Venezuela's leader on the big screen

The Venezuelan consulate in Boston is co-sponsoring two screenings on Saturday of a prize-winning, controversial Irish documentary film about the attempted coup that nearly ousted President Hugo Chavez in 2002.

The 2003 film, "The Revolution Will Not be Televised," was made by an Irish film crew that happened to be in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, in April 2002 when the opposition tried to depose the elected president. After two days of confusion and unrest, Chavez was restored to office.

The film's executive producer, Rod Stoneman, will be at the screenings -- and will discuss his 2008 book, a case study about the Venezuelan media's relations with Chavez, and about the controversy the film generated. Stoneman is director of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

The documentary explores the role of the Venezuelan media, and especially the privately owned television channels, in the opposition's efforts to undermine the populist president since he took office in 1998 (he was reelected in 2000 and 2006.) The film has won numerous awards at film festivals, although its critics dismiss it as propaganda supporting what they say is an increasingly authoritarian government.

Chavez, who himself led an attempted coup against the elected president in 1992, has built his political power on support from the Venezuelan working class, which had long felt excluded and persecuted by the country's small, wealthy elite.

The documentary and discussions will take place Saturday, Sept. 19:
--At 12:30 pm. at Lower Mills Branch Library, 27 Richmond Street, Dorchester, and;
--at 4 p.m. at Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St, 2nd Floor.