The War on Democracy Q&A

The Duke of York cinema, are showing “The War on Democracy” from Friday, 13 July until Thursday 19 July.

On Monday, 16 July, the film's director, Chris Martin, will be giving an introduction to the film at 6.30pm. The screening will be followed by a Question and Answer session, and general discussion at Circus Circus, organised by Brighton Hands off Venezuela in collaboration with Brighton No Sweat.

Click this link to download a leaflet.

Film Synopsis
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In his second inauguration address, President Bush pledged to “bring democracy to the world”. In a speech lasting 23 minutes, he mentioned the words ‘democracy’ and ‘liberty’ 21 times. Most of the world, it is fair to say, will have recoiled, many in fear...
Bush’s speech was significant because it finally emptied noble concepts like ‘democracy’ of their true meaning – government, for, by and of the people. Never before have people in the west shown such disenchantment with the democracy they vote for and the version they get. Never before has most of humanity registered such alarm at the ambitions of a great power.
The War on Democracy demonstrates the brutal reality of the America’s notion of 'spreading democracy'; that, in fact, America is actually conducting a war on democracy, and that true popular democracy is now more likely to be found among the poorest of Latin America whose grassroots movements are often ignored in the west.
John Pilger conducts an exclusive interview 'on the road' with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Pilger also goes to the United States and in some remarkable interviews, speaks exclusively to US govt officials who ran the CIA's war in Latin America in the 1980s. This reveals more about US policy than all the statements and postures of recent times; it also reveals how what’s happened in Latin America is a metaphor for how the rest of the world is being 'ordered'.
The film contains moving testimonies from those who fought and suffered for democracy – in Chile and Bolivia. Filming in the Andean country of Bolivia shows that for the last five years huge popular movements have demanded that multinational companies be refused to access the country’s natural reserves of gas, or to buy up the water supply.
The War on Democracy, however, is a hopeful film, for it sees the world not through the eyes of the powerful, but through the hopes and dreams and extraordinary actions of ordinary people. Although set mostly in Latin America, it is a metaphor for all the world in 2007.
The 'message' of John Pilger’s latest film is a constant theme in all his work: that great, rapacious power is far from invincible and that people power is enduring.
Few films have been as timely as The War on Democracy

Links
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Official site: http://www.warondemocracy.net/
John Pilger: http://www.johnpilger.com/
Brighton Hands off Venezuela: http://www.brightonhov.org.uk/
Interview with John Pilger on the making of the film: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2028

If you want to know even more about Pilger:
"The liberal war on democracy"
http://www.newstatesman.com/200703190024

45 minute talk by Pilger, from mid-June
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4258131083758254736