Skidmore to show documentary on Hugo Ch vez

	Hugo Ch vez

Puedo Hablar? May I Speak?, a documentary on the rise of Venezuelan President Hugo Ch vez, will be shown at Skidmore College on Monday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. in Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall. The film's producer and co-director, Chris Moore, will be available for discussion following the screening.

Created by a group of young filmmakers who graduated from Trinity College in 2006, the film explores Venezuela's "Bolivarian revolution" under Ch vez. The group has also produced and directed a second documentary, Democracy in Dakar, which chronicles the role of hip-hop music in Senegalese politics.

Puedo Hablar? May I Speak? was shot during two months in Venezuela in which the crew followed both presidential candidates as they raced towards the December 3, 2006, elections. The film offers a snapshot of a Venezuelan society at a crossroads?a re-elected president challenged by a mounting opposition, and a country torn between two definitions of democracy.

The crew traveled to six regions of Venezuela, filming everything from the notorious barrios of Caracas to the oil-rich Lake Maracaibo, from a city of five million to an Amazonian pueblo of 23 residents. They journeyed in everything from motorcycles to dugout canoes to a private jet.

The trailer for the film is available online here.

Support for the event has been provided by the Latin American Studies Program and the academic departments of Foreign Languages and Literatures; Government; History; and Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work.