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CONTACT US „ THEY SAID IT MALCOLM FORBES: “Education’s Story ideas? Questions? Comments? purpose is to replace an empty mind E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com " with an open one.” PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK “Lumumba” documents Congo leader Patrice Lumumba’s coup. Film festival kicks off Black History Month in Columbia BY TITAN BARKSDALE THE GAMECOCK Green slime, Marc Summers, Mr. Wizard, “Wild and Crazy Kids” contestants and “Rugrats” characters all will be conspicu ously absent as the first film fes tival of its kind in Columbia takes place just a few feet from campus. USC faculty, however, will be at the event, along with renowned I film directors and some of Columbia’s elite. The Nickelodeon Theatre of the Columbia Film Society pre sents Columbia’s first African American/International Film Festival today through Jan. 28. Along with Benedict College, the theater presents critically ac claimed or award-winning inde pendent films that document African-American culture’s di versity and history. Urica Pope, community educa tion coordinator and film festival director, realized this would be the ideal kick-off for Black History Month when she helped concep tualize the festival last July. As the Jewish Film Festival came to a close a month earlier, ! Charles Ashe, community leader and festival sponsor, suggested the event be duplicated for the African-American community. Shortly after, Pope, Ashe and oth er contributors made this festival a reality. “The Jewish Festival was the catalyst for this film festival and others to come,” Pope said. The African-American/Inter national Film Festival features five films about various subjects. “Freestyle,” which will be shown at Benedict, is an examination of hip-hop’s impact on society, while “Lumumba” is a chilling docu mentary about the coup of Congo leader Patrice Lumumba’s demo cratic state. USC African-American Studies director Cleveland Sellers, along with a foreign language professor, will be panelists in a discussion following Saturday’s 6 p.m. “Lumumba” screening. “This festival allows us resur rect those heroes that have been vilified and made to appear as something they weren’t. Anybody can relate to the ideals embodied by ‘Lumumba,’” Sellers said. “These documentaries are so important in the lives of young people because we’ve become a visual society, and when we have the opportunity to present the correct picture of history, it be comes important that we make that available to those who are in need of that corrected informa i:_» Math student Phillip Murray plans to attend the festival and urges other USC students to do the same. “This is a multicultural and di verse society; therefore, every as pect of our social structure should be represented at all times. This opportunity allows non-African-Americans at USC to get a glimpse of how we feel and relate to each other because they need to know.” Nickelodeon executive director Anne Rayman says the feel Murray speaks of comes from the movies’ authenticity. Most of the films’ creators embrace a stark realism, enhanced by the the atre’s ambience, that can over whelm the audience. These movies, mostly devoid of pricey special effects, allow for honest depictions of their subjects. At the Nick On Jan. 28, The Nickelodeon will start Columbia’s first African American film festival. FRIDAY, JAN. 25: “Our Song” 7 p.m., 9 p.m. SATURDAY, JAN. 26: “Lumumba” 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9:15 p.m. SUNDAY, JAN. 27; “Love Come Down” 7 p.m., 9 p.m. MONDAY, JAN. 28: “FaatKine” 7 p.m., 9 p.m. Theaters like the Nickelodeon have traditionally been outlets for local and national indepen dent filmmakers. Often, the films present eye-opening findings and produce some Oscar and Emmy award winners. But they can lack the luster of most mainstream movies, a factor that tends to de ter potential audiences. “You won’t see a ‘Rush Hour’ here; plus, many of our movies have subtitles.... That’s proba bly the biggest turnoff,” Pope said. “Nickelodeon is a nice, small, intimate theater, and the movies shown here are not for entertainment purposes only. They provide you with educa tion.” And for the next three days, Nickelodeon and Benedict will provide an education rooted in African-American culture that has a universal theme. The Nickelodeon Theatre is on 937 Main St. Festival passes are $41 for the general public and $35 for students and seniors. The pass includes film and reception ad mission, reservation privileges and special screenings. Individual tickets are $6.50 and $5. Matinee prices are 50 cents cheaper. A summary of the movies fea tured in Columbia’s first African-American/International Film Festival is available outside the Nickelodeon. But don’t ex pect to see anything close to the programs on that cable TV net work the theater’s often confused with. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com MOVIE REVIEW ‘Mothman ’falls flat THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES Starring: Richard Gere ★★ out of BY TUG BAKER THE GAMECOCK One reason the American public found “The Blair Witch Project” so terrifying is that they assumed it was real. A brilliant marketing campaign preceded the movie with, not one, but two Blair Witch documentaries on the Sci-Fi Channel and a Web site devoted to the creature’s legend. Of course, it was all fake, a simple ploy to add some realistic horror for moviegoers. Mark Pellington’s new film, “The Mothman Prophecies,” evokes fear in much the same way. The film’s Web site, www.themothmanlives.com, has been set up as a Mothman sighting headquarters. Users can not only browse the Mothman’s history and legend, including dozens of stories by eyewitnesses, they can also report their own Motnman signtmgs. me site boasts that, in the past week, it has received 20 sighting reports. The main catch here is that, unlike the tale behind “The Blair Witch Project,” the story of “The Mothman Prophecies” is retd. (Insert shiver here.) The movie’s basis is a book of the same name by John A. Keel published in 1975. The book is Keel’s account of paranormal events in the small town of Point Pleasant, W. V., that led to a terrible tragedy on Dec. 15,1967. Pellington’s modernized version stars Richard Gere as John Klein, a reporter for The Washington Post. John and his wife (Debra Messing) have just bought a new house. While driving home, John’s wife sees a strange shape fly toward the car, causing her to lose control of the vehicle and crash. She dies a few days later, but not before telling her husband about the strange shape she saw and drawing pictures of the creature. Two years later, John’s car breaks down, and he discovers that, in less than 90 minutes, he has inexplicably traveled more than 400 miles to a tiny town called Point Pleasant. There, he discovers that many people in the town have reported seeing the same creature, dubbed the Mothman by some. Through this series of bizarre events, John meets Gordon (Will Patton), who claims to have Richard seen the Gere plays Mothman and Ses talked with him, his wife In a an^ Sgt. Connie paranorm^ Parker (Laura car crash. Linney), a character obviously influenced by Frances McDormond’s role in “Fargo.” There’s also an ill-conceived side plot in which John consults paranormal expert Alexander Leek (Alan Bates) to shed some light on the mystery. Producer Richard Wright said about the film, “We’re looking at Mothman as a presence. We’re not going for the full latex ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ version. Ours is much less obvious and more creepy.” While the film refrains from ailUWl*lgCA<lULiy Wlldl U1C Mothman does looks like, it gives the audience a very real idea of what it should look like. Though the film succeeds with the “less obvious” route, the “more creepy” part just doesn’t happen. The filmmakers seemed to think the film couldn’t be creepy and scary at the same time, so they just went for creepy with a few cheap scares and didn’t do a very good job. In actuality, the legends and eyewitness accounts of the Mothman on the film’s Web site are creepier and more frightening than any part of the movie; when one reads the stories, the Mothman is a pure piece of imagination rather than a funny lighting effect. The only parts of the movie that convey anything close to the same feeling are the strange phone calls from the creature. These reaffirm that not being able to see the danger but knowing it’s there is the worst fear of all. Combine this conception problem with a sedated cast and a mediocre-at-best director, and you have something worse than a B movie. This movie’s greatest tragedy is that it had such high potential and ruined it. 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