FRONTLINE has pre-released "The Hugo Chavez Show" in English and Spanish online at at http://www.pbs.org/frontline/hugochavez/
The film airs nationally in English and Spanish on Tuesday, Nov. 25, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS. On Nov. 23, regional and municipal elections will be held in Venezuela. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> PRESS RELEASE: FRONTLINE CHRONICLES HUGO CHAVEZ'S ASCENT TO POWER AND HIS EFFORTS TO USE THE POWERS OF THE PRESIDENCY TO STAY THERE FRONTLINE Presents in English and Spanish "The Hugo Chavez Show" Tuesday, November 25, 2008, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS Prerelease online Wednesday, November 19 at: www.pbs.org/frontline/hugochavez He's been portrayed as a savior and an autocrat; a hero to his nation's poor and a bombastic, would-be dictator eager to dominate the world stage. He forges controversial alliances while inventing a new kind of revolution he calls 21st-century socialism. He calls George Bush a devil and Castro a god. Who is this man Hugo Chavez, and where is he headed? In "The Hugo Chavez Show," airing Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel travels to Venezuela to offer an illuminating portrait of the Venezuelan president. Through interviews with former government officials, Chavez associates and ordinary Venezuelans, FRONTLINE chronicles Chavez's ascent to power and his efforts to use the powers of the presidency to stay there. The film also reveals the key role of the media--or, rather, Chavez's savvy use of the media—in his rise to power. "The Hugo Chavez Show" begins by introducing viewers to Aló Presidente--or "Hello, President"--a weekly televised show that often runs five to eight hours and features Chavez speaking directly to the people, explaining government policy and mixing in a smattering of songs, poetry and whatever else strikes his fancy. "Chavez is easily caricatured because he can be funny; he can seem buffoonish on his Aló Presidente," journalist Jon Lee Anderson tells FRONTLINE. "He sings; he gets involved in wordplay. ... He's probably the world's first virtual president in the age of the communication revolution." Beyond being a venue for Chavez's idiosyncrasy, Aló Presidente serves as a weekly window into Venezuelan government, with Chavez often announcing major policy decisions on live television, such as the time he ordered 10 battalions to the Colombian border, or the time he announced that Venezuela was pulling out of the International Monetary Fund. Both decisions were soon reversed off-air. FRONTLINE investigates beyond the boundaries of the president's show, discovering grand schemes that remain unfinished and a host of public officials blamed for any dissent. FRONTLINE interviews Nelson Mora, a committed community organizer who dared to raise questions about a government relocation plan and was subsequently humiliated by the president on live television. "At that moment, I felt bad. I closed my eyes and felt tears," says Mora. "And I said, 'My God, why does the president treat me like this, the commander in chief, the leader of this process?'" Yet it was Chavez's keen grasp of the power of the media that propelled him to power, observers say. FRONTLINE recounts how Chavez got his first taste of the media limelight when he participated in a failed 1992 coup. Much to his military compatriots' surprise, Chavez--who was commanding the group's forces in Caracas--agreed to surrender in exchange for a chance to go on the air and address his comrades and the people. The failed coup would send Chavez to prison for two years, but the media exposure planted the seeds of a folk hero in the making. "Chavez failed militarily, totally," says Alberto Barrera, author of the international best seller Hugo Chavez. "But he triumphed in terms of public relations. The public Chavez who was born was born not out of a military or political victory, but out of the ratings." Upon his release from prison in 1994, Chavez began laying the groundwork for his eventual rise to the presidency in 1998. "The Hugo Chavez Show" recounts the highs and lows of Chavez's 10-year tenure. His political successes included pushing through laws that sent Venezuelan society veering to the left and injecting billions of dollars in oil revenue into socialist government programs. Yet he faced an attempted coup in 2002 and suffered last year's stinging defeat at the polls, when Venezuelan voters rejected his attempts to pass laws that would end presidential term limits. Cracks are also showing in Chavez's much-vaunted revolutionary programs. In "The Hugo Chavez Show," FRONTLINE speaks with workers in various socialized cooperatives who say Chavez's government has failed to provide needed resources, or even to pay them for the work they have done. "I am among the poorest people in Venezuela," says cooperative worker Maria Rengifo. "The president has to know, in order to form a cooperative, we have to have income. ... He has to know what's going on. Why aren't they functioning? Why aren't they producing? Why isn't there anything to produce?" With frustration building and food shortages common, Venezuela's crime rate has soared, with murders, robberies and kidnappings for ransom occurring frequently. "It's shocking to come nearly a decade on and see that most of what Hugo Chavez was railing in anger about being left with--a failed society, misery, insecurity, unequal distribution of wealth--is still here," Anderson tells FRONTLINE. "That despite these surely thousands of hours of speeches and many billions of dollars of oil wealth pumped into the economy, we don't see huge changes. We see, in fact, that most of Hugo Chavez's revolutionary programs, his inventions to ameliorate and alleviate the social ills at home simply have not worked." FRONTLINE will produce a Spanish-language audio track of "The Hugo Chavez Show." Viewers can access the Spanish version through the SAP button on their TV remote control. The English and Spanish version will also be available online at www.pbs.org/frontline/hugochavez beginning on Wednesday, November 19. "The Hugo Chavez Show" is a FRONTLINE co-production with Ofra Bikel Productions. The producer, writer and director is Ofra Bikel. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning. Watch FRONTLINE Tuesdays on PBS or Online at www.pbs.org/frontline -- Steve Rhodes http://flickr.com/photos/ari/ photos http://twitter.com/tigerbeat http://del.icio.us/tigerbeat interesting articles & sites http://tigerbeat.vox.com blog --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Like TV only smarter. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
