The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 30, 2002, Page 5, Image 5
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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.
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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.
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