Bolivar Movie Launched as Venezuelan Film Production Increases

Mérida, 7^th August 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) –Yesterday President Nicolas Maduro attended the premiere of the Venezuelan film, “Bolivar, the man of difficulties” in Caracas.

The movie tells the story of part of Simon Bolivar’s life, between May 1815 and May 1816, where after losing the second republic to José Tomas Boves, he was exiled to Jamaica. The movie lasts 1 hour 57 minutes, and will be shown in 45 cinemas around the country from 16 August.

It was produced by Villa del Cine, with collaboration from Cuba’s Instituto de Arte e Industria, and Spain’s Wanda Films, Lusa Films, and TVE. The Venezuelan government and the ministry for culture fund Villa del Cine.

The studio produces full features, shorts, documentaries, and animation. At the inauguration of Villa del Cine in 2006, then president Hugo Chavez said the company was important to counter the “dictatorship of Hollywood…the eight biggest studios of Hollywood distribute 85% of the national movie market, and occupy 98% of sales in Latin America”.

The first movie produced by Villa del Cine was Miranda Regresa, (Miranda Returns), released in 2007, and told the story of Venezuelan independence revolutionary Francisco de Miranda.

Other productions of Villa del Cine include Cheila, una Casa pa’ Maita, about a transsexual living in the Caracas barrios; Libertador Morales, El Justiciero, about a man who participates in his communal council and fights crime; 1,2 y 3 Mujeres, about the role of women in society; Alias Bambi C-4, based on the story of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles; Azu, about the story of Africans in Venezuela; and Dias de Poder, about the period after dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez fell and a revolutionary leader who gains institutional power and betrays his ideals.

Now the company has produced 114 works, including co-productions, with 23 to be produced this year.

The director of the Bolivar film, Luis Lamata, said it was important that Venezuelans are able find themselves in the stories that are on television and cinema screens. “We can’t give up on our own audiovisual image, I want the dramas on our television to be well-produced and told,” he said.

“There are big expectations for this movie, because of the historical conditions of Venezuela,” Maduro said at the premiere. “It’s the best present that could be given to the Venezuelan people”.

Talking about Simon Bolivar, Lamata said, “The closer you get to Bolivar, the more you realise that he was an extraordinary man, capable of making mistakes, but willing to recognise them and to change”.