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As Woody Allen observed, "Eighty percent of success is showing up." Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha O’Briain found this out when, in Venezuela to film a documentary about populist president Hugo Chávez, they found themselves and their cameras in the midst of an aborted 48-hour coup. Their unfettered access offers a riveting and disquieting look at the machinations of power — and a revealing meditation on the ways in which the media manipulate and distort. Chávez was elected by a landslide in 1998, pledging to wrest control of the country’s oil reserves (Venezuela is the world’s fourth-largest exporter) from the 20 percent of the country’s elite and redirect the wealth to the poor. Naturally, this did not sit well with said aristocracy — or, when he jacked prices, with the United States. Not long after right-wing opposition members traveled to Washington in 2002 to complain to the Bush Administration, a group of businessmen and military leaders staged a coup that found Chávez imprisoned. "The CIA is behind this and everybody knows it!" screams one aide. It’s a charge the filmmakers let hang in the air; and though there’s no direct evidence, it’s hard not to get suspicious after seeing George Tenet denounce the Chávez administration to Congress or Ari Fleischer falsely accuse pro-Chávez peasants of firing on peaceful anti-Chávez marchers. (It was the pro-Chávez group who were fired upon, as the filmmakers’ bloody images prove.) Meanwhile, privately owned TV stations trumpet the news to the restive masses (the state-run station, the only organ sympathetic to Chávez, was swiftly silenced). "Good morning! We have a new president," says a toady to smarmy millionaire Pedro Carmona, who’s replaced Chávez. The palace-guard members still loyal to Chávez are hatching a plot, however, and we’re there as they take key positions around the mansion and wait for the signal. The filmmakers’ sympathy to Chávez is patent, but the good use they made of their serendipitous access and the visceral power of their intimate, home-video-style footage excuse any bias. This is a thrilling documentary that was able to go where few have. As Chávez returns to jubilant throngs, he strides down the hall of the palace and whispers to an aide: "Show me the video of the night they took me away." (74 minutes)
BY MIKE MILIARD
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