A La Calle

Insightful documentary chronicling the massive Venezuelan protests of 2017 and the contested presidential elections two years later. With a wide range of voices, from medical workers and a barber to opposition leaders and supporters of president Maduro. Telling a story playing out throughout the world today: that of authoritarianism versus democracy.

‘There is one indisputable leader in this country that will compel people to go out to the streets again: hunger’, a grassroots activist says at the beginning of A La Calle (‘to the streets’). Venezuela, once one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries, has fallen sharply under president Nicolás Maduro’s rule, with a crashing economy, hyperinflation, a shortage of food and a severe health care crisis.

After another shameless power-grab by Maduro in 2017, massive protests erupt. We follow the developments from different sides. We meet Federica from the Green Cross, a group of medical students helping injured protestors and Lilian Tintori. Randal, a sanitation worker and a barber, struggles to put food on the table for his family. Leopoldo Lopéz is imprisoned for his activities as an opposition leader, but keeps finding ways to express himself. And when the National Assembly elects Juan Guaidó as its new president, the opposition once again feels strong enough to challenge the Maduro regime.