30430: (news) Chamberlain: Venezuela will fund film on Haiti revolt (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

    CARACAS, May 21 (Reuters) - Venezuela will fund a film directed by
Hollywood star Danny Glover about Haiti's 18th-century slave rebellion
against French rule, as President Hugo Chavez seeks to revive interest in
his region's battles against colonialism.
     Venezuela's Congress said on its Web site on Monday it had set aside
$19.7 million for two films, one of which was Glover's movie about Haiti's
Francois-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, an iconic revolutionary leader in
the Caribbean nation.
     The film would mark Glover's debut as a feature film director.
According to entertainment industry magazine Daily Variety, Glover started
Louverture Films to focus on Afro-Caribbean themes and to provide
opportunities for minorities.
     Glover, co-star of the "Lethal Weapon" films with Mel Gibson,  has
long expressed political sympathy for Chavez, an anti-U.S. leader who is
forging a socialist republic and politicizing the army and judiciary of the
OPEC nation.
     Chavez has encouraged Venezuelans to become better informed about
Latin America's historical independence leaders, drawing parallels between
their struggles and his government's antagonism with the United States.