Hugo Chavez walks Venice red carpet with Oliver Stone

The day after thousands of anti-Chavez demonstrators took to the streets of Venezuela's capital Caracas to protest at a new education law, the Venezuelan president was strolling the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival on Monday with the Oscar-winning director, Oliver Stone.

Stone’s new film, South of the Border, records the filmmaker’s trip to meet Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in January this year. Hundreds of people gathered on the Lido to catch a glimpse of Chavez as he played up to his new role as a film star, chatting with admirers and throwing a flower into the crowd.

South of the Border shows Stone chatting with Chavez in his office and on the president's private plane as he tours the country. The film's writer, Tariq Ali, has called the documentary "a political road movie". Along with Chavez, seven other Latin American leaders, including Cuba's Raul Castro and Brazil's Lula da Silva, are interviewed for the film which denounces American intervention in Latin America.

Stone plays football with Bolivian President Evo Morales, and asks Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner how many pairs of shoes she owns. But the film has a serious ambition, according to Stone - to question "demonisation of Chavez" since he took power 11 years ago.

"America is paranoid about its 'enemies', whether it's Venezuela, Iran or Iraq," Stone said at a press conference in Venice on Monday. "I think there are dangerous consequences and this is an attempt to lessen that paranoia. We wanted to emphasise the good things that have happened in Venezuela, like the poverty rate being cut by 50 per cent since he assumed power."

The director played down the weekend's anti-Chavez riots: "I gather that they were not very popular... not many people showed up." Chavez meanwhile described Stone as "a genius of cinema. I think he could smell the air of change in South America".

Stone has provoked much hostility from right-wing US commentators over his Chavez film, but the subject of his next documentary looks set to provoke even more ire. The director confirmed yesterday that his plan to interview Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is apparently still on track. He requested permission to make the documentary in Iran in 2007 and was given a provisional green light - despite being initially rejected as "a part of the Great Satan".