After a busy few months, it’s been good to do a half-week of work and spend some time getting mind, body and soul together.

My friend Peter has been helping to organize screenings of videos and films at the Arc in Dunedin for Indymedia with some success so J. & I headed into town to check out The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – a documentary about the Chavez Government in Venezuela and the attempted army/elite coup in 2002 that failed.

It’s a fascinating documentary that makes no bones about its sympathies towards Chavez, which I share. The poverty of the majority of the people in this country is appalling given that it is one of the world’s biggest oil producing countries. Chavez wants to take the wealth and redistribute it to the people. Good idea, sure, except the small but powerful elite don’t like it so have been trying their damnedest to get rid of the elected President.

The documentary gives a fly on the wall view of what it’s like to be inside a coup – literally – as the documentary crew sit in on cabinet meetings, first of the Chavez government, then of the coup leaders, then of the reinstated Chavez Government. Even if you don’t share the political views, it’s an amazing spectacle – the total chaos and surrealness of the situation are incredible.

This would have to be the best documentary I have seen in years – a must see for all those who have a sneaking suspicion the world is being run by a bunch of greed-crazed fat cats but may need some more concrete evidence.