In spite of Manchester United and Chelsea playing a historical Champions League final at that very same time, over seventy people gathered on Wednesday, May 21, at London's Bolivar Hall for the opening of the film season Venezuela: a revolution in film, which is organised by Hands off Venezuela in association with the Venezuelan embassy in the UK.

The season opened with the screening of the first part of "The hour of the furnaces" - Neo-colonialism and violence ‑ the opera prima of the legendary Grupo Cine Liberación, founded in the sixties by filmmakers Fernando "Pino" Solanas and Octavio Getino.

As was pointed out in the introduction, the aim of the season is to deepen the understanding of the Bolivarian process within a wider historical, social, political, economic, and continental framework through the screening and debate of some cinematographic works of outstanding artistic and documentary value, such as "The battle of Chile", "The hour of the furnaces" or "Memories of underdevelopment", amongst others.

José Baena, filmmaker (Memories of a future) and a habitual collaborator in the film magazine Vertigo, introduced "The hour of the furnaces" and spoke about the importance of the work pf the Grupo Cine Liberación.

The screening was followed by a debate with Alan Woods, founding member of the Hands off Venezuela campaign, and author, amongst other works, of Reason in Revolt: Marxist philosophy and modern science, The Venezuelan revolution and his latest book Reformism or revolution: Marxism and 21^st Century socialism, whose Spanish edition is being presented in this year's June Madrid Book Fair.

Alan Woods pointed out that Bolivar's ideas on the unification of Latin America, "not the dream, because dreams have a rather unrealisable character, is not only possible, but necessary. However, this idea can only be materialised in the struggle for socialism. Can anyone think of a united Latin America while the oligarchs - the bankers, industrialists and landowners - keep holding political or economic power?" he ended up asking.

The season will continue with the screening of "Memory of a plunder " (Argentina, 2003) on the 18^th June. This work marked "Pino" Solanas' return to a cinema that was openly social and political. "Memory of a plunder" is an implacable chronicle and analysis of the devastating neo-liberal wave that hit Latin America throughout the nineties.