I wanted to see this documentary which was showing here at the film festival but it was sold out. There were some people outside the cinema with propaganda that made it sound like Amnesty International did not agree with the film. I was quite pereplexed and have been trying to find out the truth. Thank you for posting this message.

Ian, thank you for raising this point.

indeed, when i went to see this doc at the RIDM last week, there were two or three people distributing crudely-produced flyers denouncing the The Revolution .. as "Chavez-funded brainwashing". their tone was confrontational, and they were asked to leave the NFB building to distribute their material outside, but nonetheless they returned indoors at the end of the film to push their material on people leaving the theatre. the "documents" (a yellow sheet and a stapled booklet of photocopies) were so poorly made and devoid of substance that they were hard to take seriously, but nonetheless i now regret not keeping copies for posting on this site. at the time, like most of the audience, i simply laughed it all off.

incidentally, i have to say i'm not surprised that the anti-Chavistas are so scared of this film -- this is an exceptionally well-made, passionately-told, and inspiring documentary. the showing on November 18th at the NFB had a full house, with people sitting on the sides and standing in the back. because of the special access that the filmmakers had to the presidential palace, the story of the coup was shown from a tense, personal perspective which had the audience cheering and clapping by the time of Chavez' triumphal return onscreen.

i should also mention, in case you haven't heard, that The Revolution Will Not Be Televised made it into the final "Public's Choice" selection of the RIDM, along with L'Argent, and My Flesh and Blood. the three selected films were thus shown again yesterday evening at the Cinémathèque Québécoise.

finally, in case you missed it all, i'm told by a Venezuelan acquaintance that a DVD version of this film may be available -- apparently it's been going around within expatriate Bolivarian Circles in the States (!). but apart from that, it would be great if one of Montreal's repertory theatres (such as Du Parc) picked up this movie, although it may be a bit "too political" for them -- perhaps they can be convinced otherwise by, say, a letter-writing campaign?