Posted on 07/06/2010 9:27:25 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Critics who complain about his favorable depiction of Hugo Chavez and other Latin American leaders are spreading “mythologies,” director Oliver Stone said Friday night after a Santa Monica screening of his film “South of the Border.”
Stone participated in a Q&A session at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex after the screening, which was picketed by protesters who felt that his documentary’s positive look at anti-imperialist leaders in Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and other countries overlooked the economic ills and repressive policies of countries like Chavez’s Venezuela.
Actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who earlier in the week told theWrap that Stone’s depiction of Chavez was “all lies,” led a protest outside the theater before the screening. A counter-protest by Chavez supporters also took place, clogging the sidewalks outside the Laemmle and prompting increased security and a police presence at the theater, where the screening went off without incident.
Afterwards, Stone took part in a Q&A session along with his film’s producer, Fernando Sulichin; Ricardo Moreno, president of the Simon Bolivar Association of Los Angeles; and Miguel Tinker Salas, a professor of history and Latin American studies at Pomona College.
The director called his film “an introduction to a region, and a historical moment that is very significant … There are six or seven countries unified in their desire for independence from [the United States].”
“South of the Border” takes particular aim at the policies of the George W. Bush administration, during which most of it was filmed, and of the International Monetary Fund, which Stone said is largely controlled by the United States. The presidents he filmed in interviews and more informal settings – many of whom were persuaded to do the film by Chavez, who occupies by far the most screen time – are generally working-class and socialist-leaning, and have been vilified by some U.S. media outlets as being anti-American.
“I really am stunned, and I don’t understand the negativity toward [Chavez] in the American press,” said Stone.
While most of the questions were supportive of Stone and the film, the first questioner brought up many of the issues raised by critics of Chavez, asking Stone why he omitted the facts that “Chavez changed the constitution to declare himself ‘president for life’"; that Venezuela currently holds 28 political prisoners; that the government has nationalized many industries, including the grocery industry; and that mainstream press outlets have been shut down.
When moderator Margaret Prescod of KPFK radio scolded the questioner for asking too many questions, Stone quickly cut her off.
“No,” he said, “I think it’s good that we get it all out. These are ... mythologies, and I want to deal with them.”
He turned the microphone over to Tinker Salas, who said that the Venezuelan constitution was changed not by Chavez but in a full election by the people of Venezuela, not to make Chavez “president for life” but to end term limits; that the grocery industry was nationalized because of “problems with the question of food sovereignity”; that the government restored public rather than private control of the airwaves, and that the Daily Journal was shut down not by the government but “for internal reasons.”
This is a democratically run country,” insisted Stone. “Do not believe their stories.”
The director also lashed out at the mainstream media in both the United States and Latin America for its embrace of conservative talking-points. “‘President for life’ is the kid of terminology the right wing uses,” he said. “These are buzzwords to get the American people going.”
Among the other points that Stone covered in the Q&A session:
He supports a system that in the film he calls “benign capitalism,” as opposed to “predatory capitalism”: “I do believe, still, in market economies, because they do redistribute the wealth.”
He finds Latin American people surprisingly accepting of Americans: “We have trashed their countries for so long, in Central and South America, but they do not hold a grudge.”
He thinks Chavez is “too macho” for Americans, but refreshing for a politician: “He’s a man who doesn’t have a filter on his mouth … But I loved him as a person.”
He finds many of the socialist-leaning leaders in Latin America a welcome change after the candidates who routinely are elected in the United States: “Every time, we get the educated elite. We get some guy from Harvard or Yale. Even Obama is from Harvard, and I’m sick of it.”
He does hold out more hope for Barack Obama than he did for George W. Bush (who he termed “a moron” and “a criminal who should be on trial for a number of things”), but he thinks the current president probably got a rude awakening once he was elected: “I think somebody took him out to the woodshed when he won and said, ‘You think you’re running the country, but you’re not … It’s the system.’”
And he’s working on two more documentaries that will no doubt draw their own criticism: one is another film based on interviews with Fidel Castro, and the other is “a 10-hour documentary called ‘The Secret History of the United States.’”
Sounds like Stone should move his production company to Venezuela? Talk about a Win Win!
Pray for AMerica
Actor Maria Conchita Alonso penned the letter, titled "An Open Letter to Sean Penn," on the website Newsbusters [Newsbusters link]. In it, she expresses her disappointment at Penn's statements made on the March 5 episode of HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher." On the panel-based talk show, Penn praised the Venezuelan president, saying Chavez had been elected in "14 of the most transparent elections in the globe, and been elected democratically." Conchita Alonso, who was born in Cuba 52 years ago but raised in Venezuela, begs to differ.
My bumperstickers will reflect a distrust in government and the media in general and a trust in the 2nd ammendment in particular. And who spooks them the most? Sarah Palin, whose name will be blazing across the back of my truck to drive them nuts.
So. If the United States government were to seize control of Stone's production company, Ixtlan Productions, all it's assets and properties (probably worth at least a few million), and "restore" it to "public control," rather than letting Oliver run things, he'd be totally cool with that?
Oh, the lefties just love Venezuala.
Until the put some kind of business there and Chavez nationalizes it.
Wouldn’t it be fun if Chavez “acquired” Stone’s production company or whatever Stone’s company is? I’d love to see these tyrant lovers lose their livelihood to little Hitler.
lol, all that testosterone in that little bitty package.
Oliver Stone is a guilt ridden, deviant, Hollywood goof. What a waste of talent.
Venezuelans are the ones who say you’re full of dog poo, Oliver. “JFK” was total BS too, chief.
Stone is one of those Vietnam veterans who has “gone commie”. It happened to a few of the more radical members of the armed forces, esp. those who became members of the maoist faction of Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Vietnam. They are now members and supporters of the Maoist “Revolutionary Communist Party” of Robert Avakian and VVAW/VFW leader David Cline, Barry Romo, Joe Miller, etc.
Stone is a hardcore red and we must never forget it. He is the enemy of America.
the same leftist frauds who lick Chavez boots had meltdowns over “cowboys” Bush & Cheney...... a##clowns like Oliver Stone can’t even pretend to be honest or plausible or rational
This “man” (if one only defines manhood simply as a factor of age and gender) should be driven to total financial ruin and then shipped to chavez’s parasite paradise. he would then see first hand just how much mythology surrounds the benevolent butcher and his policies.
The only myths being peddled oliver are those whitewashed lies you are liberally splashing about in a vain attempt to cover up the bloodstains left by your crush hugo.
ON THE INTERNET:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/venezuela/index
#
A Hugo Chavez Moment - quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2535541/posts
Chavez Announces Takeover of Auto Parts Company
(AP) via YNET NEWS.com ^ | Published: 06.16.10, 08:04 / Israel News | n/a
Posted on June 16, 2010 12:51:37 AM PDT by Cindy
SNIPPET: “Chavez said Tuesday night that AutoSeat de Venezuela, which has been closed since last year, will be expropriated. The auto assembly industry in Venezuela has been troubled in recent years due to labor conflicts and delays in government approval for dollars to pay for imported parts.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ynetnews.com ...
TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: chavez; hugochavez; socialism; venezuela; Click to Add Keyword
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1 posted on June 16, 2010 12:51:37 AM PDT by Cindy
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Venezuela takes control of another private bank
Associated Press ^ | June 14, 2010 | FABIOLA SANCHEZ
Posted on June 14, 2010 5:06:31 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government said Monday it is taking over management of a private bank after discovering serious financial problems.
The bank’s owner condemned the takeover as political retribution against him and the critical TV station he helped found.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
2 posted on June 16, 2010 12:52:36 AM PDT by Cindy
Huh? We have territories or states in Central and Latin America?
Stone would have given Leni Reifenstahl a run for the money if he had been in Nazi Germany in the thirties. Hitler? He loved dogs and reduced unemployment. What is it with lefties’ love of fascist dictators?
There’s no confusion about who the villain is in Machete – it’s you.
More specifically, it’s you and the other 69% or so of American citizens who agree that we should have a say in who does and doesn’t come into our country by enforcing immigration laws. There’s been a lot written about the race war angle of Machete.
But it’s hard to see this script as anything but a sick MEChA-approved fantasy in which every Anglo man is a slobbering borderline savage who tortures Mexicans when not slaughtering them outright, and every Anglo woman a nymphomaniac yearning to strip down and have a crack at our hero Machete’s macho Mexican manhood.
Perhaps Rodriguez isn’t making an explicit plea for racial warfare, but Rodriguez’s crude racial stereotypes make Hitler’s Der Stürmer propaganda look like subtle, sophisticated and affectionate commentary on Jewish culture.
The script does not bat an eye as Machete butchers nearly every Anglo, innocent or “guilty,” who is unfortunate enough to cross his path. In the end, there is no doubt that Rodriguez is making the most overtly, outrageously and unrepentantly racist film in modern Hollywood history.
It’s just too bad this movie combines the racial insights of a 1942 Robert Byrd with the collective moral sense of Enron’s Board of Directors.
Machete is a Mexican federale who gets sold out and left for dead by his compadres. Working as an illegal day laborer, an American business man pays him to kill a senator because the senator wants to ship the illegals home and all American businesses – in this fantasy world – run solely on illegal labor. Machete again gets sold out and left for dead by his compadres, which seems to be a theme, and promptly goes on a killing spree against pretty much everyone. (Excerpt) Read more at bighollywood.breitbart.com ...
NOTE Robert Rodriguez’ incendiary race film ‘Machete‘ was made with help from tax incentives and location access from the Texas Film Commission, a division of Gov Rick Perry’s Office. A spokesperson confirmed that Rodriguez has indeed applied for govt funding (and has most assuredly signed off on the money in order to suckup illgal votes).
FILM TITLE: "SCREWED BY MEXICO"
SUBTITLE: All of the "shakedowns, hate and abuses" in Mexican law enforcement.”
The Hollywood paradigm: sex, lies, borders and videotape
ABSTRACT----Lots of raw hot latino sex here----The film opens with Maria Elena Gonzalez showing how female migrants are forced to strip by abusive Mexican police officers, supposedly to search them, but the purpose is to sexually abuse them.
PANORAMA SHOT Central American migrants enter Mexico.
VOICEOVER: “Others said they had seen migrants beaten to death by Mexican police, their bodies left near the railway tracks to make it look as if they had fallen from a train. "If you're carrying any money, the Mexican police take it from you," says Carlos Lopez. "Federal, state, local Mexican police--all of them shake you down. If you're on a bus, the Mexican police pull you off and search your pockets, and if you have any money, the Mexican police keep it all and say, 'get out of here.' ”
Jose Ramos, 18, peers into the camera, saying:“ extortion by Mexican border police occurs at every stop on their migratory route. We migrants are left penniless and begging for food.”
ACTION SHOTS: Mexican police shake down motorists on bogus traffic stops. The Mexican police demand money on the spot, or your car gets impounded.
BACKGROUND MUSIC: La Cucuracha
Hes right we like Pussies like Obama
The problem is that these3 leftist idiots have no clue hoiw destroyed these countries are. Argentina went from 5th wealthiest in the world to 87th place today. All under the leadership of men who threw out slogans and promised the masses that they were poor not because they didn’t want to work and produce, no they were poor because the rich stole all their money which was an excuse not to work since the rich would steal the fruits of their labor. Of course under regimes like Perons’ they still woudn’t work since now the state would take all their money and had gotten used to getting from the government rather than giving. I see America repeating the same mistakes. The recipient masses far outnumber the productive few, that is why won’t see revolutions or coups.
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