage that would make the film entertaining and drive the plot. It was at this stage that the film's coverage narrowed to concentrate more on the coup attempt.

The film was positively received by mainstream film critics and won several awards. Reviewers cited the filmmakers' unprecedented proximity to key events and praised the film for its "riveting narrative"; criticism focused on its lack of context and pro-Chávez bias. First shown on television in Europe and Venezuela in 2003, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised later appeared at film festivals and secured a limited theatrical release on the art house circuit. Independent activists held unofficial screenings, and Venezuelan government officials encouraged its circulation to build support for Chávez's administration. The film is regularly shown on Venezuelan television, and in the capital it is often broadcast during "contentious political conjunctures". The Revolution Will Not Be Televised paints Chávez in a favorable light, which has led to disputes over its neutrality and accuracy; particular attention is paid to its framing of the violence of 11–13 April, the filmmakers' editing of the timeline, and the omission of incidents and personnel. The film is variously cited as an accurate portrayal or a misrepresentation of the events of April 2002.

Background

Further information: History of Venezuela and Media representation of Hugo Chávez § Coverage of the 2002 coup

Throughout much of the twentieth century, Venezuela was beset by political, civil and military unrest. After Juan Vicente Gómez's long reign as president ended in 1935, a series of military rulers followed, concluding with Marcos Pérez Jiménez's overthrow by general uprising in 1958. Although the military remained influential, Venezuela's government has since been chosen by civilians through democratic processes. Until 1998, the dominant political parties were Acción Democrática and COPEI, who shared seven presidencies between them. In 1989, during the second term in office for Acción Democrática's Carlos Andrés Pérez, Venezuela was hit by a severe economic crisis. A wave of protests known as the Caracazo engulfed the country and dozens were killed in rioting.

tbc
Hugo Chávez in 2003

Hugo Chávez, then a Lieutenant Colonel in the army, had formed a secret revolutionary group (MBR-200) in the early 1980s and was planning a "rebellious intervention". He later felt the Caracazo was a missed opportunity for his movement. Three years later, Chávez saw another chance; in February 1992, he led an unsuccessful military coup d'état and was imprisoned. A second coup attempt, without his involvement, also failed. Chávez enjoyed some popular support for his actions. Released from prison in 1994, he recast his revolutionary group as a legitimate socialist political party, the Fifth Republic Movement. The movement adopted former Venezuelan leader Simón Bolívar as its "iconic hero" and "reference point"; Bolívar had played a key role in Latin America's successful struggle for independence from Spain in the 1820s. In the 1998 presidential election, Chávez won 56.2% of the vote, on a promise to "end the corruption of several decades" and institute a new Bolivarian Revolution that he felt would secure Latin America's true independence from the outside world.

Chávez strengthened his support among the poor with a series of social initiatives known as the Bolivarian Missions, and created a network of grass-roots workers' councils, the Bolivarian Circles. Nevertheless, by early 2002, Venezuela was "embroiled ... in a severe political crisis" as Chávez sought to bring more of the country's vast oil wealth under state control. Although the state-owned radio and television stations remained staunch advocates of Chávez's stated policies—to redistribute the nation's wealth to the poorest—the private media was more hostile. The crisis reached a head when Chávez attempted to remove the management of the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), provoking a showdown. "Oil managers, business leaders, and large segments of organized labor" called a general strike. The strike was backed by a large segment of the population, "particularly the country's increasingly impoverished middle class" and army officers upset at the increasing politicization of the military.

On 11 April 2002, hundreds of thousands of people marched in protest against the government. Abandoning their planned route, the marchers advanced towards the palace, a path that took them close to government supporters who had come out in opposition to the protest. Journalist Phil Gunson wrote, "Shooting broke out on all sides. A score of civilians died and more than 150 suffered gunshot wounds. The military high command called for Chávez to resign, and at 3:20 the next morning they announced he had agreed to do so. The presidency was assumed by a business leader, Pedro Carmona Estanga, but his government collapsed in less than forty-eight hours and Chávez returned to power."

Synopsis

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised opens in 2001 with footage of Chávez as he tours the country. Met with "popular enthusiasm", he speaks at rallies, decrying neoliberalism and the international community's attacks on his character. The film outlines Chávez's rise to power, before covering his day-to-day routine and appearances on his television show, Aló Presidente, which includes a phone-in for citizens to speak with the president. Chávez outlines his aspiration to be seen as a modern-day Bolívar. Clips from Venezuelan and United States news reports demonstrate a "relentless campaign" against the president.

Interviews with communities from both sides of the political divide indicate how Chávez is seen by the rich and poor. The latter support his stated aim to redistribute the country's oil wealth; the former fear totalitarianism and are worried Chávez will institute communism. In February 2002, the media war intensifies after Chavez takes control of PDVSA. The film states that the company was previously run as a private interest for the benefit of a minority, despite being state-owned. Business leader Pedro Carmona and union boss Carlos Ortega are the main voices of the opposition. After the pair visit Washington, D.C., the CIA and the State Department express concern about Chávez's rule and stress the importance of Venezuela's oil. A Venezuelan general appears on private television to voice similar disquiet. Carmona appeals for a public protest at the offices of PDVSA.

On 11 April, opposition protesters begin their march outside PDVSA's headquarters in Caracas; Chávez's supporters gather outside the presidential palace. The protest route is changed to take it to the palace; shots ring out and civilians are killed. The private media blames Chávez's supporters, citing footage that shows them shooting at opposition protesters from a bridge. The narration states, "What the TV stations didn't broadcast was , which clearly shows that the streets below were empty. The opposition march had never taken that route." Later, the state television signal is cut; rumors circulate that the opposition has taken over the studio. At the palace, members of the military high command demand Chávez's resignation, threatening to bomb the building. The president refuses to resign, but submits to their custody. He is led away, and Carmona announces on television that a transitional government will be established.

On 12 April, opposition leaders appear on private television, where they disclose their plan to unseat Chávez. Carmona is sworn in as president while images play of unrest on the streets. Defying media censorship, Chávez's supporters disseminate the story that the president did not resign. On 13 April, they gather to protest outside Miraflores, while palace guards plot to retake the building. The guards take up key positions and, at a prearranged signal, take members of the new government prisoner. The state television channel is relaunched and urges the army to back Chávez. "Full military control" is returned to the Chávez administration and the president arrives at the palace amid celebratory scenes. Chávez makes an address in which he says it is fine to oppose him, but not the Constitution of Venezuela. The closing titles say Carmona fled to Miami while under house arrest, and that Ortega went into hiding, only reappearing to help lead the opposition after Chávez said there would be no repercussions. Most of the dissident generals, after being expelled from the army, fled to the US. Others remained as part of the opposition.

Production

Development

In December 1999, independent Irish filmmaker Kim Bartley visited Venezuela as part of Concern Worldwide's emergency response team, to document the aftermath of the 1999 Vargas mudslides that had devastated much of Vargas State in the north of the country. Bartley become fascinated with how those affected by the tragedy perceived Chávez, and in late 2000, she and Donnacha Ó Briain—a filmmaker and former colleague who shared her interest in "Latin American politics and issues around globalization"—spent two weeks in Caracas to determine the feasibility of a film project. The pair formed a production company, Runway Films, and in January 2001 applied to Ireland's film board, Bord Scannán na hÉireann (BSÉ), for a development grant. Bartley and Ó Briain proposed a fly-on-the-wall documentary, a "personal profile and intimate portrait" of Chávez that would be "broadly supportive" of him. During their 2000 visit, the filmmakers had sensed that "something genuinely was happening" in Caracas, and felt an urgency to get the project underway; even so, it wasn't until April 2001 that BSÉ approved the £6000 (€9500) grant.

The project was at this point named Aló Presidente, a working title taken from Chávez's weekly television and radio program. BSÉ set about exploring avenues of funding; the organization persuaded Bartley and Ó Briain to make a short pilot to show to potential investors, but refused the filmmakers' application for a €60,000 grant towards their €131,000 production budget. BSÉ felt the pair needed to partner with a production company that had experience in the field, and which could help raise the remaining funds. Bartley and Ó Briain approached Power Pictures and, with the addition of David Power as a producer, reapplied for the grant. Even as filming began, the full budget—now at €200,000—had not been secured. David Power pitched the project at several documentary festivals and markets. At Dublin's Stranger Than Fiction festival in September 2001, the BBC, S4C and Channel 4 declined to invest. Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) expressed interest in providing development funds; no such deal was made, but RTÉ did offer €10,000 (subsequently €20,000) for the Irish broadcast rights. In October, the Dutch broadcaster Nederlandse Programma Stichting also committed €10,000. At a November market in Amsterdam, Power once again approached the BBC and was turned down, as the organization believed the film's subject was "too far away to be relevant to lives". However, RTÉ's Kevin Dawson pushed the film at a European Broadcasting Union pitching session, securing the interest of German television channel ZDF, which subsequently provided funds. In late 2001, BSÉ finally approved a production grant of €63,000.

Filming

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Bartley and Ó Briain captured much of their footage outside and inside the Palacio de Miraflores in Caracas.

In 2000, Bartley and Ó Briain had been promised "exclusive access" to Chávez by the government's Minister of Communications. They arrived in Venezuela in September 2001. While filming the pilot they met the president, after which they reconsidered their approach. Bartley explained, "We had ... this notion of investigating Chávez—was he a demagogue? Was the media persona just that? What makes him tick? My sense had changed as we got closer; what we're seeing here is a guy who is motivated, driven, not the demagogue with another side, drinking, carousing. I began to see him as more transparent—what you see is what you get." Bartley and Ó Briain began by attempting to build a relationship with Chávez that would allow them the access they required. At first, the president's staff treated the filmmakers with suspicion and made filming difficult. After numerous delays, Bartley and Ó Briain finally got through to Chávez. They calculated that they needed to "press the right buttons" to gain his support, so they presented him with an old edition of the memoirs of the general Daniel Florence O'Leary, who had fought alongside Simón Bolívar. Inside, they had written a quote from the Irish socialist playwright Seán O'Casey. Slowly, Bartley and Ó Briain gained their subjects' trust, "dissolving any self-consciousness as a result of their cameras".

Although ensconced with Chávez and his entourage, Bartley and Ó Briain felt a disconnect from the events of the outside world. During a "chaotic" road-trip with Chávez, they "knew something was coming", and divined that Chávez's trip was intended to bolster his support and "get people used to being on the streets". Chávez had recently "upped the ante" with the introduction of the Land Law. Increasing tensions further, in February 2002, Chávez took control of PDVSA; the private media stepped up its criticism of Chávez, which for Bartley and Ó Briain "marked the beginning of an exciting phase". By April 2002, Bartley and Ó Briain were in Caracas and spent much of their time filming at the presidential palace, following Chávez and his staff. As the 11 April crisis unfolded, Bartley and Ó Briain filmed outside the palace, first capturing footage of the demonstrations and subsequent violence, then events inside the palace during the afternoon, evening and early hours of 12 April. Through their previous contacts at the palace, Bartley and Ó Briain were able to continue filming without interference: "no one paid any attention to us—we just blended in." Later that day, Bartley and Ó Briain stayed away from the palace through fears for their safety. Unable to leave the country—the international airport was closed—the filmmakers instead took to the streets, "to document the repression were witnessing". At the same time, a press office cameraman was in the palace, "reluctant to lose his job despite the change in government". He filmed the formation of the interim government. When Bartley and Ó Briain returned to the palace on 13 April, the cameraman let them have his footage. They remained filming in Venezuela until July 2002, interviewing residents and recording "witness" accounts from those who had been present during the coup—ministers, security guards and journalists.

Editing

"While I'm editing a film, I never forget that it is entertainment ... Something that people are going to pay for to watch and thus make them think, laugh, or learn things they didn't know before. So you must never ever let them get bored. ... There are always hundreds of stories sleeping inside the material and you have to find them and wake them up. But you have to organise them in a way that they become entertainment."
—Editor Ángel Hernández Zoido

Using two digital video (DV) cameras, Bartley and Ó Briain shot over 200 hours of material on 300 DV tapes. They intended that editing take ten weeks; instead, it took six months. Rod Stoneman, BSÉ's CEO at the time, described the amount of footage compared to the film's final length as "exceptional". The 200:1 ratio was far above the norm for most documentaries, which usually have a ratio of 10:1 or 15:1. When the filmmakers returned to Ireland, they decided they needed an editor who spoke Spanish. Bartley remembered a documentary she had seen about baseball in Cuba, El juego de Cuba, so they hired its editor, Ángel Hernández Zoido. Zoido approached the film as if it were entertainment, feeling that the primary concern was to ensure the audience did not get bored. He tackled each scene the same way. After watching the rushes with Bartley and Ó Briain, Zoido asked them, "What do we want to tell in this scene?" He focused on two factors: how much information would be necessary to drive the plot, and provide an emotional core. Preferring to work alone, Zoido would then send the filmmakers from the edit suite. After Zoido completed the scene, the trio discussed whether those aims had been realized.

The large amount of footage, and the fact that the filmmakers were "in a sense ... looking at it for the first time", meant that the film's concept only became clear during editing. The events of 11–13 April gave it "a new dramatic centre", although Bartley and Ó Briain were keen that the film did not concentrate entirely on the coup. They had intended to include more historical and political context; it wasn't until late in post-production that the focus narrowed to include more emphasis on the media's role in Venezuelan politics. In October 2002, a two-hour "rough cut" was shown to Stoneman and Brendan McCarthy, BSÉ's head of Production and Development. This version included the "witness" accounts that Bartley and Ó Briain had captured after April 2002. Stoneman felt that these sequences reinforced the film's claims, but "diluted its originality". He argued that they be cut, and that to compensate, Bartley and Ó Briain should record a voice-over and place themselves more in the frame as witness-protagonists, ideas that the filmmakers initially resisted.

As editing progressed, budget shortfalls prevented BSÉ from finalizing contracts. The organization also restricted post-production funds to "limit exposure" in the event the project was not completed. Stoneman contacted a former colleague at the BBC, Nick Fraser, who had declined to help finance the film in 2001. Fraser was commissioning editor for the BBC's Storyville documentaries series. According to Stoneman, Fraser was "still undecided", having been told by the head of BBC Two that "we've done Chávez". Nevertheless, the BBC pre-purchased the film and in December 2002 received a rough cut. At the BBC's behest, the opening of the television version was made more dramatic. Fraser was unsure about the voice-over; he asked for a more "opinionated" narration that, according to Bartley, would "get the boot in". Although the BBC did not ask outright, Bartley's impression was that the organization wanted the film to be "against Chávez". Fraser later said he had asked for the filmmakers to "include with someone not a Chávez supporter". He also suggested that a more experienced director be employed to help edit the film. The filmmakers "made a few minor concessions", but resisted major edits. Ó Briain's voice-over in the final cut was "polished up but not significantly changed".

The filmmakers created two versions of the film. Chávez: Inside the Coup, intended for television broadcast, lasts 52 minutes. The feature-length The Revolution Will Not Be Televised—which takes its name from the Gil Scott-Heron song of the same name—is 74 minutes long.

Release

Television

Chávez: Inside the Coup aired on RTÉ One on 18 February 2003, as an installment of the channel's True Lives documentary series. The broadcast prompted a passionate public and critical response, and "lively debate" on radio and in newspapers; RTÉ soon arranged for a repeat broadcast. In the United Kingdom, it aired on BBC Two on 16 October 2003, as part of the channel's Storyville documentary strand, and on BBC Four on 18 November 2003. Chavez: Inside the Coup also aired in Canada, Japan, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark. The speed of the television broadcasts left a full theatrical run unlikely—a fact the filmmakers later regretted. The film also failed to be picked up by a television company in the US, although HBO was interested at one point. In Venezuela, La revolución no será transmitida premièred on 13 April 2003, on state television channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). It has since been shown regularly on Venezuelan television; the state-funded community station Catia TVe often broadcasts the film during "contentious political conjunctures", such as the 2004 recall referendum, the 2006 presidential election, and in 2007 to "help build support" for the government's controversial attempt to not renew the license of private television network RCTV.

Festivals and theatrical run

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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised had its commercial première at the New York City Film Forum in November 2003.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised screened at several film festivals in 2003, winning numerous awards. Beginning with the South by Southwest festival on 7 March, its festival appearances included the Banff World Television Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film, the Three Continents Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, the Monaco International Film Festival, the Galway Film Fleadh and the Los Angeles Wine & Country Festival. In March 2003, a VHS copy of the film screened to under 100 people as part of an American Cinematheque Irish film festival in Los Angeles. Among the viewers was the president of Vitagraph Films, David Schultz, who bought the rights for theatrical distribution and paid for the film to be converted from video. Schultz initially struggled to secure the support of exhibitors; they were skeptical of the film's commercial prospects, and believed "the environment was not hospitable" for a film critical of the US so close to the start of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. They only became receptive a few months later, when political perceptions shifted and the public became more aware of Venezuela because of its oil wealth. One such exhibitor was the Film Forum in New York City. Mike Maggiore, a programmer at the theater, worked to market the film and raise its profile with film critics. He created press kits and circulated information to appeal to "a particular audience".

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised premièred to the public at the Film Forum in November 2003. The showing was accompanied by protests outside the theater from supporters and detractors of the film, both of whom "attempted to influence audience reception". A few weeks previously, the film had been withdrawn from an Amnesty International film festival in Vancouver; staff at the organization's Caracas arm said they "feared for their safety if it were shown". The film's success at the 2003 Grierson Awards was also overshadowed by a letter to the Grierson jury from London-based Venezuelan filmmakers, who disputed its version of events. Opposition demonstrators at the Film Forum première attempted to throw doubt on the film's "impartiality, precision, veracity, editorial integrity, and ideological independence", while supporters "encouraged theatergoers to denounce censorship" and sign a petition. Opposition protests also greeted showings in Canada, Australia and France. The run at the Film Forum earned $26,495 (€22,600)—several thousand above Maggiore's expectations. After a limited run in theaters in six cities, the film had earned over $200,000 (€171,000), not quite profitable, but still considered "a significant sum for a documentary".

Informal distribution

Bartley and Ó Briain showed the film to Chávez in February 2003. They recalled his response as "quite emotional". BSÉ waived Venezuelan licensing fees for the film; on 13 April, it was screened simultaneously with the television broadcast at a cinema in Caracas, before which Chávez made a speech saying, "Watch this film and you will see the face of the coup." Pro-Chávez activists also distributed the film unofficially. The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador screened the film in New York City, where Bolivarian Circle members "accepted donations" for bootleg copies. El Universal said the Venezuelan government had 10,000 copies made, and according to National Review, the Venezuela Information Office (VIO) "encouraged art-house theaters" to screen the film. Government representatives aided the film's distribution officially and unofficially. Venezuelan filmmaker Wolfgang Schalk said the film counted on the worldwide support of Venezuelan embassies and a public relations effort to show the film free at universities and theaters in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Peace Action New York was given permission for a screening during a fund raiser in the Lincoln Center, where 250 people paid $35 (€30) each to see the film and take part in a "question-and-answer session" with guests such as Leonor Granado, the Venezuelan Consul General. The consulate office made DVDs of the film available to "anyone who wanted a copy", as Granado said the film was vital to "building support in for the Venezuelan government".

Journalist Michael McCaughan invited a group of people who held anti-Chávez views to a screening of the film. He said some among the audience changed their opinion of Chávez after seeing it, although many remained hostile. McCaughan said the consensus opinion was that the film was "'excellent' and reasonably objective", but that "Chávez remained a dictator leading the country to a totalitarian grave". As of 2006, groups such as Global Exchange were arranging tours to Venezuela that included a screening of the film.

Analysis

Disputed accuracy

In Venezuela, debate about The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is "often acrimonious". The film has become key to framing people's understanding of the events of April 2002. The previously accepted international view was that Chávez's ousting came from a "spontaneous popular response" to the repression of his regime; the film "directly contradicts" this position, and since its release it has rapidly become "the prevailing interpretation of ". The film's critics charge that it omits or misrepresents important events. Much of the criticism is centered on the filmmakers' "use of stock devices", such as compositing clips from several events to present them as one incident. Parallel editing also depicts sequences as if they occurred at the same time, when some of the footage was captured on different days. Bartley and Ó Briain justify these methods as standard practice in the construction of documentary realist films. Caracas-based journalist Phil Gunson, writing in Columbia Journalism Review, says that most of the film critics who embraced the film ignored "the complex, messy reality" of the situation. He charges that the filmmakers "omit key facts, invent others, twist the sequence of events to support their case, and replace inconvenient images with others dredged from archives". Bartley and Ó Briain argue that Gunson's points are "issues of dispute" that "continue to divide opinion" in Venezuela. Author Brian A. Nelson says that Bartley and Ó Briain—in their initial meeting with Chávez—did more than merely invoke the Irish general Daniel O'Leary to gain the president's support for filming; Nelson alleges that they offered to portray the president positively in return for open access, with a "you scratch my back if I scratch yours" understanding that he says was ultimately reflected in the film's "unabashed pro-Chavismo."

BBC and Ofcom investigations

"Controversy and contention began to build around , with a high level of complaints and responses reaching organisers, distributors and curators, culminating in the publication of articles, a petition and formal complaints. ... From the point of view of those who opposed Chávez, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised 'constitutes the main weapon of the Venezuelan government to disseminate internationally a biased, manipulated and lying version of what happens .'"
—Rod Stoneman, former CEO of BSÉ

Soon after the film's October 2003 broadcast on BBC Two, Venezuelan engineer and filmmaker Wolfgang Schalk began a campaign against The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, representing El Gusano de Luz ("The Worm of Light"), an organization associated with the Venezuelan opposition. In July, Schalk had complained to RTÉ about its broadcast of the film. On 21 October, El Gusano de Luz published a "detailed critique" as part of an internet petition that attracted 11,000 signatories, 85% of whom self-identified as Venezuelan. Directed at the European broadcasters that financed and aired the film, the petition said in part, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is being presented as an author's film, as an objective journalistic research film, while it is really a very well plotted and accomplished propaganda operation, supported logistically by the Venezuelan government, with the aim of misleading unprepared spectators of countries who do not know the totality of events." The petition submitted 18 specific points of contention with the film. Venezuelan private television soon aired two programs "dissecting and denouncing" the film, and similar newspaper articles followed.

Much of the anger about the film stemmed from its high-profile internationally; that it had been "blessed with the imprimatur of the BBC ... with its connotations of fair and authoritative reporting" only made matters worse. John Burns, writing in The Sunday Times, restated many of Gunson's arguments, and the BBC received 4,000 e-mails demanding that Storyville's commissioning editor, Nick Fraser, be sacked. Toward the end of 2003, the weight of criticism forced the BBC to act. The corporation's complaints unit opened an investigation, and Fraser said the BBC would not show the film again until it had concluded. He wrote to David Power expressing particular concern over an error with the end titles and the use of out-of-chronology footage, saying the latter was "a real problem—particularly ... since it has been used in a film dedicated to exposing the frauds of Venezuelan TV". The furor came at a difficult time for the corporation, which was under the spotlight of the Hutton Inquiry, the official investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly; the BBC had been criticized for reporting that intelligence dossiers had been "sexed up" by the UK government to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The petition's claims were also taken up by the UK's independent telecommunications regulator, Ofcom. The body investigated official protests made by several Caracas residents. The concerns largely focused on footage of the residents' attending a neighborhood meeting in June 2002, which was positioned in the film as a prelude to the April coup attempt. The residents said that the filmmakers had used footage of them without consent and that the film had misrepresented their views. In September 2005, Ofcom provisionally ruled that it had not upheld the complaints, citing the BBC's internal review and rebuttal as grounds. A subsequent appeal by the residents was unsuccessful. Two weeks after Ofcom's initial ruling, the BBC announced it had closed the complaint and that no further investigations would take place. Stoneman believed the BBC had overreacted, saying its guardedness was merely a product of being a frequent victim of press attacks on its ethos. Fraser said, "The film was very good in many respects, but also misleading." He believed the filmmakers considered Chávez honorable, but having written a book on Peronism was more skeptical himself. Fraser concluded, "I still think it's a good film, because of the coup sequence. It should be seen as a Venezuelan West Wing—biased, of course, but highly entertaining."

Responsibility for violence

One of the film's key contentions is that the private media aired footage selectively to make it look like the violence of 11 April was caused by Chávez's supporters, portraying them as an "irrational and uncivilized mob". Private television repeatedly showed Chávez's supporters on Puente Llaguno as they shot at Baralt Avenue below, an area purportedly full of opposition marchers. The film says this footage was edited to show the gunmen but not the people near them who were ducking to avoid being shot. It follows with images taken from above the bridge showing an empty Baralt Avenue, claiming that "the opposition march had never taken that route" and that Chávez's supporters were only returning fire. Gunson charges that this edit is itself a misrepresentation, stating that the film does not mention that both sets of marchers were fired upon, and taking issue with the implication that "coup plotters" were the shooters. In response, the filmmakers say, "Nowhere in the film did we say that only were shot ... Nobody can say with certainty who orchestrated the shootings." Gunson also asserts that the footage of the empty street was taken earlier that day, citing an "analysis of the shadows" by Schalk, who created a counter-documentary, X-Ray of a Lie, to examine The Revolution Will Not Be Televised "scene by scene to uncover narrative strategies and use of artifice". Brian A. Nelson agreed with the analysis, claiming that Baralt Avenue was not as empty as the film portrays and that the filmmakers "put a black bar at the top of the frame to hide the Metropolitan Police trucks that were still there". Bartley and Ó Briain reaffirmed their claim that the opposition did not pass below the Puente Llaguno bridge, citing eyewitness statements—including one from Le Monde Diplomatique's deputy editor—and an Australian documentary, Anatomy of a Coup, that "came to conclusions similar to our own". A Venezuelan documentary, Puente Llaguno: Claves de una Masacre, also supported Bartley and Ó Briain's view.

Timeline and media depictions

Other issues of contention include the lack of historical context; the film does not cover some of the events leading up to Chávez's ousting, including the long-running political crisis and the general strike. Gunson also criticizes the filmmakers for showing events out of order. In June 2002, they filmed an opposition community group as its members considered "how to defend themselves against possible ... attacks" from Chávez's supporters. In the film, this sequence is placed before the march. Bartley justified the action, saying that the residents' opinions were representative of those held "long before" the events of April 2002. Responding to the critique, the BBC added a date stamp to the sequence for the film's repeat broadcast. Gunson also cites footage of Caracas mayor Freddy Bernal as he sings to a happy group of Chávez supporters in front of the palace. Later images of a "differently dressed Bernal" reveal that the footage was from another day. Similarly, Gunson says that until shot at, "The opposition march was entirely peaceful." The film presents footage of its "violent finale"—including an image from another day—as if it occurred during the protest's approach to the palace, accompanied by the narrated claim that "some in the vanguard looked ready for a fight". Bartley and Ó Briain admit that they included a "limited" amount of archive footage, but say it was a "legitimate reconstruction" to build context "before the core narrative of the coup off" as they "could not be everywhere filming at all times".

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised claims that state television was "the only channel to which had access", but does not mention that during the violence he requisitioned "all radio and TV frequencies" to broadcast his two-hour address. Private television circumvented the rules allowing this action by splitting the screen, showing Chávez's address on one side and footage of the violence on the other. Chávez subsequently took television stations RCTV and Venevisión off the air. The film's assertion that VTV was taken over by opposition "plotters" is also disputed; according to X-Ray of a Lie and Gunson, staff left willingly. Gunson further alleges that footage of VTV's signal being cut—mid-interview with a government legislator—was fabricated. Bartley and Ó Briain say they witnessed ministers' being unable to broadcast and that the International Federation of Journalists corroborated their claim that opposition forces took over VTV. The film also presents footage of armored vehicles around the palace, which Gunson says were there at the request of the president, not the opposition. He also challenges the film for presenting Chávez's supporters as "invariably poor, brown-skinned, and cheerful" and the opposition as "rich, white, racist, and violent". He says that the opposition protests were multiracial and that armed government supporters "made the center of Caracas a no-go area". Bartley and Ó Briain cite several commentators who uphold the claim that Chávez's supporters "were broadly poor and dark-skinned and the opposition broadly white and middle class", including Gunson himself in an April 2002 article in The Christian Science Monitor. Gunson does agree that the film was right to point out that the private media "behaved disgracefully" by "systematically viewpoint from print, radio, and TV" during the period of the coup.

Military involvement

Of greater concern, Gunson says, is the "deliberate blurring of responsibility for the coup". The film presents the idea that the military commanders dispersed, "leaving a total power vacuum". However, the high command's senior figure, General Lucas Rincón (who announced Chávez's resignation on television), was not part of the coup and remained in the government after April 2002. The petition draws the conclusion, "(1) either General Rincón stated a truth that was accepted throughout the whole country ... or (2) General Rincón lied, because he was an accomplice ... that seems not to be the truth because he ." Only one of the high command joined Carmona's interim administration before contributing to its downfall by withdrawing his support. The military leaders shown withdrawing their support for Chávez were not the high command, and Vice-Admiral Hector Ramirez Perez was not the head of the navy, as the film claims. Gunson says, "With one solitary exception, these generals and admirals had not 'fled abroad' after the Carmona government collapsed." Although Bartley and Ó Briain accept that Rincón said Chávez "had agreed to resign", they reiterate that "elements in the military force in the effort to make Chávez resign"; the filmmakers say it is "irrelevant" that the whole military did not join the coup, as this "is the case with most coups". General Rincón's announcement was omitted because they felt it was "supplementary to the main, key fact of the story", that no documentary evidence of the resignation exists.

X-Ray of a Lie

Schalk investigated The Revolution Will Not Be Televised for five months. Along with producer Thaelman Urguelles [es], he was commissioned by the Federation of Venezuelan Movie Directors to "produce a response", and in 2004 they created the documentary X-Ray of a Lie, which set out to expose its "manipulation". Schalk said the film "presented a distorted version of events ... to fit a story that appeals to audiences". Schalk is associated with the Venezuelan opposition; Bartley and Ó Briain say that it is "not insignificant that Schalk has led the well-resourced campaign, linked to , to discredit and suppress ".

Chavez: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

In 2008, Stoneman published Chavez: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – A Case Study of Politics and the Media. A book "of film studies rather than politics", it nevertheless looks in detail at the petition's arguments. Stoneman "broadly absolves" the filmmakers; he concludes, "There were some relatively small examples of slippage in the grammar of the piece, but overall the film was made with honesty and integrity. Of the 18 objections made, 15, if not 17, were wrong. The filmmakers spent a long time assembling evidence to show why they'd done what they'd done in the film and mostly it's true." Stoneman conceded that the filmmakers' cinéma vérité approach meant that for wider historical and political context, viewers should look elsewhere. Stoneman received an "Executive Producer" credit on the film, which he explains as an unasked-for gratuity that came by virtue of his position as head of BSÉ.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 47 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is as persuasive and engrossing as it is unapologetically biased." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Almost all local and national film critics in the United States said the film presented a "riveting narrative", but conceded that it was a biased account of the events.

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised gets viewers inside these tense, emotional and occasionally terrifying events with immediacy and, given the confusion of the time, remarkable clarity. Bartley and O'Briain are clearly Chavez supporters—their glowing portrait of this controversial leader is never punctuated by critical questions about his policies or methods. But the filmmakers' biases don't stop The Revolution Will Not Be Televised from being riveting drama."
—Ann Hornaday, writing in The Washington Post

Frank Scheck, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, said the film presented an enthralling story that "resembles a taut ... political thriller", and Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times called it a "remarkable documentary" full of "astonishing shots". Both critics said the film was made so through the filmmakers' unique inside access to the events at the palace with Ebert calling that aspect "unique in film history". Although Ebert was generally very praising of the film, he criticised the way in which Chávez's opponents were portrayed, while Shenk faulted the lack of historical context; however, he said this was balanced by the film's "brevity and succinctness". In Variety, Scott Foundas wrote that the film was a "superior example of fearless filmmakers in exactly the right place at the right time", and likely the best of a string of documentaries that have shone the light on US involvement in South America. He had praise for the camera work and editing, and said the film was a "startling record" that reached "another level" when events shifted to the presidential palace. He cited these scenes—along with those of the protesters' clashing—as ones that "spark with a vibrant tension and uncertainty".

J. Hoberman of The Village Voice said the film was a "gripping" account that did "an excellent job in deconstructing the Venezuelan TV news footage of blood, chaos, and rival crowds", and said it was "nearly a textbook on media manipulation". Writing for The New York Times, Stephen Holden said the film was "a riveting documentary" that delivered "the suspense of a smaller-scale Seven Days in May", citing the way in which it examined how television can be used to "deceive and manipulate the public". He reproached the film's uncritical depiction of Chávez, and how it hinted at CIA involvement without presenting any proof. Ty Burr in The Boston Globe called the film "our best chance" to find out what really happened on 11–13 April, but cautioned that the filmmakers' "pro-Chávez stance" meant that for wider context audiences should look elsewhere, as it left out too much of Chávez's record. Burr also said the film's attempt to make the US into a villain was ineffective. He said, "because view the chasm that divides Venezuela purely in the context of the Cold War and Latin American political instability, they downplay the class warfare that's exploding right in front of them." Nevertheless, Burr concluded that the film's narrow focus remained engrossing.

Desson Thomson of The Washington Post stated that the film successfully reproduced the "panic and fear" at the palace as events unfolded, saying it came across like a "raw, Costa-Gavras-style thriller" that was "worth watching down to the last thrilling minute". He said that knowing how uncertain Venezuela's future was made the film even more powerful. Thomson believed the handheld video was put to good use, calling its "news-breaking immediacy ... intoxicating". He concluded, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is an extraordinary piece of electronic history. And a riveting movie." In the Miami New Times, Brett Sokol agreed that the film was "never less than thrilling", but said that as history, it was "strictly agitprop". Similarly, Mark Jenkins wrote in the Washington City Paper that the film was "unapologetically polemical", but "notable foremost as a gripping you-are-there account".

Accolades

The film won several awards in 2003–04. It was also nominated for Best Documentary and Best Irish Film at the Irish Film and Television Awards. The annual International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam gives an acclaimed filmmaker the chance to screen his or her Top 10 films. In 2007, Iranian filmmaker Maziar Bahari selected The Revolution will not be Televised for his top ten classics from the history of films.

Film organization
Award won
Banff World Television Festival

Best Information and Current Affairs Program
Grand Prize

Chicago International Film Festival

Silver Hugo

ESB Media Awards

Best Documentary
Journalist of the Year

European Broadcasting Union

Golden Link Award (Best Co-Production)

Galway Film Fleadh

Best Documentary

Grierson Awards

Best International Feature Documentary

International Documentary Association

Best Feature Documentary (shared with Balseros)

Leeds International Film Festival

Audience Award

Los Angeles Wine & Country Festival

Best Documentary

Marseille Festival of Documentary Film

Best International Feature Documentary

Monaco International Film Festival

Golden Nymph Award (Best European Current Affairs Documentary)

Peabody Award

Excellence in Television Broadcasting

Prix Italia

Television Documentary

Seattle International Film Festival

Best Documentary

References

Annotations

  1. Exchange rates are based on the Oanda Corporation's historical records of average interbank lending rates from the period.
  2. According to Phil Gunson in Columbia Journalism Review, in Venezuela, "It is hard, if not impossible, to find an impartial observer. Most of the country's private news media have openly joined the opposition. State radio and TV are crude cheerleaders for the government."
  3. This synopsis describes the 74-minute cut of the film,The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. The 52-minute television version, Chávez: Inside the Coup, begins differently but covers the same major incidents.
  4. "You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea; you cannot put an idea up against the barrack-square wall and riddle it with bullets; you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell your slaves could ever build."
  5. Introduced in November 2001 as one of 49 presidential decrees, the Land Law aimed to increase the country's food production by breaking up and redistributing unused or underused land.
  6. Stoneman speculates that the television broadcasts may have prevented the film from being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (the Academy's rules disqualify broadcast features).
  7. The $200,000 figure is supported by Stoneman, but box office tracking websites The Numbers and Box Office Mojo both say the film earned $153,859 (€131,300) from eight theaters over 59 days.

Notes

  1. ^ Schiller (2009), p. 488.
  2. Schiller (2009), p. 494.
  3. ^ Burr, Ty (6 February 2004). "Riveting 'Revolution' shines on big screen". The Boston Globe.
  4. ^ Holden, Stephen (5 November 2003). "Film review; Tumult in Venezuela's Presidential Palace, Seen Up Close". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 5.
  6. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 6.
  7. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 7.
  8. Stoneman (2008), p. 8.
  9. ^ Gunson, Phil (May–June 2004). "Director's cut: did an acclaimed documentary about the 2002 coup in Venezuela tell the whole story?". Columbia Journalism Review 43 (1): 59–61.
  10. ^ McKay, Alastair (Winter 2008). "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, But The Coup Attempt May Be Sexed Up". Product Magazine (Red Herring Arts and Media): 10. ISSN 1468-9901.
  11. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 29.
  12. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 30.
  13. Bartley & Ó Briain (2003), chapter 6.
  14. Bartley & Ó Briain (2003), chapter 7.
  15. ^ Bartley & Ó Briain (2003), chapter 8.
  16. ^ Bartley & Ó Briain (2003), chapter 10.
  17. Bartley & Ó Briain (2003), chapter 11.
  18. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 31.
  19. Bartley & Ó Briain (2003), chapter 12.
  20. Bartley & Ó Briain (2003), chapter 13.
  21. Bartley & Ó Briain (2003), chapter 15.
  22. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 11.
  23. ^ King, Michael (7 March 2003). "The Camera Is Mightier Than the... Trapped inside a Venezuelan coup: Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain's 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'". The Austin Chronicle.
  24. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 12.
  25. Stoneman (2008), p. 1.
  26. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 13.
  27. Stoneman (2008), p. 4.
  28. Stoneman (2008), p. 14.
  29. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 15.
  30. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 16.
  31. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 17.
  32. Stoneman (2008), p. 18.
  33. Stoneman (2008), p. 19.
  34. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 20.
  35. Stoneman (2008), p. 21.
  36. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 22.
  37. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 26.
  38. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 23.
  39. Schiller (2009), p. 483.
  40. ^ Schiller (2009), p. 485.
  41. Stoneman (2008), p. 28.
  42. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 25.
  43. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 24.
  44. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 27.
  45. ^ Staff (27 November 2006). "Fairness and Privacy Cases". Broadcast Bulletin (Ofcom) (74).
  46. "Storyville – Chavez: Inside the Coup". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  47. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 2.
  48. Stoneman (2008), p. 119.
  49. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 33.
  50. ^ (in Spanish) Lebon, Manuel (16 November 2003). "Cineastas venezolanos objetan video 'La Revolución no será transmitida': Desarman una farsa mediática" Archived 5 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine. El Universal. "... que fue mostrado por primera vez por VTV el 13 de abril de 2003. Posteriormente, el Gobierno hizo 10 mil copias en Cuba de esta producción para mostrarla en diversas partes del mundo. ... La pieza audovisual 'tiene un lobby millonario que cuenta con apoyo de las embajadas venezolanas y hasta agencias de relaciones públicas que manejan presupuestos enormes para exhibir la cinta gratuitamente en las universidades o en cines comerciales de urbes como San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago o Nueva York'."
  51. Schiller (2009), p. 496.
  52. Schiller (2009), p. 495.
  53. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 34.
  54. ^ "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  55. ^ "ScreenWest – Power Pictures". ScreenWest. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  56. ^ Schiller (2009), pp. 486–487.
  57. Schiller (2009), pp. 487–488.
  58. ^ Schiller (2009), pp. 488–489.
  59. ^ Campbell, Duncan (22 November 2003). "Chavez film puts staff at risk, says Amnesty". The Guardian.
  60. ^ Schiller (2009), p. 479.
  61. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". Box Office Mojo. Amazon. Retrieved on 22 April 2010.
  62. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". The Numbers. Nash Information Services. Retrieved on 22 April 2010.
  63. Schiller (2009), p. 490.
  64. Stoneman (2008), p. 35.
  65. Stoneman (2008), p. 36.
  66. Schiller (2009), pp. 490–491.
  67. Miller, John J. (27 December 2004). "Friends of Hugo: Venezuela's Castroite boss has all the usual U.S. supporters". National Review.
  68. ^ Schiller (2009), pp. 492–493.
  69. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 37.
  70. Forero, Juan (21 March 2006). "Visitors Seek a Taste of Revolution in Venezuela". The New York Times.
  71. Schiller (2009), p. 480.
  72. Schiller (2009), p. 499.
  73. ^ Schiller (2009), pp. 485–486.
  74. ^ Bartley, Kim; Ó Briain, Donnacha (May–June 2004). "Who's Right? The Filmmakers Respond". Columbia Journalism Review 43 (1): 62–63.
  75. Nelson (2009), p. 337.
  76. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 39.
  77. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 47.
  78. ^ Stoneman (2008), pp. 39–40.
  79. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 38.
  80. ^ Stoneman (2008), pp. 43–44.
  81. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 67.
  82. Nelson (2009), p. 265.
  83. Stoneman (2008), p. 55.
  84. Stoneman (2008), p. 51.
  85. Stoneman (2008), p. 48.
  86. ^ (in Spanish) Linzalata, Ernesto (31 July 2004). "Estrenan 'Radiografía de una mentira': Cuando la ética es fundamental en la vida" Archived 10 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. El Universal.
  87. ^ Stoneman (2008), p. 56.
  88. Clark, AC (2009). The Revolutionary Has No Clothes: Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Farce. Encounter Books. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-59403-259-2.
  89. De La Fuente, Anna Marie (15 June 2007). "Venezuelan networks tread lightly". Variety.
  90. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 28 May 2022. Edit this at Wikidata
  91. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  92. Hornaday, Ann (12 December 2003). "In Venezuela, A Filmmaking, & Political, Coup". The Washington Post.
  93. ^ Shenk, Frank (1 April 2003). "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". The Hollywood Reporter.
  94. ^ Ebert, Roger (31 October 2003). "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". Chicago Sun-Times.
  95. ^ Foundas, Scott (10 July 2003). "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". Variety.
  96. Hoberman, J. (4 November 2003). "Recall Sequel in Venezuela? Hugo Your Way, We'll Go Ours" Archived 11 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine. The Village Voice.
  97. ^ Thomson, Desson (12 December 2003). "A Revolutionary Documentary". The Washington Post. ProQuest 409674979
  98. Sokol, Brett (27 November 2003). "Through a Lens Distortedly". Miami New Times.
  99. Jenkins, Mark (26 December 2003). "The Bigger Picture Show". Washington City Paper.
  100. Staff (15 October 2003). "IFB Backed Projects Receive Over 70 IFTA Nominations" Archived 2 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Irish Film Board. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  101. (in Dutch) "Maziar Bahari over zijn Top 10". IDFA. Retrieved 3 March 2010. "Het is een van de films uit de Top 10 van filmmaker en journalist Maziar Bahari (Teheran, 1967), sinds 2000 vaste IDFA-gast ...The Revolution will not be Televised, Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Brian (Ierland, 2003)."
  102. "Irish Film Board/Bord Scannán na hÉireann – Awards 2003" Archived 7 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Irish Film Board. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  103. ^ Staff (7 December 2007). "RTÉ's Proud Awards History Continues In Competitive Times" Archived 27 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine. RTÉ. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  104. Kay, Jeremy (3 December 2003). "Balseros, Revolution win top honours at IDA Awards". Screen Daily. EMAP. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  105. Halligan, Benjamin (October 2003). "Leeds International Film Festival, 2003". Senses of Cinema. ISSN 1443-4059.
  106. 63rd Annual Peabody Awards, May 2004.

Bibliography

External links

Hugo Chávez
45th President of Venezuela (1999–2013)
Early life and career
Presidency
Political events
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