Venezuela's telenovelas struggle back from the brink
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A worker on the set strikes the clapperboard to the shout of "Action!" and three women launch into a heated argument about an abandoned child who was rescued from the streets but cannot be tamed of her violent impulses.
The exodus of talent, a gradual crackdown on the media and a financial crisis that caused advertisers to flee nearly drove the industry to extinction.
"To keep living in this country demands resistance and the only way we have to legally fight back is by working in what we know and love," said Jose Simon Escalona, vice president of production for RCTV Productions.
The industry's decline began in the 1990s amid stiff competition from Mexico and Colombia, and accelerated following Chavez's 1998 election and the 2004 passage of a law that levied stiff fines and penalties on broadcasters for not adhering to vaguely defined standards of socially responsible programming.
Through her research, Acosta-Alzuru was privy to internal memos at RCTV's longtime rival, Venevision, in which network lawyers in 2008 and 2009 questioned screenwriter Leonardo Padron's use of language that they said the government could interpret as having political overtones.
Industry experts say the government's involvement has resulted in a sterilized product barely resembling the edgy productions of years past, such as "On These Streets," which drew record audiences for RCTV in 1992 with its portrayal of life in a crime-ridden Caracas slum.