This is one of the least compelling documentaries I've ever watched. I was going to just pop onto IMDb and vote 2 and leave. But when I saw the number of positive reviews, I felt I must have missed something, so I watched it again. But was revealed nothing new from the first viewing.The first purpose of a documentary is to inform, to reveal information not yet known to the public, or to present old information in a new light. There is also propaganda that passes for documentary... this is closer to propaganda than to documentary. We herein learn absolutely nothing about the socio-political context of Bolivia, the presidential elections are presented outside of any factual reality context. The documentarist seems to view the election process within a vacuum.I suppose there are youth who watch this movie, who are inexperienced enough to not realise that electoral victories are purchased with money and statistical analysis of critical demographics, but the rest of the adult world already knows this. If this documentary was meant for those youth, it would have had to spend a little less time watching boring speeches, and more time giving a bit of context and history.As for the adults watching this, there is simply no content, nothing that we all haven't already experienced in North America. In fact, the documentarist, more than any other sentiment, seems to side with the consultants, asking non weak questions, observing them doing what the candidate pays them for, without questioning their presence, their cost, their previous achievements, and the expenses/actions of the other candidates. No history of Goni is presented, he looks like an idiot, behaves like an idiot, and the documentarist does not question any of this.What's the point of this documentary, it has no world context, no Bolivian context, no N.American context. Frankly it looks almost more like a sales pitch for those poor "good guy" consultants than anything else. Hire us, we'll get you elected... This is neocon propaganda disguised as "unbiased" docudrama. Blah

Essentially this film shows the US liberal war machine honing its skills in the impoverished nation of Bolivia - and offers a chilling preamble to our own presidential campaigns and elections.James Carville and clan use a media defamation campaign, focus groups, and a corrupt and willing news media to play Bolivia for cash, ensuring the election of an arrogant man clearly out of touch with his people.The opening shot gives you an idea of the results.Not for the faint of heart - but a must-see nevertheless. It offers a candid, unfiltered look at politics at its worst and leaves you wondering: Can it happen here? Has it?

I think it's a universally known fact that many Americans actually don't know a lot about other nations and cultures. For me, I thought the focus was more about how clueless the Americans were trying to run this campaign for a country they knew little about and seemed to simply do what they could to get Goni in office then fail to help follow through with the promises they made. I blame the Americans for Goni achieving the presidency and then his demise for never coming through. I do believe without the Americans Goni would not have won and therefore the issued that followed would not have happened.I felt the film showed the power the people hold in Bolivia and how significant their opinions are as well as their ability to be heard.I suppose each person will see this film in their own way, but if you don't know a lot about Bolivia or the recent politics, this is a good film to watch to learn about the recent presidential topics.

How to remake the image of a once unpopular president, who is now a candidate and how to market him and sell him to voters, is the basis of this excellent documentary. Rachel Boynton chronicles in vivid detail about the experience in this wonderful documentary.The idea of importing a team of American image consultants that have been notorious in the United States for their work in helping elect president Bill Clinton, not once, but twice, seems to be a novel idea for politics in South America. How will this team, headed by James Carville fare in helping to elect Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a man who was an unpopular president in that country, seems to have made some sense to this candidate for his successful bid for a second term. After all, Mr. Sanchez de Lozada governed the country from 1993 to 1997, so why try to have the campaign run by Mr. Carville and his gang of experts?Ms. Boynton takes us, the viewers behind the scenes to meetings that one would imagine would have been closed to her camera crew. We see people like Jeremy Rossner and the advertising pundit Tad Devine shooting ideas about how to present the candidate for a possible victory. American style campaign tactics seem to be the selling point to the candidate and his team. After all, the stakes are high and the man running for office doesn't want to take any chances. There are a lot of candid moments in the film which seem to indicate the director got a free hand about what to capture in film.Rachel Boynton shows a knack for capturing all the insanity of the situation and the people preparing a man to be accepted by his people with an American team behind him.