Venezuela Giving Danny Glover $18M to Direct Film on Epic Slave Revolt
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela is to give the American actor Danny Glover almost $18m (£9m) to make a film about a slave uprising in Haiti, with President Hugo Chávez hoping the historical epic will sprinkle Hollywood stardust on his effort to mobilise world public opinion against imperialism and western oppression.
The Venezuelan congress said it would use the proceeds from a recent bond sale with Argentina to finance Glover’s biopic of Toussaint Louverture, an iconic figure in the Caribbean who led an 18th-century revolt in Haiti. 
It will also give seed money for a film version of The General in His Labyrinth, Gabriel García Márquez’s novel about the last days of Simón Bolívar, who liberated much of South America from Spanish colonialism.
Glover, 60, who starred with Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series, and more recently with Eddie Murphy in the film DreamGirls, is a civil rights activist and supporter of Mr Chávez’s radical leftwing policies.
A document from the congress’s finance commission said the culture ministry would be a partner with Glover and give $17.8m for “scripts, production costs, wardrobe, lighting, transport, makeup and the creation of the whole creative and administrative platform”.
The project could mark a breakthrough for Villa del Cine, a new government-funded studio outside the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, which is part of Mr Chávez’s effort to combat what he sees as American cultural hegemony.
Glover, who visited Caracas at the weekend, told the Guardian that he would direct the film, titled Toussaint. “It’s so advanced that you can taste it. We’ve scouted locations within 75km [45 miles] of Caracas. I can do everything I need to do with this film from here.” He said he had been in talks with the government, but was unaware that a decision had been made until journalists tipped him off about the congress’s announcement. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” he said.
He suggested that there was still some uncertainty over whether the venture would go ahead. “One of the major axioms in theatre is never talk about anything until the deal is signed. There’s a lot of deliberation that goes on before something actually happens.”
It appeared that the congress timed the announcement to coincide with a media conference in Caracas hosted by the television network Telesur, a Venezuela-funded regional answer to CNN. Glover is on the board.
It would not be the first declaration to run ahead of reality. Mr Chávez once said the director Oliver Stone planned to make a film about him, but it came to nothing. However at the president’s request, Villa del Cine, which was inaugurated last year, is making a film about Francisco Miranda, who lit the fuse of South America’s liberation. A lavish production with hundreds of extras and battle scenes, its costumes and sets could work for the Haiti film.
Toussaint Louverture is a towering figure in the region’s history. A freed slave of African descent, he led thousands of slaves in successful campaigns against British, Spanish and French troops before being betrayed, captured and exiled. He died in 1803, just before his followers succeeded in establishing the island’s independence. William Wordsworth wrote a sonnet about him.
Glover said he wanted to educate the US about the story. “It’s been essentially wiped out of our historic memory, it’s been wiped clean.”
The actor is chairman of the TransAfrica Forum, an advocacy group for African Americans and other members of Africa’s diaspora, and a vocal critic of the Bush administration. Along with the singer Harry Belafonte, Glover is the best known celebrity supporter of Mr Chávez, whom he considers “remarkable”. He is a regular visitor to Venezuela.
Venezuela’s congress, which consists entirely of Chávez supporters, also said it would give $1.8m to develop a screen treatment of The General in His Labyrinth, by a Venezuela-born director, Alberto Arvelo. Some rate Gabriel García Márquez’s account of the final days of Bolívar along with the Colombian writer’s better known novels, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera.
To build consciousness of what Mr Chávez calls “21st-century socialism”, the government has funded nationwide screenings of Charlie Chaplin’s classic film Modern Times, about the exploitation of US factory workers during the depression.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Viva Chavez!!! Viva Glover!!! Viva Belafonte!!!
Another film I’ll look forward to seeing after SICKO.
It is entirely unfortunate that the author, Rory Carroll, characterizes Chavez policies as, “radical leftwing”, knowing full well that many western readers will recoil from Chavez’ work simply because Carroll used this propoganda framing. Chavez work is great to many of us ‘red-blooded yankees’, despite tricky propoganda efforts of the media to sway our perceptions of Chavez. I wish we had 100 ‘Chavezistas’ (sp) in our US Senate and an equally effective US House of Representatives. Given the opportunity, I would vote for Chavez before I would vote for any of the corrupt clowns running for president in the USA (or UK).
NelsonJ May 21st, 2007 1:01 pm
It is entirely unfortunate that the author, Rory Carroll, characterizes Chavez policies as, “radical leftwing”, knowing full well that many western readers will recoil from Chavez’ work simply because Carroll used this propoganda framing.
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Just part of the long term strategy to demonize a truly innovative thinker and doer like Hugo Chavez.
For some more insights on how the world multi-national order is working out this strategy go to:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2035
Let’s enjoy Chavez while we can. Everyone should realize that the Bush criminal gang, or the Giuliani or Clinton criminal gang that follows it in power, will most likely take Hugo out. They cannot bear to watch him set an example for others.
Nelson, I too was offended by the radical left wing characterization of Chavez by the syncophants of the radical right wing US government. I’d love to see a worldwide popularity poll between Bush and Chavez.
And while we use our foreign aid to buy guns and blackmail small countries, Chavez uses his to pay their bills to the obscene world bank and help poor Americans heat their homes. Meanwhile, the Republicans snarl at anyone who accepts from Chavez what we won’t do for them. Reminds me of when Reagan was governor of California, cutting food stamp grants and when Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the SLA and her ransom was $2 million in food boxes, Reagan’s comment was “I hope anyone eating that food gets botulism”.
Chavez is the shape of things to come. He’s one of the first of many ‘for the people’ politicans who will help us reshape the world so that it becomes a great place for everyone.
The status quote politicians who kiss the asses of the insanely greedy while giving lip service and lies to the people will soon be sad aspects of our past.
Look at the last 2,000 years, and look at the relatively sudden changes of the last 100-200 years.
We can and most certainly will end poverty, environmental degradation, and all the political corruption that creates those things. The truth spread far and wide, will set us free from the chains of deception & tyranny.
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“The time for war has past…”
Maitreya, the World Teacher
I agree that Chavez’s days are numbered because his kind of insubordination cannot go unpunished for long (his survival by a hair of the US-sponsored 2002 coup against his democratically-elected government underscored this).
Therefore, in the limited time he has remaining, among his most important cultural contributions would be well-researched, historically accurate, and dramatically compelling films that provide oppressed peoples of the Hemisphere a sense of radical history and collective shared experience, and models for resistance. In a similar vein, an English version of Telesur, provided it is done well with well-researched hard-hitting news, could also go a long way. Information can be like a hand-granade in its devestating effect against power.
Don’t sweat the labels that people put on people. Look and listen to the message. Millions are listening to Chavez. That makes him a threat to the United States of Everything. I just hope he can avoid assassination as well as Castro has done over the years.
Hoa binh
Viva Chavez. He is my hero. I wish we had someone in the US that the media would report on fairly. I can dream, can’t I?
What is all this anxiety over the use of the phrase “radical left-wing” to describe Chavez? And did someone say that “Western readers” will be upset over this? Surely it is only in the USA, not the West in general, that political culture is so degraded that words like “radical” (which means going to the root of matters) and ” left-wing” (which implies assigning greater value to the populace than to business interests) will be offensive. You guys are more fucked up than I thought.
Roger Milbrandt
Isn’t it somethin’ when the people of the U.S. must be liberated from those who should have been looking after our welfare: the administration; the elected officials.
Maybe we could devote just a little bit of thought to Toussaint Louverture and to Haiti while we’re at it and to the very long history of murderous US and French imperialism that country has suffered over the years. I think that’s what Hugo Chávez and Danny Glover have in mind.
Maybe we could devote just a little bit of thought to Toussaint Louverture and to Haiti while we’re at it and to the very long history of murderous US and French imperialism that country has suffered over the years. I think that’s what Hugo Chávez and Danny Glover have in mind.
Does anyone remember, a couple of quotes, one from Castro a few years ago, about the poor countries forming a debtors cartel,,,you could have hear a pin drop on wall street….and shortly after of course, not another thing was broadcast about it,,though some debt “frogiveness” was enacted, and thanks to the US tax-payer backed loans, we got screwed again, another quote was by John F. Kennedy, about disbanding the Federal Reserve Board, at the ‘63 spring Harvard Commencment? he got screwed, within the year,,,what a differant world it would have been with the Kennedy boys around..no doubt,,,just a final thought, This is a Democracy, We can Vote out the National Debt…..and in a land founded on Sacred Protest, thank god for the Bellefontes and the Glovers
more important here is the positive role media and film is taking OUTSIDE ths US and hollywood. Its not only important to have films about other countries and histories but also BY them.
Good point jenpitt,as a history buff I will be looking forward to this film. So many stories from our past need to be told,but never see the light of day. I applaude Glover and Chavez for making things happen.
right on Mr Glover,
[need any help let me know, i worked on 7 movies in Wilmywood and also knew Barry Seal, and ask Hilary about Mena}
and Viva Compadre Chavez, the first guys to show up in Central America and El Salvador to help when we have disasters
no hungry folks in Venezuela or many sleeping in the streets
Viva La Revolucion
Viva La Gente
see www.senorpescado.com and www.fairtradefish.org for HEMP info, the only real solution for the American farmer, North,Central and South
I wonder if Danny will include the historically accurate bit in ‘Toussaint’ where the American President, a slave holder, snarling and screaming slaps a total embargo on Haiti for having the temerity of seizing their own independence from colonial France. Danny could close the scene by following Tommy Jefferson down into the basement of the White House where Tommy rapes a 14yo Black girl named Sally Hemings, to teach that little girl her ‘place’. Do you think Tommy’s rage had anything to do with the fact that those freedom loving Haitians were Black? Tell me that Danny isn’t going to use a white man in the role of Tousaint. It would kind of lose something.
I wonder if Danny will also include the fact that Haiti is still paying reparations to La Belle France - from the original revolution - plus interest. Slave holders never lose their blood taste for the perquisites of slavery. Something about Aristocratic Wealth, Power, & Privilege. We certainly haven’t lost our taste for it in the US. We’re just itching to go back to the good old days when Tommy J. could collect a dowry of 200 humans in chains so that he could enjoy the above mentioned perquisites.
Nary a single melanin deficient Aryan male in our little tabernacle of freedom would refuse such an ‘opportunity’ to this day. This is who we are in our little cannibalistic blood feast called American society. Everybody wants to be a diner. Unfortunately, very few are allowed the pleasure of dining on human flesh for pleasure & profit. Nobody wants to be on the menu. But most are. No more Chapter 7, the chains await you all now - one major medical disaster or 3 downsizings away.
Slavery is not dead. It is very much a alive and thriving. Besides, every Capitalist can tell you: Nothing makes profits for the richfilth like slave labor, prison labor, child labor, and sweatshop labor - as our current US economy can attest.
Peace.
I hope this project goes through, I’d love to see it. I think what Chavez has been doing is awesome. If only we had more politicians like him, and too bad he’s not here! Our country could use someone like him.
many western readers will recoil from Chavez’ work simply because Carroll used this propoganda framing.
Please correctly replace “western readers” with American watchers . For the most part , generally speaking , Americans ate literately lazy or through no fault of their own , literately-challenged.
If American readers/watchers will recoil from Chavez’ work then Carroll tops Goebbels and America deserves the imminent fascist dictatorship.
kivals May 21st, 2007 2:06 pm
“Let’s enjoy Chavez while we can. Everyone should realize that the Bush criminal gang, or the Giuliani or Clinton criminal gang that follows it in power, will most likely take Hugo out. They cannot bear to watch him set an example for others.”
kivals: Chavez is a military man who already knows he’s on the “hit list”. Something tells me he is well protected every minute of every day. He is determined to stop imperialism from any country and I don’t believe he will be taken down as easily as many other leaders have. We can only hope he is successful in carrying out the will of his people.
At some point in time, the people in this country might actually vote for a president who has the insight of Hugo Chavez and spends our tax money on its citizens instead of military occupations. If we dared to change our perceptions and preoccupation with war and work toward cooperating with the needs of humanity, Chavez would probably give us all the oil we needed at a very reasonable price.
How f**king stupid are we to be spending billions of dollars every year on our military when we have been given a brain to utilize in the negotiation process?
QUEMADO or BURNT is an old (1960s or 70s) excellent film on exactly this. Terrific contemporary organ music also.
Hey Luckylefty–are you some neocon troll> Back off of the invective anti-caucasian racist blather–you are as absurd as those you criticize!
“Let’s enjoy Chavez while we can. Everyone should realize that the Bush criminal gang, or the Giuliani or Clinton criminal gang that follows it in power, will most likely take Hugo out. They cannot bear to watch him set an example for others.”
On the surface, this appears to be a really radical statement, but after hearing this interview Amy Goodman did with John Perkins, author of ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man’, I think it’s not such a radical statement after all. Yes, our government is as evil as they come, and will do whatever it takes to keep the Project for a New American Century in full-speed-ahead mode.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251
It’s not a party problem though. It’s a systemic problem. Our government is being run by psychopaths and has been for a long, long time. The first thing they did, after all, was slaughter well over a million people!
Also, Haiti had a leader who was elected by 92% of its people, and the US supported the coup that has him in exile to this day. We’re still backing slavery and oppression in that country, and any other country who gets too big for its socialist britches. I’m sickened by the fact that not much has changed since Toussaint Louverture’s time.
Hopefully the next movie will be on Marcus Garvey.
When I ask the few Venezulean immigrants that I know in this country what they think of Chavez, they give negative answers. And when I think about why this might be happening, I realize that plenty of immigrants come here because they want American toys….not freedoms or democracy,etc
I’m coming late to this party but wanted to add that the american neo-con mafia aren’t infallible. They’ve tried to wipe Castro off
the face of the earth many times but they’ve not succeeded yet and Havana is not that far from Miami. Hopefully Chavez stays
well-protected and leads the revolution for many years to come.
Chavez vs. Bush in a world wide popularity poll; Chavez would win by a landslide. Bush may well be the most hated man alive in the world. I truely wish that the Democrats had someone of Chavez’s stature to run in ‘08. In my opinion, the type of leadreship provided by Chavez is what the world will need in order to recover from the devistation caused by 8 years of rule by the mad man Bush. One of the easiest ways to support Chavez is to buy Citgo gas. The Citgo Company is owned wholely by the Venezuelan government.
When I saw the brave, non-drone-ish way those people stopped the attempt by Bush to remove Mr. Chavez from office, I actually choked up. I love courage and righteous anger. I really do. Too bad one needs to look to FOREIGN lands for a people of COURAGE and action, and leaders who actually CARE about their people. ‘Cuz you sure won’t see it here. Of course looking at the way you idiots grease yourselves up and bend over in front of Israel and big business, one could say you LIKE it.
NelsonJ May 21st, 2007 1:01 pm
“It is entirely unfortunate that the author, Rory Carroll, characterizes Chavez policies as, “radical leftwing”, knowing full well that many western readers will recoil from Chavez’ work simply because Carroll used this propoganda framing.”
Not nearly as bad, however, compared to the rightwing framing of the political spectrum that puts someone like Hillary Clinton squarely in the “radical leftwing” camp. Using this cynical, ridiculous standard, Dennis Kucinich would have to be designated as a crazy loon who lives in a tree and talks to animals. Hugo Chavez would then become Grxvgazx, a half monkey, half octopus ruler from the ZOilidhg dimension.
I look forward to this film and hope that its effect on life in this country will reflect the change which has become possible in venezuela and points south.
Yes, the US could surely use someone with the brains and balls and heart of Chavez.
But, folks, you need to face the facts: you do not deserve someone like Chavez. You simply have too much bad karma from invading and killing and ripping off other countries and spending your days shopping at the mall.
Thanks Hugo and Danny for your generosity, your courage and your vision.
So I was trying to post this this morning again after it was removed last night. probably cuz it repreznts a dissenting view. I sent an email to the webmaster so here it is again:
I was saying that a lot of posters on this site never lived in a wroker’s paradise like Chavez is trying to create. His rethoric id just like the one used in eastern Europe in the 50s.
One of the members mentioned:”Chavez is the shape of things to come. He’s one of the first of many ‘for the people’ politicans who will help us reshape the world so that it becomes a great place for everyone.” No he is not. Castro, Lenin, Stalin, Honecker, Ceausescu and other preceeded him and they used the same kind of language.
Excuse me, but I live and work and create in Latin America, and I can say without reservation that Chavez is the best thing to happen in this part of the world since it was discovered.
chameleon2,
There isn’t a country, political establishment, or group out there who’s most high-minded, inspiring rhetoric hasn’t matched in some way that used by the worst types of regimes. Try to find one principled appeal or economic and political advocacy that hasn’t been trotted out by Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union, or imperial Japan, or Guatemala, or Honduras, or Columbia, and so on and so on. Every action and policy of these types of countries was and is accompanied by the most inspiring and soul-lifting rhetoric. A lot of butchers out there have used the language of capitalism, free markets, individualism and private enterprise; using your logic, any leader or party committed to those policies or ideologies would therefore be plotting to create death-squad ridden, corrupt, third world dictatorships. So if you want to rely on that kind of faulty, guilt-by-association logic, keep in mind that others can play that game as well.
Ming and moonraven,
Pesonally, I sincerely hope you are right and I am wrong. However, having lived in a ‘workers paradise’ before, his speeches and actions (nationalizing private property, giving himself rule by decree privileges) bring back a lot of sad memories.
It usually starts like this. It was the same in Cuba and all over eastern Europe. Populist leaders kept feeding the people what they wanted to hear and it didn’t end up well. You know: “We must do our reforms now. Democracy will come later”.
It didn’t work before and I don’t see how it will work now. In an egalitarian society where there is no competition people are not motivated to be efficient and productive. You need a certain kind of human being for that and we are not ready yet. Not sure if it was Marx or Engels that said communism will arrise first in the most advanced capitalist societies. All communist experiments including the ones going on in South America now have taken place in underdeveloped societies, no offence to anyone, I hope. In order for a society like that to work you need an awful lot of overproduction and efficiency to be able to support the slackers, and, as time goes by there’s gonna be more and more of them.
Again, I hope I am wrong.
It’s surreal to read all of the Chavez sycophancy on this comment thread.
Chavez’s record speaks for itself: rampant inflation, mismanagement of his country’s oil industry, the exodus of middle class and upper middle class professionals, the silencing of dissenting media outlets, dubious land seizures that have crippled Venezuela’s agricultural economy, affiliating with reprehensible characters such as Ahmadinejad, the list goes on. Chavez has irresponsibly mortgaged his nation’s future for short-term political gain.
This proves that there is virtually no difference between the intellectual blindness and dishonesty of the extreme left and right.
I agree with moonraven. Let’s see and feel what’s really happening and listen to the uncensored local voices.
Mr. Chavez may seem like the hypocenter of the true democratization of Venezuela, but it’s the once completely oppressed people who are now actually working in their respective community to improve health care, education, etc.
In short, the vast majority of people in Venezuela are not passively observing the Bolivarian Revolution. They are making it. That’s what Washington is most afraid of.
Creo que Hugo Chavez sea lo mejor gente ahoracito por el pais de Venezuela. Es facil ver quienes de Los Estados Unidos con estos escritos. Estoy de acuerdo con moonraven para que Los Americanos solamente quieren y esperen tener un Presidente como Hugo Chavez. Necesitaran alguien como Hugo Chavez en 2008 ayudarles construye sus pais, lo cual ahora sus presidente ya ha desarrollado.
chameleon:
The Chinese workers paradise is on the up and up. Makes one wonder how Cuba would have fared if it wasn’t for the vengeance of the Miami Cubans. They have universal health care and a sustainable society though.
It seems that sometimes communism and capitalism work and sometimes they don’t. According to the Venezuelans, their Latin American neigbors and the people here whom he gave cheap heating oil to this winter, Chavez is working great. According to Big Oil and the Bushites, he’s not. Who shall we believe?
I applaud Mr. Glover and President Chavez for giving us the truth for a change. We have romanticized our founding fathers too much in the past. We fail to realize that human rights, the right to vote and the right to participate in a democracy were privy to only those who were white, male and property owners. Women and people of color were not included until we put up a fuss.
If this is a Haitian story, how come Mr. Glover is so determined to shoot it in Venezuela and not where it actually took place, Haiti. I cannot think of a more suitable place where Danny can find better locations, more props and extras, than Haiti.
The Haitian people can definitely benefit from it. And why not it is their story.