Monday, July 5, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

Gpja Forum: "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - Video On The Venezuelan Revolution.

The Venezuelan elite has already tried to stage several coups against the government of President Chavez with US support. The defeat of the April 2002 coup was captured in gripping detail by a group of Irish film makers. "The revolution will not be televised" takes its title from the fact that most television stations in Venezuela are private and refuse to report on the positive achievements of the revolution.

The film makers were inside the presidential palace when Chávez was ousted by a military-civilian uprising. The resulting documentary — underwritten by the BBC, Ireland's RTE, and other European broadcasters — is as thrilling a piece of political drama as you're likely to see and has won armfuls of prizes, including Britain's top documentary award, the Grierson.

It has aired repeatedly all around the world, has been shown in movie theatres and at film festivals, arguably becoming the prevailing interpretation of the continuing Venezuelan political crisis.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>