Films

I’ve taken up a hobby of recording motion as I move through the world, and I edit this into what most call “videos” or “movies,” and the more pretentious (or formal) would call “films.” I don’t pretend to be a filmmaker, but this is some documentation of my journey through this latter part of my life. The videos are accompanied by notes to orient the viewer.

NEW! In the Shadow of the Revolution 

Our new movie (Venezuelan filmmaker Arturo Albarrán and I teamed up on this one) is now online and available for download and viewing. It’s a look at the crisis in Venezuela from the perspective of left social movements and left political activists of the opposition. It gives lie to the Bolivarian narrative that a left government is under attack by a right wing opposition allied with the “empire.” Those interviewed in the film have a very different take on what’s happening in Venezuela and they coincide in seeing the struggle as a one between a right wing mafia in control of the State at war with the people at the bottom. Forthcoming from PM Press (and also available for free viewing there).

Interview with Javier Corrales (Stanford University, March 4, 2017)

(Note: This first appeared at Caracas Chronicles)

I was fortunate enough to meet and interview Corrales at the Venezuela at the Crossroads event on March 4 of this year. If you haven’t read his excellent book Dragon in the Tropics, co-authored by Michael Penfold, you should. It’s a great exposé on the Bolivarian Revolution.

I started off with the question I had been dying to ask him all morning, just to break the ice. “So, just to clarify, you’re not an ‘ultra-rightist’ are you?” He laughed. “No, I don’t think so,” he said. And that’s where the interview began as we delved into the myths of the “ultra-derechista fascistas” and the “good” Bolivarian socialist left and Javier took it from there.

Javier Corrales is professor of Political Science at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. He earned his Ph.D. in political Science from Harvard University. He is the author and co-author of many books and he serves on the editorial boards of Latin American Politics and Society and Americas Quarterly.

 

Yukpa: Blood on the Mountain

This is a trailer for a film Arturo Albarrán and I are working on about the situation of the Yukpa of the Sierra de Perijá, on the border of Venezuela and Colombia. In Venezuela a number of Yukpa leaders and family members of Ana Maria have been beaten, threatened and killed over the past three years by Bolivarian National Guard, police and paramilitaries working for cattle ranchers and mining interests in the region. This is a very rough piece, but it gives a flavor of the film that we hope to complete by 2017.

Venezuela: Revolution from  the Inside Out

This film is a voyage into Latin America’s most exciting experiment of the new millennium, exploring the history and projects of the Bolivarian Revolution through interviews with a range of its participants, from academics to farm workers and those living in the margins of Caracas. This introduction to the “revolución bonita” (“pretty revolution”) offers in-depth interviews, unforgettable images and a lively soundtrack that will open new vistas onto this hopeful human project.

As he totes his camera on bus and car trips all over Venezuela, director Clifton Ross becomes our tour guide through the Bolivarian Revolution. He sweeps us through its history and takes us to its works-in-progress on the ground. These schools, rural lending banks and cooperatives weave the fabric of Venezuela’s “Socialism of the 21st Century.” They show its failures and successes, its warp and woof. Through it all runs the frayed but unbreakable thread of a people in struggle.

Buy it here!

Madrid: 4th Anniversary of the Indignados

We arrived in Madrid on the fourth anniversary of the Indignados uprising. Here we captured a few of the scenes from the demonstration and a great interview with Nacho Murgui Parra, an “indignado” running for city council on the Ahora Madrid ticket. He has some great things to say about the relation between social movements and governments. Subtitled in English. Enjoy and share!

A Day at Can Masdeu

Agroecological anarchist squat in the Vall de Can Masdeu is an inspiration to many in the city of Barcelona, Spain. In this video members of the community talk about their community, about anarchism and the history of their struggle. And they muse on why their project works so well.

Ana Manuela

Ana Manuela explains the history and her involment in the Brazillian MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra).