Mike Fox and Silvia Leindecker editing film

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Mike Fox or Silvia Leindecker, please email them at estretiomeio@gmail.com, mike@beyondelections.com or call at 415-508-5732!

Michael Fox is a freelance journalist, translator, reporter and documentary film maker based in South America. He is the co-author of Venezuela Speaks!: Voices from the Grassroots. Michael is a former staff reporter for Venezuelanlaysis, a radio correspondant for Free Speech Radio News, and his articles have been published with Yes Magazine, Earth Island Journal, NACLA and The Nation online.

Sílvia Leindecker is a Brazilian documentary film maker, a philosopher and independent photographer who has shot for the Spanish news agency EFE, Germany's Politik magazine, and numerous independent projects, advertisement and film productions.

Last year, Michael and Sílvia helped to co-found the internet Radio Venezuela en Vivo, which broadcasted live coverage from Venezuela's Constitutional Reform Referendum. Based in between Venezuela and Brazil, Michael and Sílvia have for many years been researching and covering the growth in the region's participatory democracy- cooperatives, Brazil's participatory budgeting and Venezuela's communal councils.

Michael's and Sílvia's first full length documentary film "Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas" is set to be released in September 2008. It takes viewers across the Americas to attempt to answer one of the most important questions of our time: What is Democracy?

CLICK HERE to view the trailer for the film Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas or www.beyondelections.blogspot.com

Topics covered

• Grassroots Voices from the Bolivarian Revolution
• Participatory Democracy and Cooperatives in Venezuela and Brazil
• Brazil's participatory budgeting and Venezuela's communal councils
• Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas
• Latin American Social Movements & Progressive Governments
• Building Popular Power in Venezuela