<nettime-ann> [ann] Info: Video/installation

["Oliver Ressler" <oliver.ressler@chello.at>]

.

(for Spanish or German please scroll down)



5 FACTORIESâ??WORKER CONTROL IN VENEZUELA

A Film by Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler
81 min., 2006


In their second film regarding political and social change in Venezuela,
after â??Venezuela from Belowâ?? (67 min., 2004), Azzellini and Ressler
focus on the industrial sector in â??5 Factoriesâ??Worker Control in
Venezuelaâ??. The changes in Venezuela's productive sphere are
demonstrated with five large companies in various regions: a textile
company, an aluminum works, a tomato factory, a cocoa factory, and a
paper factory. In all, the workers are struggling for different forms of
co- or self-management supported by credits from the government. â??The
assembly is basically governing the companyâ??, says Rigoberto López
from
the textile factory â??Textileros del Táchiraâ?? in front of steaming
tubs.
And coning machine operator Carmen Ortiz summarizes the experience as
follows: â??Working collectively is much better than working for
anotherâ??working for another is like being a slave to that otherâ??.

The protagonists portrayed at the five production locations present
insights into ways of alternative organizing and models of workers'
control. Mechanisms and difficulties of self-organization are explained
as well as the production processes. The portrayal of machine processes
could be seen as a metaphor for the dream machine of the â??Bolivarian
processâ??, and the hopes and desires it inspires among the workers. The
situation in the five factories varies, but they share the common search
for better models of production and life. This not only means concrete
improvements for the workers. Aury Arocha, laboratory analyst at the
ketchup factory â??Tomates Guáricoâ??, emphasizes that the difference
between â??social production companiesâ?? (EPS) and capitalist
corporations
is that the EPS â??work for the community and societyâ??. Carlos Lanz,
president of the second largest aluminum factory in Venezuela, Alcasa,
coins the key question: â??How does a company push toward socialism
within
a capitalist framework?â??
The film ends with an extended sequence from a management meeting at
Alcasa, a company with 2.700 workers, with discussions about
co-management and the changes of production relations they aspire
towards.

The film is originally in Spanish and available with German or English
subtitles (from May 2006 on).
The English version â??5 Factoriesâ??Worker Control in Venezuelaâ?? as
an
installation version with six video projections from March 26 to May 28,
2006 will open the yearlong MATRIX cycle â??Now-Time Venezuela: Media
Along the Path of the Bolivarian Processâ?? at the Berkeley Art Museum
(U.S.A.), organized by Chris Gilbert.


Concept, interviews, film editing, production: Dario Azzellini & Oliver
Ressler
Camera: Volkmar Geiblinger
Production Assistant in Venezuela: Eduardo Daza
Image editing and titles: Markus Koessl
Sound Editor: Rudi Gottsberger
Interviewees: José Luis Acosta, Luis Alfonso, Luis Alvarez, Aury
Arocha,
Zulay Boyer, Carolina Chacón, Eleuterio Córdova, Hugo Favero, Manrique
Gonzales, Dulfo Guerrero, Rowan Jiménez, Carlos Lanz, Marivit Lopez,
Rigoberto López, Willys Lugo, Gonzalo Maestre, Luis Mata Castillo,
Domingo Meléndez, Edith Mendoza, José Gregorio Moy, Carmen Ortíz,
Alexander Patiño, Santos Pérez, Juana Ruíz, Elio Sayago, José del
Carmen
Tapias, Leslie E. Turmero

Further Information:
www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibits/nowtime/index.html
www.ressler.at
www.azzellini.net




S p a n i s h :


5 FÃ?BRICAS â?? CONTROL OBRERO EN VENEZUELA

Una Película de Darío Azzellini y Oliver Ressler
81 min., 2006


Luego de â??Venezuela desde abajoâ?? (67 min. 2004), en su segunda
película
sobre los cambios políticos y sociales en Venezuela, â??5 Fábricas â??
control obrero en Venezuelaâ??, Azzellini y Ressler dirigen su atención
al
sector industrial. Las transformaciones en el sector productivo de
Venezuela son presentadas por medio de 5 grandes empresas en distintas
regiones: Una fábrica de aluminio, una textil, una fábrica de tomate,
una de 
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