Chavez Walks The Red Carpet In Venice For Documentary Premiere

by Yuliya Talmazan | September 8, 2009 at 10:22 am

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Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez walked the red carpet of Venice's 66th annual film festival on Monday for the world premier of Oliver Stone's documentary "South Of The Border." Chavez was invited to the premiere because the documentary centers on Venezuelan President's leadership style and political achievements. Stone is an American film director and screenwriter. His lifetime work touches on a range of issues from war in Vietnam to 9/11 attacks to the life and presidency of Richard Nixon. Chavez's appearance on the red carpet attracted quite a bit of attention, with some people in the crowd even chanting his name and waving Venezuela's flags.

The film, "South of the Border", paints a sympathetic portrait of a leader Stone says has helped the poor and who has been unfairly demonised by the US media.

The 75-minute documentary argues that the economy has grown under Chavez's rule and poverty levels have fallen sharply, all without the help of bailout loans from foreign lenders.

Stone, 62, told Reuters in an interview that he anticipated a struggle getting the movie to a U.S. audience, noting how previous films made about Central or South America had shared the same fate.

The documentary about Chavez was not Stone's first foray into examining the lives of powerful political leaders. In 2003, Stone shot a movie called "Commandante" that tells the story of Cuba's long-time leader Fidel Castro. Now, there are speculations Stone plans to shoot a documentary about Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose controversial win in this year's Presidential election sparked deadly civilian protests.

Stone's plans to interview Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are apparently still on track. In 2007, Stone requested permission to make the documentary in Iran and was given a provisional green light, despite being initially rejected as "a part of the Great Satan".

"I was very interested, because I thought we were going to go to war in Iran," Stone said in Venice. "If we had been more successful in Iraq, I have no doubts that we would have been more involved in the Iranian situation now."

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