Venezuela
Venezuela Delegation
November 13-22, 2010
Filmmaker: Aaron Woolf, King Corn & Big River
Expert: Larry Hott
“The most repeated question Larry and I received before live audiences was about censorship in the US. How was it, we were often asked, that we could make films that were critical of US policy and not get shut down? It was not always easy to deflect this popularly held belief that in the US we are under constant vigilance.” – Aaron Woolf
“I had a memorable discussion with two students at the premiere of another filmmaker’s production. These students challenged the notion that the US government does not censor documentaries nor threaten filmmakers who express opposition views. Our talk covered everything from the Bill of Rights to the impact of funding availability on the choice of subject matter.”– Lawrence Hott
Delegate Report
Aaron Woolf
As much as it was an honor to represent the American Documentary Showcase in Venezuela, it was perhaps even more gratifying that we were to engage in face-to-face encounters with individuals along the tour. Along with acclaimed documentarian Lawrence Hott, I shared dozens of conversations with fellow filmmakers, students, professors, community groups and press––all afforded by the Showcase tour and the hard-working US Embassy staff.
At a wide variety of locations, including classrooms, community centers and auditoria, Larry and I both showed full-length films and clips of other works subtitled in Spanish. These visual works, along with various printed production and distribution materials, helped relate to our audiences not just the stuff of individual projects, but also the wider experience of documentary filmmaking in America.
Larry’s previous experience with the Showcase was an enormous benefit for me as he had let me know long before we traveled the kinds of materials I would need to prepare in advance. And on the ground in South America, Larry was an ideal travel and presentation partner. His professionalism and extensive knowledge of the genre was matched by his wit and candor¬¬––in a variety of situations both formal and informal, and across barriers of language and culture, his charm and humor put audiences, hosts, and the traveling team at immediate ease.
It would be hard to pick two countries in the world on such opposite political trajectories as Colombia and Venezuela. The fact that these lands border one another and have so many parallel traditions only serves to augment the contrast. For Larry and me, parsing these differences was one of the richest aspects of the journey. And as cultural representatives, we welcomed the chance to offer an alternative to the official Venezuelan government stance, which is decidedly anti-American.
Caracas
That tension was immediately apparent upon arrival at the Caracas airport, where we were greeted with Cuban-style anti-imperialist billboards and an armored vehicle to convey us to our hotel. Naturally, the conversation with our driver turned to baseball. And we soon gathered that the two “eternos rivales” (eternal rivals) of Venezuelan sport––Magallanes and the Leones of Caracas––were set to play a death match in the nearby city of Valencia the following day.
The irony that we Americans share such passion for baseball with avowed political antagonists was the subject of an earlier film of mine, Greener Grass: Cuba, Baseball and the United States. It was clear that this film, too, would be a good icebreaker with Venezuelan audiences and I set to work subtitling clips of the film on my laptop.
Our official work in Venezuela began with a series of high-profile press interviews, first on a live talk show with the last remaining opposition television channel in Venezuela, Globovision. I sensed that merely appearing on TV and providing a series of careful and respectful comments about our work and presence in the country could be a moderating voice in a place that had become so intensely polarized. We were grateful to the US Embassy staff and information specialist Carolina Dominguez for trusting us to speak on live television.
I was struck by this, especially in light of the fact that the most repeated question Larry and I received before live audiences was about censorship in the US. How was it, we were often asked, that we could make films that were critical of US policy and not get shut down? It was not always easy to deflect this popularly held belief that in the US we are under constant vigilance.
I recalled that once in Havana, I was asked what it was like living in New York City, with machine guns mounted on every rooftop in order to keep order. Even on the present trip, it was not always easy to dispel such beliefs. But we personally needed no more evidence of our government’s general openness than the unquestioning support of our Embassy staff, who never ever suggested that we respond to even the most bald political jabs in any particular way.
Mérida
Our official duties continued at the University de Los Andes in Mérida after a grueling 15-hour van ride from Caracas. In Mérida, we were ably hosted Andrés Agusti, on the university faculty, and Michelle Lee, an American expatriate and head of the Centro Venezolano-Americano, a bi-national center in the vein of the “Colombo” that we had seen in Medellin.
It was great to be able to spend three days at the same institution, and with the same core group of students and faculty, but it meant generating an enormous amount of material to present and discuss. Fortunately, Larry had prepared me for this. Without being able to repeat material, we dug back into our catalogue of clips––which included segments from the Cuba/baseball documentary––and were able to explore much more comprehensively student inquiries about funding and marketing. When we showed King Corn, we were able to comment en masse about the fact that McDonalds franchises are proliferating faster in Venezuela than anywhere else on the continent.
Caracas
Feeling that our message was still only reaching a certain sector of the population, I helped organize a community screening in a marginal neighborhood back in Caracas. In a country where one is either excessively for or excessively against the current government, it can be very hard to find middle ground. And crossing the line between the two camps can be extremely difficult. For the US Embassy staff, it would have been nearly impossible to arrange an event in a poor neighborhood community center, as these tend to be the bases for some of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s most fervent supporters. But they threw their full support behind us in setting it up on our own.
We arrived on a rainy afternoon at a former mechanic’s garage bordered by high cement walls topped with broken bottles set in concrete. On one side of the compound, a community radio station with a dog on the roof and a 30-foot antenna beamed salsa and meeting notes to the surrounding neighborhood of San Bernardino. In the parking lot, our contacts had pitched a tent against the rain and had managed to borrow a video projector in preparation for our event.
The red stars stenciled everywhere and posters featuring Chavez reaching out to small children left no doubt about the political orientation of the center, but the welcome was warm and immediate. Within minutes, I was being interviewed on the community station with 1950s-era equipment that looked held together with rubber bands and solder. “Come on down,” I said into the microphone. “We’re projecting a free film about food!”
Larry rummaged through his tech-bag and miraculously produced the one wire we needed to get sound for the projection into an old boom box stereo while I went combing the neighborhood for more audience members.
The screening went very well, despite a move inside to escape the downpour. There was a great discussion of the trans-national issues of food and nutrition––and for the foreign visitors, a rare window into the complicated social and political world of Venezuela’s backstreets. It was a surprise to all of us that we were there in that room together on that rainy afternoon, but it exemplified much of the spirit of the whole tour: community, engagement and the ability to put a new face on the unknown.
Summary
Preparation and flexibility were the keys to the great success of the tour because in Venezuela, as well as Colombia, we had a great degree of both––on the part of the Embassy staff, local organizers, and the filmmakers. Thanks to Larry, I brought more material than I thought I needed. It struck me that tour needs were like those of a successful documentary shoot: You have to be prepared with a schedule of what you know you want to shoot, but you have to be available for what might arise spontaneously as well. Thus, in Venezuela the combination of regimented classroom work with the room to pull off a quickly planned community event brought diversity and complementary experiences to the tour.
Delegate Report
Lawrence Hott
As in Colombia, which we had just visited prior, the Venezuela program was discussed with the Cultural Affairs specialists at the Embassies before our arrival. Our liaisons were Sally Hodgson and Beatriz Freire. The planning began with a review of the materials that we would bring with us, which for me included Spanish-subtitled copies of Through Deaf Eyes, American Masters John James Audubon: Drawn From Nature, and Spanish language handouts of sample proposals, budgets, and publicity plans. We also discussed an outline for presentations and workshops.
Ricardo Restrepo, director of the film and arts organization Alados, graciously offered to provided Spanish subtitling for four five-minute clips from other Florentine Films/Hott productions. These clips were an invaluable tool for starting discussions about environmental issues and film, ethics questions, production values and interview techniques.
Caracas
Soon after Aaron Woolf and I arrived in Caracas, we were interviewed on Globovision, a major Venezuelan cable network. We were also interviewed by Universal, one of Venezuela’s large daily newspapers. Both interviews were widely seen and we received much positive feedback about them.
Mérida
Accompanied by Sally Hodgson, Beatriz Feir, and Javier Salazar from the US Embassy, we drove 15 hours to Mérida, home to the University of the Andes. The next morning, we started an intensive three days of workshops and presentations to professors, students and community members. Our hosts were Professor Andrés Agusti, who runs an eight-semester film studies program, and Michele Lee, the executive director of Centro Venezolano Americano de Mérida, the local Bi-National Commission.
The three-day schedule allowed us to see the students’ work, show our films in their entirety, have long and profound discussions with students and faculty, and meet with members of the community. I had a memorable discussion with two students at the premiere of another filmmaker’s production. These students challenged the notion that the US government does not censor documentaries nor threaten filmmakers who express opposition views. Our talk covered everything from the Bill of Rights to the impact of funding availability on the choice of subject matter. This conversation, in a nutshell, demonstrated the value of the American Documentary Showcase program.
On our final day in Mérida, we screened Through Deaf Eyes for an audience of deaf citizens, disabilities rights organizers, language professors, filmmakers and students. The questions and comments from the audience members indicated that they were inspired by the fight for deaf and disabilities rights in the US.
Caracas
We returned to Caracas, where Aaron had arranged a screening of King Corn at a local community center in San Bernardino, a low-income neighborhood. Community members packed the room and engaged in a lively discussion about US and Venezuelan food and farm policies after the showing.
The political situation in Venezuela is volatile and many of our discussions focused on the Chavez government, freedom of speech and the press, the success and failure of socialist policies, and the relationship between the US and Venezuela.
Summary
The Venezuela delegation experienced excellent planning and organization. With few exceptions, the programs were well planned and publicized, hotels were comfortable and convenient, and drivers, cars and security were excellent.
Also, Aaron’s fluency in Spanish was invaluable. I am conversational in Spanish, which allowed me to make presentations and respond to questions in Spanish. The Embassies, festivals and arts organizations always had excellent interpreters on hand, which made communication easy.
We prepared our program presentations in advance, but were flexible enough to change them when necessary. Sometimes we had more time than anticipated, other times less. In Mérida, for example, we presented to the same group three days in a row––so it was necessary to have a great deal of material to show.
Documentales de EEUU desarman la realidad
U.S. documentary disarms reality
Two filmmakers visit Venezuela to show their work
American Lawrence R. Hott produced documentaries since 1978. He won an Emmy in 1998 for his work Divided Highways: The Interstates and the Transformation of American Life and was twice nominated for an Oscar. Although topical plays, prefers to draw lines from past to present. For example, now produce an audiovisual that focuses on the war between the U.S. and England, 1812. "It's an exact parallel with the war in Iraq. Sometimes a documentary and is stronger than one on the present war." Besides, he adds, so it is easier to economic resources and provide product life.
His compatriot Aaron Woolf, also won awards including the George Foster Peabody, for King Corn (2008), the Logie and the Banff Rockie, leans more towards today. "I usually make films that try to draw the line between law and individuals." Speaking of laws, shoots against Arizona: "From my point of view, is demagogic out immigrants in the United States as if they were the problem with the economy. Always in difficult times it is easy for politicians to point to areas the weakest and most vulnerable society to achieve popular support, but to me, that law has no justification. "
Both filmmakers are in Venezuela under the American Documentary Showcase showing contemporary American documentaries in several countries, sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Department of State, and with the support of the U.S. Embassies.
Woolf ventures to list three keys to making documentaries have to be narrative. "There must be a story, you need a human face, a beginning, middle and end." Must begin with a quiz and finish with another. "A documentary transforms some questions in other, through a narrative that will engage material." You have to talk so visceral and intellectually. "A good documentary is something that grabs you by the heart, viscera and brain."
Hott adds one more clue: "A film must be, first, entertainment, because without this the public does not watch the documentary."