Indirect censorship in Venezuela
The Melon Farmers report that the critically acclaimed film, Secuestro Express, about violent street crime in Caracas, has become a box office smash in Venezuela while sparking a raging political controversy that could get it yanked from theaters and possibly land its director in jail.
Since its summer release in Caracas, the Miramax-distributed movie - which has been denounced as “miserable” by Venezuela’s vice president - has generated two lawsuits, including one that calls for pulling it from circulation to delete a specific scene culled from news footage during a public rebellion against the Chávez regime.
A second lawsuit accuses director Jonathan Jakubowicz of fomenting illegal drug use and vilifying the nation’s armed forces and its president, charges that carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Those cases are pending before Venezuela’s high court.
Director Jakubowicz said: “It’s really chilling that this is the message they are sending to our future artists. Because even if they haven’t banned the film, they’re engaging in a kind of indirect censorship. How will future Venezuelan artists feel about expressing their opinions when [authorities] want to put us in jail even though we never attacked them, or even spoke ill of them at any time?”
The drug use and armed forces case has been filed by a private attorney in Venezuela, known for his participation in controversial government-related cases.
The other suit is a defamation case involving a former Chávez government official who appears briefly as part of news footage spliced into the movie’s menacing opening montage. The official, Rafael Cabrices, is shown firing a weapon from a bridge during a massive street demonstration in 2002 that led to the temporary ousting of Chávez.
The suit asks that Secuestro Express be removed from theaters until Jakubowicz deletes the scene with Cabrices. After the prosecution lost in lower courts, both cases are awaiting rulings on their legal merits from the higher court. Báez, the filmmaker’s lawyer, does not give them much chance of success. But if they prevail, it would open legal doors for banning the film and seeking prison time for the director, he said.
Sunday 06 Nov 2005 | Paul | Venezuela
