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Five films about the struggle to create an alternative society that is taking place across Latin America today. Highlighting the experiences of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador. A fundraiser for Green Left Weekly.

Friday April 18- Sunday April 20
Price $8/$5 conc per film OR $20/$12 all session pass

Friday

7pm: `The War on Democracy' (2007, 96 min)

In his latest film, award winning journalist John Pilger examines the role of Washington in America's manipulation of Latin American politics during the last 50 years and the struggle by ordinary people to free themselves from poverty and racism. Since the mid 19th Century Latin America has been the `backyard' of the U.S., a collection of mostly subordinate states whose complaint and often brutal regimes have reinforced the `invisibility' of their majority peoples. It explores the rise of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and the ongoing U.S. backed efforts to unseat him in spite of his overwhelming mass popularity.

Saturday

4pm: `The Revolution will not be Televised' (2003, 74 min)

Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering crowds. Their award winning film records what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état.

6.30pm: Delicious dinner and a revolutionary toast to Fidel

7pm: `Fidel and Che' (2005, 204 min)

An epic story spanning 60 years of a Cuban leaders rise from guerrilla outpost to presidential palace. Starring Gael Garcia Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Diego Luna (Havan Nights). Beginning with Castro as a young lawyer, committed to helping the down-trodden, he is soon drawn into politics and then into rebellion, staging a failed attack on a Cuban Army barracks that becomes the symbol of his revolutionary movement against the military dictatorship of General Batista.

Sunday: 4pm `Now the people have awoken' (2007, 60 min)

Made by two New Zealand film-makers this film looks at the new Venezuela; for some it has been stolen by a populist dictator, while for others Venezuela represents the centre of a continent-wide democratic revolution. What makes Venezuela tick? Who is behind the movement and what does it seek?

5pm: `The Power of Community- How Cuba survived Peak Oil' (2006, 60 min)

Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

All films screened at the Hobart Activist Centre.

225 Murray St, Hobart. Call 6234 6397 to book.