CRACKDOWN ON COCA WARRANTED?

Documentary's elegant rhetoric uncoils plant politics

On June 30, 2007, presidential elections will be held in Bolivia. This is
not a fact of vital importance to many people, but it is critical to the
release and distribution of the new documentary The Real Thing: Coca,
Democracy and Rebellion in Bolivia, which premiered at Concordia's DeSeve
Theatre last Friday.

The Real Thing was filmed, produced and written by a team of three
Canadians: Jim Sanders, Andre Clement and Lucien Read. Under their
independent production company Dada World Data Production, a crash course on
Bolivian coca politics is presented. The film takes the audience on a ride,
opening with a cocaine deal in a broken down bathroom. The story unfolds,
told through varying mediums: voice-overs, flashback sequences, narration,
computer graphics, subtitles and interviews. Authorities on the subject,
such as renowned scholar and MIT professor Noam Chomsky, accentuate its
credibility.

Bolivia is the poorest country in the South America, and its livelihood is
largely dependant on coca. Most will recognize that this plant is the main
ingredient in cocaine, but it has many other functions besides the use
predominantly attributed to it. In fact, in its natural form as a leaf, coca
acts as a mild stimulant and appetite suppressant that kept Sanders healthy
due to the lack of vegetarian options during his stay in Bolivia. Moreover,
derivatives from the plant (though not the drug) give Coca Cola its flavour.

The U.S.-directed War on Drugs has led to a crack down on this plant. The
American government has been pushing for the eradication of coca and
replacement with alternative crops. This, the movie points out, ultimately
leads to a dire fate for farmers whose welfare is dependant on its
cultivation.

The documentary stays away from the subject of cocaine proliferation and
trafficking, focusing instead on the political turmoil U.S. foreign policy
has inflicted on the country.

Alternative crops have failed in Bolivia, where often it is "cheaper to
leave them rotting in the fields than take them to market," a farmer in the
film reveals.

The film asks why the War on Drugs attacks the plant, harmless in its
natural form, instead other aspects more closely linked to the cocaine
trade. "Corn is a plant, and coca is a plant. Why not attack corn?" a poor
farmer asks the camera, iterating the injustice perceived at attacking the
crop so aggressively. "Who is to blame, the one who produces it or the one
who consumes it?"

The ominous situation of a country that has followed International Monetary
Fund's "shock therapy" reforms and collaborated willingly in the U.S. War on
Drugs is graphically illustrated. Bolivia is poorer and more divided than
ever. Social movements against neo-imperialism are on the rise. The current
government, following the wishes of the U.S., does not appear to be
representative of the will of the people. Just when the point of the film
seems clear, that the coca plant and the coca farmers are the wrongful
victims in the War on Drugs, the movie takes a sharp turn.

The Movemento al Socialismo, the Bolivian socialist party, is introduced. It
is rapidly gaining popularity in a country sick of U.S. intervention.
Interviews with Evo Morales, the party's candidate up for presidential
election in 2007, and Chomsky bring the film full circle. The War on Drugs
and the War on Terrorism, they maintain, are both the same. Elegantly
designed rhetoric has nothing to do with drugs at all, but to allow the U.S.
access to the countries' resources, it keeps the door open to exploitation
by foreign multi-national corporations.

The film works as a coil in structure, unraveling itself to reach the core
and for the most part it was filmed that way. "It was not necessarily a
planned film but more of a journey" says Sanders, of his visit to the World
Social Forum in Brazil and the backpacking experience that led to the making
of the film.

Sanders, in a question and answer period that followed the screening,
maintains that Morales is a threat to the U.S. due to his anti-intervention
platform. Seeing as the party received 22 per cent of the popular votes in
the last election, he appears to be a viable candidate for the next
presidency.

According to Sanders, the film aims to bring the Bolivian situation to
public awareness before the next election. "Getting the info out" and
keeping it in the public eye could ensure an election free of U.S.
intervention. A fair election might see Morales in power and with him a
consideration for a population devastated by the War on Drugs.

More info on the film can be found at www.dadaworlddata.com. For the
complete Cinema Politica schedule, visit www.cinemapolitica.org.