"Moving Pictures permits the viewer a privileged window on the
changes
and especially the continuities in Venezuelan social and
political life.
This wonderful documentary will be of interest to all
observers of Venezuela."
-Thad Dunning, Yale University
Sol Productions is proud to announce the release of our latest feature-length documentary film, Moving Pictures o Los Autos de Caracas, which will premiere this October the 7th at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs.
In the fall of 2006, a team of four young Americans spent two months in Venezuela filming interviews and events with people from across the political spectrum ahead of that year's presidential election. The film, ¿Puedo Hablar? / May I Speak?, offered a portrait of Venezuelan society at a crossroads; a re-elected President Hugo Chávez, challenged by a mounting opposition; a divided Venezuelan state, but one from which the team managed to extract glimmers of hope for renewed dialogue and a bridging of the political gap.
In Moving Pictures o Los Autos de Caracas, the group of young Americans travels once again throughout Venezuela—from the crowded capital city, Caracas, to the Amazon, the Andes, and Lake Maracaibo, reconnecting with characters featured in the first film. This new documentary from Sol Productions chronicles the trajectory of these Venezuelans’ lives in the four years since Hugo Chávez's re-election. It contemplates what these stories mean for the legacy of Chávez's rise to power and for the future of this fascinating country, examining a nation as it grapples with its many autos--el automóvil, la autopista, el autorretrato, la autoleyenda, la autonomía, la autosostenibilidad, la autocrítica, and others.
To help disseminate the documentary in Venezuela, we have made the film available in its entirety below. If you are with an educational institution in the United States and would like to share our film with your students, we ask that you please purchase an Academic DVD copy of the film, which comes with the rights for public screenings:
Reviews:
"This film is an intriguing and provocative account of Venezuelan politics and society in 2010. Moreover, it provides a highly instructive account of changes and continuities since 2006 when Chris Moore and his film crew shot their highly acclaimed film, “Puedo hablar?” That film involved interviews with people from radically different regions and walks of life. In Moving Pictures, in addition to offering instructive archival footage and many new interviews, the same informants are re interviewed, offering the viewer fascinating insights on the regional diversity of Venezuela as on political and social change under Chavez. As with “Puedo hablar?,” this film is all the more compelling because of its intelligent and sustained effort to achieve balance in such and extremely polarized society. In short, this film forms a significant counterpoint to the U.S. media coverage of Venezuela and would be a great addition to any class that deals with contemporary Latin America."
- Jeffrey Gould, Professor, Indiana University
"The mood is meditative from the start which, when dealing with a subject like the Chávez era, is a declaration all its own: this film is not about to get swept up in propagandistic bullshit. Instead, you soon realize you're in for a sort of CAT-scan of the petrostate. Moore tries to make chavismo, well, not quite sympathetic, but explicable. Through big-hearted portrayals of everyday chavistas, we get an intimate look at their hopes, annoyances, blindspots and aspirations that fuel the Chávez moment... Just as important as what we do get, however, is what we don't get: the film is like a De-Militarized Zone for polarisation, a safe haven from all the usual bullshit that sucks all the air out of most discussions about Venezuela... This kind of filmmaking is a breath of fresh air."
- Francisco Toro, editor, CaracasChronicles.com
(read full review from Caracas Chronicles here)
For more information on this film, please write chris@sol-productions.org 