[Reader-list] Fwd: FRONTLINE Pre-Releases The Hugo Chavez Show Online

[Steve Rhodes]

FRONTLINE has pre-released "The Hugo Chavez Show" in English and Spanish
online at at http://www.pbs.org/frontline/hugochavez/

The film airs in the United States 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.

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

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