Venezuela Rising - Film Showing & Party In Portland This Saturday

Venezuela Rising - Film Showing & Party

DATES: May 09, 2009 through May 09, 2009

TIME: 6:30 pm

Portland Central American Solidarity Committee PCASC

MORE INFO: www.pcasc.net

DESCRIPTION: "Venezuela Rising" screening w/ filmmaker Jennifer Wager

Where: Worksound PDX (820 SE Alder St., Portland, OR)
When: Saturday May 9, 6:30-11pm
6:30 Refreshments
7-8pm Film Screening
8-9pm Q&A and Discussion with filmaker
9-11pm Music by the Themes and Blood
Suggested Donation: $5-10

Film Synopsis:

Venezuela Rising: As seen through the eyes of grandmother and community organizer Gladys Bolivar, the documentary "Venezuela Rising" follows her and her compatriots five days before it is to be decided by popular referendum whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will continue in office or step down. The entire nation has been mobilized–will it be SI–yes he will be recalled, or NO–he will remain in office. Most in Venezuela feel that no less than the entire future of their country is at stake.

Issues of democracy and politics are addressed–what consitutes a free and fair election–and is that enough to ensure citizen participation? How are elections the ultimate measure of a thriving democracy?

"Venezuela Rising" gets behind the headlines and into the neighborhoods of Caracas to find out how participatory democracy works on the ground.

Jennifer Wager is a NYC media educator and director of the film. She currently teaches video production and post-production at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, the flagship community TV station in the U.S. Venezuela Rising is her second documentary on Venezuela. Her first, Hij@s de Bolivar, was shot in the months immediately following the 2002 coup.

This event is sponsored by the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC).

PCASC educates and mobilizes community members, workers and students around struggles for human rights and social justice throughout the Americas.

PCASC's peace delegation to Venezuela is an effort to cultivate ties of international solidarity between activists for peace and social justice in the United States and Venezuela. This delegation will be an opportunity for US peace activists and Venezuelan social movements to coordinate their work, especially in pressuring the Obama Administration to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and end US intervention in Latin America. Delegates include Iraq War veterans, student organizers, community media activists and peace activists.