University of South Carolina Libraries
, 5 CONTACT US • IT ROBERT INGERSOLL: College is a Story ideas? Questions? Comments? place where pebbles are polished and E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com diamonds are dimmed.” PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK “Behind the Sun,” a Portuguese film with English subtitles, follows two rival families of Brazilian sugar planters. Nickelodeon to hold festival in honor of Hispanic heritage BY ASHLEY VAUGHAN THEUAMECOCK To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, the Nickelodeon Theatre is holding Columbia’s first Latin American Film Festival. Founded in 1979 by the Columbia Film Society, the / Nickelodeon Theatre has a long history with USC. This year, the society worked with a committee of USC professors, as well as peo ple from the community, to put the festival together. use protessors involved in the film festival are Michael Scardaville, director of USC’s Latin American Studies Program; Ramona Lagos, an as sociate Spanish professor who specializes in Latin-American film; anthropology professor Ann Kingsolver; and history professor Lessie Jo Frazier. Anne Raman, executive direc tor of the Columbia Film Society, said: “Doctor Michael Scardaville , and the faculty have been so help ful in helping selecting the films and organizing this event as part of the film festival committee.... It was a lot of fun.” Irma Santana, director of the community organization Hispanic Outreach, and Ursula Pallares, coordinator of the Spanish Conversation Club for the Columbia World Affairs Council, were also members of the committee that planned the festival. Raman talked about the festival’s importance. “We have an increasingly international community,” she said. “The Latin-American com munity is the fastest growing in our region, and... we have been getting a lot of interest from dif ferent people who asked us to show more Latin American films. We thought it would be a really good idea, especially since we have three other film festi vals that focus on different cul tures,” Raman said. She said the festival was start ed when the USC group Students Associated for Latin America ap proached the Columbia Film Society and talked about starting a festival. “They noticed that we were having films from Latin America and were excited,” Raman said. A reception at Immaculate Consumption will kick off the fes tival with free food at 6 p.m. Friday. The screenings start the same night with “Behind the Sun,” a film about a rivalry between two Brazilian families of sugar planters that turns into a web of revenge. The film is in Portuguese with English subtitles and will play on Friday and Saturday at 7 and 9:15 p.m. with an additional Saturday matinee at 3 p.m. Also on Saturday, “From the Mountains to the Maquiladoras” and “Performing the Border,” will be screened at the Columbia Museum of Art. Raman said both documentaries are about labor is sues in the United States and Mexico. “There’s a short 25 minute film about a worker ex change program, and there’s a slightly longer documentary on the impact of these border factory towns on women ... and how it creates a work force of women as factory workers and sex workers.” The screenings, which begin at 1 p.m., are free and will be fol lowed by a panel discussion mod erated by Scardaville, USC’s Latin American Studies director. On Sunday and Monday, Oct. 7, the Nickelodeon will show “The Last Supper” at 3 p.m. The film, which narrates a Christian plantation owner’s attempted conversion of his slaves, is in Spanish with English subtitles. Son of the Bride is an Argentinean film that centers on the experiences, expectations and complex relationships of a man who re-evaluates his life after a heart attack. It will show at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sunday and Monday, Oct. 7. At 6:30 p.m. Oct. 8, the Film Festival’s finale will gave stu dents and Columbia residents the chance to meet visiting filmmak er Marina Gonzalez Palmier. “She’s going to personally pre sent her award-winning film, ‘White Like the Moon,’ which is a 20-minute short feature that will be followed by a screening of ‘Luminarias,’ ” Raman said. “White Like the Moon” is about a Mexican-American adolescent girl’s search for identity and ac ceptance in 1950s Texas. “Luminarias,” a romantic come dy, depicts the friendship of four Latin-American women who deal with all of life’s subjects, includ ing love. Tickets for the festival’s fi nal event will include both shows. Tickets for individual screen ings are $6.50 each for the general public, $5 for students and senior citizens, and $4 for Columbia Film Society members. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com PHOTOS: TOP BY MARK BISSET/THE GAMECOCK, ABOVE BY FORD DAVIS/THE GAMECOCK Top: David Lamb emphasizes the musical link between Latinos and African-Americans In his speech “From Be-bop to Hip hop.” Above: Students take part in a salsa demonstration and lessons In the Russell House on Wednesday night. Both events were part of Hispanic Heritage Month festivities. MOVIE REVIEW Film redefines common struggle f “SUNSHINE STATE” Sony Pictures out of ☆☆☆☆☆ BY TUG BAKER the gamecock Everyone remembers “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Everyone re members the story of how much one man really meant to his town, but what most people for get is that the story of Bedford Falls is really one about small business owners standing up to a big, fat capitalist who wants to take over their town. The same story has been done to death ever since. Even in animated children’s movies, the cartoon kids fight against some big-business interest that wants to force them out of their ** •homes. Writer and director John Sayles tells that same story once more, but with new feeling. “Sunshine State” is set on Plantation Island, a tiny resort island off the coast of Florida where residents enjoy the peace and quiet resulting from a de cline in tourism. The film focus es on two sections of the island, Delrona Beach, a small commu nity of retirees and motels, and Lincoln Beach, a town full of many well-to-do African Americans whose parents worked hard to set up the com munity for their children. Then a big land develop ment company comes into the town. Already having acquired a sufficient amount of land on the other side of the island, it, of course, is looking to expand its operations to include the whole island. The current res idents can see that this will lead only to the commercial ization of the place they hold so dear, replacing houses with strip malls. In Delrona Beach, this would bring great changes to the life of Marly Temple, played by Edie Falco of “The Sopranos,” who runs the motel that her father put his life into building. Here is the Sayles twist that makes “Sunshine State” different from your typical small-man-vs.-big business film: Temple wants to sell the motel. She has spent her whole life living her father’s dream and now sees a chance to find her own. The story also focuses on Lincoln Beach resident Eunice Stokes (Mary Alice), whose daughter Desiree Perry, played by Angela Bassett, has re turned home after being sent away when she was 15 and pregnant. Again, the theme of PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Tom Wright, left, as Flash Phillips and Angela Bassett as Desiree Perry star In “Sunshine State,” a movie with a new take on big business’s effects on community sensibilities. parents’ dreams for their chil dren and their children’s actu al dreams is expressed beauti fully. “Sunshine State” plays al most like a Robert Altman film, with an ensemble cast so large that it is at first hard to keep track of who’s who. But the best actors are good at everything they do. They take a movie that seems to be about a few broad concepts and turn it into a movie about people and their lives. The ones playing the main characters are so good, in fact, that when any of them talk to a character such as “Bartender” or “Councilman No. 2,” they outshine the small er character so much that it breaks the feeling of reality in the movie. “Sunshine State” is an amaz ing film that breaks plot tradi tions and also tells beautiful sto ries about interesting charac ters. With such a stellar cast, it is likely to draw nominations for the Oscars, and if Oscar knows best, Sayles himself will get a nod for best original screenplay. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com f* ' 'CD REVIEW Miller has the - * voice of a star “THE INSTIGATOR” Rhett Miller ★***outof***ft* BY WILLIAM MILLS THE GAMECOCK Why isn’t this guy as popular as Ryan Adams? Rhett Miller has paid his dues and has all the mak ings of a pop icon. Miller’s second solo release, “The Instigator,” is an altemative cqjmtry adventure into the land of powerfully appealing heartache. Miller’s heart-wrench ing voice combines with hooky guitars and ultracatchy choruses to produce an easily digestible for mula. He has been toeing the line be tween pop and harmonious alt country for nearly 10 years as the front man for Old 97s, a Dallas based rock/country quartet. The band, which got its name from a Johnny Cash song, has been a constant in Miller’s life; it has pro duced five full-length albums and a host of EPs. Miller has engaged himself in this solo side project during the lulls in band activity. Old 97s has kept Miller busy between the re cent emergence of “The Instigator” and his little-known solo debut, “Mythologies,” an album that has been out of print since shortly after its 1994 release. Miller is always available for interesting musical experiences. He performed at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival last January. In between his two solo albums, Miller has also been per forming in another alt-country off shoot. Miller has been collaborat ing for some time with Murry Hammond, bassist for Old 97s, in a two-man adventure called the Ranchero Brothers. This harmo nious acoustic duo, which fea tures the occasional banjo and steel guitar, is a project the two work on during tour breaks. On “The Instigator,” one of the most impressive aspects of Miller’s songwriting is his abili ty to put so much meaning into one line. Every song on the al bum, as with previous releases for Old 97s, contains at least one line that invokes a personal nostalgia the listener can immediately re late to. He is one of the few artists out there today to have that qual ity in almost every song he writes. For example, the sappy forbid den-love anthem “Our Love” con tains the line: “He still found time to write to her/His heart explod ed words.” Keeping with this same theme of tragic relation ships, “EL” is all about lost love on Chicago’s subway. iNiot au tne tracKs on tnis ait country album, however, are geared toward the heartsick indie kids. “Four-Eyed Girl” is an up beat ode to a science teacher. Everything from a Dobro to a Hammond Organ is used on this al bum. It’s safe to say, however, that the album is carried by Miller’s vo cals and an overwhelmingly gui tar-driven presence. With his abil ity to give mass appeal to an emo tionally charged song and his boy ish good looks, Miller is poised for an entrance into the limelight. The number of potential singles on “The Instigator” and Old 97s’ “Satellite Rides” make it difficult to see why Miller isn’t a popular heartthrob. But for now, it’s still cool for indie kids to like his mu sic. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com