Over the 78 minutes of his documentary, Stone sketches a broad overview of Chavez’s “Bolivarian” revolution that seeks to expel the United States and the International Monetary Fund from the region. On top of that, Stone is trying to provide a corrective to the mainstream media’s demonization of Chavez and other left-leaning leaders in the region. In an exclusive interview, Stone said, this is a “big picture of big changes,” made by a big director against big media. read more »

It’s hard to come by a political optimism that isn’t served up with winking campaign propaganda or tone-deaf idealism, but two recently published books that survey the dark developments of our time through the eyes of preeminent intellectuals read like affirming challenges to forge a better world. read more »

Poor George. Lonesome George, the subject of a video installation by Rachel Berwick: he’s a 90-year-old tortoise from the Galápagos Islands who, thanks to some overeager biologists, is now the last surviving member of his subspecies. That’s how it is to think about ecosystems in 2010 — you have to consider The End. read more »

For the most part, Exit Through the Gift Shop follows Thierry Guetta, a French amateur cameraman with long sideburns that merge with his mustache from under a fedora. The owner of a vintage clothing shop in Los Angeles, Guetta is an obsessive recorder who shoots practically every moment of his life on video, collecting tape after tape, without ever watching them. read more »

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The stereo speakers, arranged together in an altar-like presentation, emit murmurs of some garbled, holy tongue. Each has a lacquered black bull’s-eye at its center — a locus of power and energy. This sound sculpture, “Coronation Theme: Organon” by Nadine Robinson, takes formal cues from a southern Baptist church and a 1963 civil-rights demonstration. read more »

In recent weeks, eyes around the world have been riveted on the standoff between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the continuing construction of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem. read more »

The vibrant, exciting—and quite illegal—underground music scene in Tehran is the real star of No One Knows About Persian Cats, the stereotype-shattering new film by Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi. read more »

In the fall of 2002, I was part of a crowd in Washington, D.C., that consisted of around 1,000 demonstrators protesting U.S. policy in Colombia. Outside a Senate office building, the march splintered and shrank to a few hundred people, corralled into a park by nearly as many riot cops. read more »

Liars are to hardcore music what Hitchcock is to the horror genre: proof that our darkest aspects are most brilliantly illuminated with a minimum of bombast or splatter. read more »