Moment of Truth: Oliver Stone on Gonzo Docmaking and 'Good Guy' Hugo Chávez

Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline's spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. Today we hear from director Oliver Stone about his new documentary South of the Border, which opens tomorrow in limited release.

For all the political heat Oliver Stone has withstood (and will continue to withstand) over the years, no one can really call the guy a slacker. Take his latest doc South of the Border, which Stone filmed and edited during the course of making two narrative features and a 10-hour documentary he's still working on. The concept was simple enough, even while the implications were more than a little complex: Introduce the leaders of seven Latin American countries to U.S. and European audiences who, for too long, have received the wrong idea about them from the media. Does it work? That's up to you.

But the three-time Oscar-winner Stone isn't shy about his own judgments of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and his controversial counterparts in Bolivia (Evo Morales), Brazil (Lula da Silva), Argentina (husband/wife leaders Cristina and Néstor Kirchner), Paraguay (Fernando Lugo), Ecuador (Rafael Correa), and Cuba (Raúl Castro) -- the "New Bolivarians" whom Stone visits in a kind of whirlwind ideological road trip to prove their beneficence to their respective nations (and each other). The leaders speak of their open defiance of U.S. policy -- particularly that of the Bush Administration -- and their mutual goal of economic and political independence. Whilst visiting boyhood stomping grounds with Chávez, nibbling on coca leaves with Morales, and talking to policy experts about the Latin American situation, the filmmaker leaves little ambiguity as to where he himself stands.

I caught up this week with Stone, who was visiting New York with author and South of the Border co-writer Tariq Ali. Together, we discussed favorite films, misrepresentations (including Stone's own), elisions, and who's really doing the dirty work in Latin America.

How are you?

OS: You're from Movieline?

Yes, I am.

OS: Cool. Tariq has never been interviewed by that magazine. Ask him what his favorite movie is. [To Ali] Yeah, hey, what is your favorite movie? Some Pakistani Gone With the Wind thing?

TA: I can't think of one.

OS: Come on, come on, come on. [Snaps fingers] My Beautiful Laundrette?

TA: None of those. I don't like those movies.

OS: The Great Escape? The Dirty Dozen?

TA: [Ruminative pause] I guess The Battle of Algiers.

That's a good one. You can't go wrong with Pontecorvo.

OS: Yeah, you can't go wrong with that. I like that movie. I like Z, too.

TA: Oh, I like that, too.

OS: I feel like [Yves] Montand sometimes. In foreign hotel rooms, showing up to one more [interview], getting my face smashed in. Anyway, go ahead.

I will be nice! What drove you to return to documentary filmmaking?

OS: Well, I started The Secret History of the United States two and a half years ago, actually. That was a big effort on my part; it's 10 hours, it's going out next year. It's a pretty intense view of the United States -- not so much secrets as it is lost history. They were once headlines, but they're forgotten. Forgotten history. But there's a new pattern; we're studying the pattern. I met with Tariq -- he's in it, we did a six-hour interview -- and in the course of making that, I had met Chávez in 2007 during the hostage crisis. Fernando [Sulichin], who's producing Secret History and produced the other three documentaries asked me to go down and do an interview with him. I went down there and loved it, and it was great. And [Chávez] said, "Don't take my word for it; go out and see my neighbors and get their opinions."

So we did, and we got what I thought was a broad-stroke view of the South American continent. Let's call it "101" -- an introduction to a great movement that's happening and has been ignored by the American and European media. Really: If you look at all these candidates, they were all democratically elected and they've all -- in some form or another -- pushed for reform in their countries. That's quite something.

Mr. Ali, how is Oliver Stone as a collaborator?

TA: Oliver is the best collaborator one could hope for. It's been really great, actually.

OS: Contrary to this reputation that... [smiling and pointing at me] you guys give me!

TA: No, there wasn't a difficult moment, honestly. It was just a joy. And I think the film shows that. It's full of hope, vibrant and it's not an ambitious film, which is what people can't get into their heads.

OS: [Laughing] I'm sorry.

TA: If you've had -- for the last 10 years -- one view dominating not just the North American but the European media, saying these guys are more or less baddies? Lula's a good guy, but Chávez is a bad guy, Morales is a bad guy, Correa is... cheeky. So we do this film, which is a mild corrective to this poison that's being spread. A tiny antidote. We don't know whether it will work or not, but that's the idea. And these guys [on the right] get worked up! "What are you doing?" We're correcting your bullsh*t, basically.

OS: I like how you put it.

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