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PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Hannah must sort through her mother's past after her father's death in the film "Rosenstrasse." The film is one of four in the Nickelodeon Theatre's Jewish Film Festival beginning Saturday. Nick prepares to celebrate Columbia's Jewish heritage By BK KENNEDY THE GAMECOCK When the term "film festival" is mentioned, one usually thinks of the sexy Parisian locales for Cannes or Park City for Sundance. Or perhaps one conjures images of South By Southwest, where movies take a backseat to music. One film festival one might not think of is right here in Columbia. The Fifth Annual Columbia Jewish Film Festival will run Saturday through Thursday at the Nickelodeon Theatre. The only of its kind in the state, the festival began in 2000 when Arline Polinsky and Lyssa Harvey approached the Nickelodeon on behalf of the Columbia Jewish Cultural Arts Program of the Columbia Jewish Community Center. They were met with open arms by Anne Ramen, Nickelodeon executive director. The festival will feature three acclaimed films, "Rosenstrasse," "Le Grand Rôle," and "Broken Wings," as well as a documentary. "Rosenstrasse" is set in present-day New York at a man's funeral, but requires the man's daughter to trace back to 1943 Berlin where Jews were separated from their Aryan husbands and wives, and learn about what her mother won't tell her, and find the woman who saved her mother's life. "Le Grand Rôle" tells the story of a man who finally achieves a big acting break, only to find out that his wife has become gravely ill. He uses his support system of friends to deal with the biggest role in his life. "Broken Wings," the winner of nine Israeli Academy Awards, is about the life and love of a family dealing with everyday life. A mother goes back to work after her husband's death, leaving her 17-year-old daughter to play mother to the rest of the children. The film shows a side of Israel one doesn't get from evening newscasts. The documentary "Mixed Blessings" explores bringing up children in a Jewish-Christian family. A panel discussion with Russell Haber, director of USC's Counseling and Human Development Center, will follow. Advance festival and single day passes are between $38.50 and $44.50 and will get viewers into every film, as well as advance reservations. Individual tickets are between $5.50 and $7.50. Comments on this stoiy? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edit Movie renews sweet styles By DAVE FERMAN KRT CAMPUS GRAPEVINE, Texas — As Napoleon Dynamite would put it, a sweet deal has fallen into Randall Sowa's lap. For four summers in the 1980s, Sowa hawked T-shirts with a helicopter image on them designed by a pal, Phil Goettl. Each summer there was a different design, and each summer Sowa sold a couple of hundred shirts to the rough-and-tumble guys who explored —with dynamite — for oil and natural gas in remote areas of the American West. Two decades later, the geeky, quirky, tetherball-loving Napoleon, title hero of the wildly popular cult movie, showed up onscreen wearing these same shirts. Now Sowa, 51, a Grapevine, Texas, resident who works in aircraft maintenance at Fort Worth Meacham Airport, figures he'll soon be able -to buy all the tater tots he wants. Since the film's release last spring, his family has sold several thousand of the Napoleon helicopter tees online. And now the shirts are for sale in 600 Hot Topic stores in malls in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Gosh! "I'm into this as long as I want to be because it's not going anywhere for a long time," said Sowa, who runs www.noridershirts.com with his wife, Sharon, and daughter Emily, 15. "It just dropped into my life. It's so much fun." The film, made in 2003 by the husband-and-wife team of Brigham Young University students Jared and Jerusha Hess, has grossed more than $45 million in theaters alone and sold more than a million DVDs in just over three months. The unexpected success of the film has meant that numerous lines of dialogue have become pop culture nuggets loved by teens and college students. From local high schools to university campuses, T-shirts that read "Vote For Pedro" or "I caught you a delicious bass" have become common — many also sold online. Scott Morton, men's T-shirt buyer for Hot Topic, said he assumes Sowa's helicopter shirt will be in demand. "Napoleon Dynamite stuff has been a phenomenon for us," he said. So how do these old helicopter shirts factor in? Jerusha Hess picked up one of the Sowa/Goettl shirts at a thrift store in Salt Lake City while shopping for the wardrobe that the actor playing Napoleon, Jon Heder, would wear. Sowa and Goetd had no idea any of this was happening until July, when a friend from the 1980s called him and told him he saw Napoleon wearing one of the shirts. Sowa, being no fool, put together a Web site and began selling the shirts, some to soldiers in Iraq and to fans of the movie from as far away as Alaska. He says he's had to warn two competitors against copying the artwork, which he and * Goettl copyrighted. "I went to the movie to see the T-shirt, and I loved it," Sowa said. "It's a funny movie. And I knew there would always be kids who would want to go see it. It's fallen into the culture of young people." Sowa and Goettl say the shirts began as nothing more than a way to earn a little extra money. In the early 1980s, they both worked for the company whose logo is the basis for the design, Air Services International. Sowa was a mechanic, and Goettl drove fuel trucks. At the time, oil and natural gas in states such as Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado was hot. The guys doing the exploring were called "juggies." Juggies would conduct seismic exploration in remote areas. As a result, they went to and from work in helicopters. The juggies were a proud bunch, and they wanted their own T-shirts. So Goettl designed them. "My artwork has always had a lot of aviation stuff," said Goettl, now a graphic artist and cartoonist in Vancouver, Wash. "We just wanted something the guys working the seismic could relate to and get their attention. And the logo promoted the company." During the four summers, only about 1,000 shirts were sold. The chance of one of them showing up in a thrift store where Jerusha Hess was looking for wardrobe is, give or take, a billion to one. But it happened, and the two guys that made them all those years ago are as surprised as anyone. Goettl said he has asked his 16 year-old daughter Julia exactly why Napoleon Dynamite is so popular. "They like the dialogue and the funny scenes," he said. "It's hard to explain. Her friends talk about it at school, and even the grade-school kids around here think it's funny. They can quote the dialogue just like the older teens and re-enact scenes. It's happened before — fads happen." liifjhi PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Randall Sowa, center, of Grapevine with daughter Emily Sowa, 15, left, and wife Sharon Sowa, have turned Randall's vintage shirt design into a major business after the popularity of "Napoleon Dynamite." Movie Listings I For the iveekend of March 18 Dutch Square Mall Ζ Movies Times Robots Constantine Hitch Cursed Be Cool Ice Princess The Ring 2 Million Dollar Baby Oiary of a Mad Black Woman The Pacifier Hostage The Passion Reçut 7:00 7:30 9:10 9:45 1:00 3:50 1:50 4:30 7:00 9:30 4:20 1:20 4:00 7:15 9:50 1:30 4:00 7:10 9:30 7:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 1:00 3:50 6:50 9:40 6:40 7:20 9:15 9:50 1:40 4:20 7:30 ?:40 1:20 4:20 7:10 9:45 1:30 L:-;:; Regal Cinema 7 / Movies Times The Aviator 1:15 5:00 8:30 Hitch 1:10 4:10 7:10 9:55 Cursed 2:30 4:40 7:3010:00 Are We There Yet? 7:20 9:45 Because of Winn-Dixie 2:25 4:45 7.15 9:40 Ice Princess 2:20 4:50 7:25 9:35 Pooh's Heffalump Movie 12:15 2.15 4:35 Million Dollar Baby l-.oo 4:00 7:00 9:55 Columbiana Grande Cinemas Movies The Phantom of the Opera Robots Constantme Finding Neverland . Man of the House Be Cool Sideways Ice Princess Hotel Rwanda Hostage The Wedding Date Times 8:00 7:45 9:00 9:30 10:00 1:05 4:05 7:05 9:50 1:45 4:20 6:55 9:20 2:50 5:10 7:30 10:15 6:45 7:25 9:25 10:15 1:10 4:10 7:15 10:05 2:45 5:10 7:30 9:45 1:55 4:35 7:20 10:10 12:55 3:50 7:10 10:20 2:55 5:05 7:40 9:55 Carmike 14 Movies Times Are We There Yet? Because of Winn-Dixie Cursed Diary of a Mad Black Woman Hitch The Jacket Meet the Fockers Million Dollar Baby The Pacifier Racing Stripes The Work and the Glory 1:30 4:15 7:15 9:40 12:45 4:10 7:10 9:40 1:00 4:20 7:20 9:50 12:30 4:00 7:15 10:00 1:15 4:10 7:00 9:50 1:15 3:45 7:00 9:30 1:00 4:20 7:00 9:45 1:00 4:00 7:00 9:55 5:45 7:15 8:00 9:45 1:10 4:20 7:20 9:50 1:20 4:15 7:10 9:45