Hugo Rethought – Oliver Stone examines the South American revolution

 Director Oliver Stone and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez talk to the media in Stone's documentary "South of the Border." Courtesy photo

Director Oliver Stone and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez talk to the media in Oliver Stone’s documentary “South of the Border.”
Courtesy photo

First Fidel, now Hugo.

Director Oliver Stone doesn’t mind incurring the wrath of the mainstream media with his documentaries, which he has recently been releasing in between his studio features. “Finding Fidel” and “Comandante” attempted to rescue Castro from decades of demonization, with Stone sitting down and chatting up Cuba’s leader. In the new “South of the Border,” Stone travels down to Venezuela to do the same thing with Hugo Chavez.

The brisk and informative “South of the Border” begins with the talking bobble heads of Fox News’ morning show, snarking about how Chavez must be insane because he eats a bowl of cocoa every day. The most intelligent of the three hosts steps in to bravely ask if they mean coca. Nobody is really sure, and who cares, right? (Knowledge is so elitist.) It’s a scene that promises to melt your brain right there and then, and then make one despair for modern media in general. But after a quick history lesson on the West’s finagling in South America, Stone brings in Hugo Chavez and sits down with the man we’ve been led to believe is a bloodthirsty monster.

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THE BIG SCENE : Oliver Stone visits with Hugo Chavez and other Latin American leaders in new doc at SBIFF

Director Oliver Stone during an interview with the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo.
Director Oliver Stone during an interview with the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rides a bicycle in his grandmother's backyard in the Oliver Stone documentary "South of the Border."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rides a bicycle in his grandmother’s backyard in the Oliver Stone documentary “South of the Border.”
Film director Oliver Stone first dealt with South and Central America in 1986, with his breakthrough political drama “Salvador.” He didn’t return to the region as a subject until recently, with two documentaries on Fidel Castro (2003’s “Comandante” and 2004’s “Looking for Fidel”). Now he’s taken on another American bugaboo, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in “South of the Border,” playing this weekend at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Stone’s thesis is that Chavez has been demonized in the American press because he hasn’t gone along with business interests, especially when Chavez nationalized the oil industry.

The film then uses Chavez’ success as an opportunity to discuss other socialist revolutions that have followed in Chavez’ wake — in Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador. The short doc may lack in nuance, but it will introduce many to the leaders in the region, and to countries that never turn up on the nightly news.

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