Cocalero

Students of Latin American studies will learn much from Alejandro Landes' documentary on the 2005 presidential campaign that resulted in Evo Morales' election as Bolivia's president. For starters, it is hard to imagine any U.S. politician as outgoing as Morales, who is not shy about stripping into his underwear for an impromptu swim while the cameras are rolling. But beyond the good-natured clowning lie serious undercurrents: as the first indigenous candidate to become president, Morales addresses ages-old concerns about socioeconomic inequity in Bolivia, stopping in mining towns and peasant villages to face images of grueling poverty. More unsettling (at least to U.S. viewers) is Morales' frank anti-American rhetoric—his rallies have a tendency to conclude with chants of “Death to the Yankees!”—and Morales' supporters acknowledge that some of their numbers have tortured Morales' opponents by tying them to trees covered in poisonous ants (a tactic the candidate never condemns). If Landes' style of filmmaking is raw and sometimes too timid (one wishes he had pressed the candidate to answer questions with less evasiveness), Cocalero (the title is a reference to Morales' origins as a coca leaf grower) nonetheless presents a jolting view of a new left-wing political movement that is openly questioning U.S. dominance over the Americas. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)