PIFF Report From Homely Planet
tharp42 - Mon, 2007-10-08 23:54
Cocalero
Argentina/Bolivia, 2007
This documentary follows leftist rabble-rouser Evo Morales during his campaign to become the first indigineous president of Bolivia. Filmaker Alejandro Landes was granted massive access in the two months leading up to the election, giving us an interesting, if incomplete portrait of the man.
Since the 80's, the United States government has spent huge amounts of time and money in an attempt to eradicate the coca crop in Bolivia, often with the cooperation of various right-wing governments which have held power. Thousands of farmers rely on coca as their livelihood, and over the years they have organized into coca-growing unions in attempt to resist eradication. People have been killed, imprisoned, and communities decimated. Lots of garden-variety Latin-American oppression. The unions - known as cocaleros - have fought back with demonstrations, sabotage, and recently, political clout. Morales - an Indian - came straight out of this movement, and now runs the country. He heads up the MAS party, which means "Movement Towards Socialism." He wants to nationalize the country's natural gas reserves and redistribute the land, much of which is horded by a handful of rich families. He has also cozied up to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Brazil's Lula, and more recently, Iran's Ahmedinijad. His rhetoric is fiercely anti-capitalistic and anti-imperialist and anti-American.
I like the guy.
But did I like this film? Sure. It gives us a glimpse into Bolivian society, into an historic movement - a group of people who are telling the man to go fuck himself. But I can't say that it's a great or even good documentary. Little opposing points-of-views are aired. A complete story isn't really told. The camera work is shaky and shoddy, and the whole thing feels incomplete.
However, the filmmaker managed to go to Bolivia at a critical time and record some real history, so the movie's worth a watch on those terms alone.
Argentina/Bolivia, 2007
This documentary follows leftist rabble-rouser Evo Morales during his campaign to become the first indigineous president of Bolivia. Filmaker Alejandro Landes was granted massive access in the two months leading up to the election, giving us an interesting, if incomplete portrait of the man.
Since the 80's, the United States government has spent huge amounts of time and money in an attempt to eradicate the coca crop in Bolivia, often with the cooperation of various right-wing governments which have held power. Thousands of farmers rely on coca as their livelihood, and over the years they have organized into coca-growing unions in attempt to resist eradication. People have been killed, imprisoned, and communities decimated. Lots of garden-variety Latin-American oppression. The unions - known as cocaleros - have fought back with demonstrations, sabotage, and recently, political clout. Morales - an Indian - came straight out of this movement, and now runs the country. He heads up the MAS party, which means "Movement Towards Socialism." He wants to nationalize the country's natural gas reserves and redistribute the land, much of which is horded by a handful of rich families. He has also cozied up to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Brazil's Lula, and more recently, Iran's Ahmedinijad. His rhetoric is fiercely anti-capitalistic and anti-imperialist and anti-American.
I like the guy.
But did I like this film? Sure. It gives us a glimpse into Bolivian society, into an historic movement - a group of people who are telling the man to go fuck himself. But I can't say that it's a great or even good documentary. Little opposing points-of-views are aired. A complete story isn't really told. The camera work is shaky and shoddy, and the whole thing feels incomplete.
However, the filmmaker managed to go to Bolivia at a critical time and record some real history, so the movie's worth a watch on those terms alone.