From 12 to 17 October, residents of Niš region will have the opportunity to enjoy a rich content of the Week of Venezuelan culture. The opening ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, October 12, at 6 am in Niš Cultural Center, when the visitors will be addressed by a representative of this renowned institution, and then by the Charge d’Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Serbia, Dr Dia Nader de El Andari.
The day was not randomly chosen for the start of the event, since on the 12th October in Venezuela people celebrate the Day of the resistance of indigenous peoples. This holiday was previously named Columbus Day or the Day of the discovery of America, or Day of the race (Día de la Raza), but the late President Hugo Chávez issue a decree and renamed it, wanting to emphasise the centuries-old struggle accompanied by enormous human sacrifices by the natives of this area that was led against the Spanish colonisers, surviving on it to this day.
The Embassy has prepared for this occasion a photo exhibition consisting of three themes: “Indigenous peoples of Venezuela”, “Travel gems of Venezuela,” and “Here walked Chávez.” On the opening day, the dance group “Venezuela” will perform traditional dances of this exotic country, and viewers will also be able to see several representative musical and tourist spots.
After this part of the programme, the Venezuelan film “Eternal Ashes” will be screened, the first of six that have been prepared for Week of Culture of Venezuela, which is centred around the indigenous people of the Yanomami, one of the few in the territory of Venezuela, which has fully retained the original way of life. For the next five days, always starting at 7 o’clock PM, the audience will be able to see three Venezuelan films and two films of foreign authors about Venezuela. These are, respectively, “South of the Border” by Oliver Stone, then a fantastic Venezuelan black-and-white classic “Araya”, “There will be no TV coverage of the revolution” backed by the Irish duo who happened to be in Venezuela in the most critical moments of Chávez’s rule, and then another two Venezuelan films – “Postcards from Leningrad” and “Rebellion in Caracas.”
Programme in Niš Cultural Centre will be preceded by a press conference of Ambassador El Andari, followed by a lecture on the resistance of indigenous nation of Venezuela and the presentation of a book by the Venezuelan embassy translated into Serbian and published. This event will be held tomorrow at the Media & Reform Centre Niš, starting at 2 o’clock PM.
It should be noted that the entrance during the whole event is free, and all films are subtitled in Serbian language.
