LONDON: Head south of the Rio Grande and you will inevitably find yourself in a lawless world of sadistic gang members and elaborately moustachioed drug barons, where the water is not safe to drink and every action unfolds against a haunting soundtrack of pan pipes.
That, at least, is the Hollywood version of Latin America. In an attempt to combat those stereotypes, the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has launched an $11m film studio which he says will create a homegrown cinema culture to counter the “dictatorship” of Hollywood.
Opening the Cinema Town complex on Saturday, Mr Chávez described the studio as a new weapon in Venezuela’s “cultural artillery” against US cultural domination. Hollywood films perpetuate the stereotypes of Latin America, portraying the continent as a haven for drug traffickers and criminals, he said.
“That is a cultural dictatorship and we have to confront it,” he said. Mr Chávez did not name any specific films, but Hollywood has often used Latin America as a setting for action movies such as Collateral Damage, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a fireman who defeats a Colombian terrorist boss, and Proof of Life, in which Russell Crowe falls victim to kidnappers. “It’s a Hollywood dictatorship,” said Mr Chávez. “They inoculate us with messages that don’t belong to our traditions ... [about] the American way of life, imperialism.”
The cinema complex is the latest stage in his campaign to expand Venezuela’s influence throughout Latin America. Last year saw the launch of Telesur, a Caracas-based TV channel promising news from a Latin American perspective. The channel is backed by Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Brazil, but the Venezuelan government contributed 70% of funding, and opponents of the firebrand president were quick to call it “Telechávez”.
Mr Chávez recently announced that the American director Oliver Stone is planning to make a film of the failed coup attempt in 2002, which involved a conspiracy to oust the Venezuelan president. His government has shown less enthusiasm for visions that do not embrace the “Bolivarian Revolution”. Since its release last year, Secuestro Express has become the most successful Venezuelan film to date, but it was denounced by the vice-president, José Vincent Rangel, as “a miserable film, a falsification of the truth”.
The film portrays the violent kidnapping of a middle-class couple by three drug-addled gangsters, and its reception has reflected the deep polarisation of Venezuelan society. Opponents of Mr Chávez seized on the film as an exposé of his failure to rein in poverty and crime, while his supporters saw it as yet more evidence of the media stereotyping.
The film, which opens in the UK this Friday, is now the target of a lawsuit accusing author and director Jonathan Jakubowicz of encouraging drug use and insulting the military and Mr Chávez. He faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service
