Venezuela: Revolution from the Inside Out

The Red Elvis

February 2007 •German

A documentary on the late American entertainer Dean Reed, who became a huge star in East Germany after settling there in 1973.

The First Years

January 1950 •Czech

Los Hijos del Silencio

June 2018 •Spanish

How many parents lost their sons? How many sons lost their parents? A young boxer faces his biggest fight, although it is not the battle he expected, in a dark moment of life he faces fate with nothing to gain, like another son.

Do Útero Ao Túmulo

December 2022 •Portuguese

Lenin kam nur bis Lüdenscheid - Meine kleine deutsche Revolution

February 2008 •German

Beauty Factory

February 2014 •English

From oratory classes to operating room, Beauty Factory follows five girls for four months as they compete for the coveted Miss Venezuela crown; revealing the process that has won Venezuela more international beauty pageants than any other country.

Swing con Son

April 2009 •Spanish

Music documentary by director Rafael Marziano Tinoco from Venezuela

The Hugo Chavez Show

November 2008 •English

Frontline examines Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez chronicling his rise to power and offering insights into his personality, policies and his shrewd use of the media.

Balaton retró

December 2007 •Hungarian

Scenes from holiday life at Lake Balaton in Hungary during the communism.

Cuban Serenade

January 1997 •English

Finnish documentary about Cuba.

Venezuela es un Desorden

December 2018 •Spanish

Through humor, anecdotes and their songs, mythical Venezuelan ska band Desorden Público tells their story and that of three decades of their country.

Working for the Enemy

June 1997 •English

Sean McAllister's bleak, extraordinarily intimate film offers an insight into the lives of 35 year old Kevin, who hasn't worked in 18 years, and his 19 year old girlfriend Robbie, who earns 70 pounds a week as a seamstress.

Scenes For A Revolution

May 1991 •English

The film is about aftermaths and reckonings. Revisiting material for his earlier 4-part series, Karlin returns to Nicaragua to examine the history of the Sandinista government, consider its achievements, and assess the prospects for democracy following its defeat in the general election of 1990.

The heart of Caracas

November 2013 •Spanish

Caracas has been changing since the nineteenth century this is a story that tries to explain why the Venezuelan capital is complex, chaotic and fertile. In light of these new evidences, community experiments, social awareness and organization of people, seem to be the necessary ingredients to rescue a metropolis that is not yet completely lost.

Nicaragua Part 1: Voyages

October 1985 •English

Composed of stills by renowned Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas taken in 1978 and 1979 during the overthrow of the fifty-year dictatorship of the Somoza family. Written in the form of a letter from Meiselas to Karlin, it is a ruminative and often profound exploration of the ethics of witnessing, the responsibilities of war photography and the politics of the still image.

Nicaragua Part 2: The Making of a Nation

October 1985 •English

Shot in 1983–84 and focusing on the work of the Historical Institute, this film witnesses how Nicaraguans are recovering their history, the memory of Sandino’s struggle, to transform their sense of identity.

Nicaragua Part 3: In Their Time

October 1985 •English

Through the eyes of journalists and photographers working at Barricada, the official publication of the FSLN, the film observes the problems of putting socialism into practice, with reports on the war, the economy, the prison system and the political process leading up to the 1984 elections.

Nicaragua Part 4: Changes

November 1985 •English

A portrait of a remote area in the rural north of Nicaragua facing difficulties with the revolutionary process. It follows Marlon Stuart, the regional FSLN political organiser, at the time of the 1984 elections.

Cuba’s Life Task: Combatting Climate Change

November 2021 •Spanish

Climate change is among the world’s greatest challenges. As a small Caribbean island, Cuba is disproportionately affected by climate change through extreme weather events. Up to 10% of Cuban territory could be submerged by the end of the century, wiping out coastal towns, polluting water supplies, destroying agricultural lands and forcing one million people to relocate. Finding solutions is now essential. In this documentary, Dr Helen Yaffe goes to Cuba to find out about ‘Tarea Vida’ (Life Task), a long-term state plan to protect the population, environment and the economy from climate change. The Cuban approach combines environmental science, natural solutions and community participation in strategies for adaptation and mitigation. Produced by DaniFilms with Dr Helen Yaffe from the University of Glasgow for the COP26 conference in Glasgow.

East-West Passage

February 2010 •Hungarian

In the summer of 1989 tens of thousands of tourists from communist East Germany came to Hungary. They were deeply disillusioned because they felt they had no future in East Germany. There was no freedom, no choice in the shops, salaries were low and they could not travel except to Eastern Europe. They wanted to go to a prosperous and free West Germany but they could not get passports, so they hoped that by travelling through Hungary, the least suppressed country of the Soviet Block, they could cross the Iron Curtain into Austria and then travel on into West Germany. For them the Hungary of twenty years ago was the new east-west passage. Written by Czes