It is rare to see political films with a message of truth about injustice, especially over a summer of Toy Stories, Expendables and A Teams. But , not for the first time, Oliver Stone has made a film that has offended the right wing in the USA and the liberal circles of the UK. His journey across South America and his presentation of the Bolivarian revolution that is going on is such a smack in the mouth for the neo conservatives that it is a miracle that it ever got made.
You can find it listed all over the country in the next few weeks and it provides hope and example for all those who feel that democracy and social justice have no chance against the world's military (if no longer economic) superpower.
http://southoftheborderdoc.com/
Stone starts with Hugo Chavez and then with him visits most of South America's other democratically elected leaders. But first he has to slay the Fox News version of Chavez in power. He has won 13 elections and survived a military coup backed by the USA in which he was arrested and imprisoned by the Generals but released by the people - including his own troops.
Using oil from the nationalised oil industry, he has led a Bolivarian revolution to confront US imperialism and promote anti poverty and health care policies. During a reactionary truck drivers strike, Venezuela had 10,000 Health workers in from Cuba to carry out vital immunisation programmes for the poor. The strike was defeated and support for the Government strengthened.
The film takes us to Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and many others. We meet President Lula in Brazil, the popular trade union official who faced down the IMF in his own country and refused to let them attach further debts to the country's economy, to Morales, the elected President of Bolivia who has defeated right wing attempts to split up the country and is an outspoken supporter of Chavez and to President Kirchner of Argentina - who has a photo of her, Chavez and Fidel Castro celebrating together on the night of her election sat proudly on her desk.
The media attack on Chavez and Venezuela is seen as an extension of the attack on Cuba, the same rabid hostility of imperialism to liberation and social justice. The Bolivarian leaders of South America acknowledge their debt to Cuba, but as Raul Castro said in response to Oliver Stone, 'we are not the godfathers and they the followers. We all arrived at this point together and support each other'.