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(05/22/11 11:25pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Corporation for National and Community Service has recognized IU-Bloomington’s support of volunteering, service learning and civic engagement in the Bloomington area.The University was admitted to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for engaging its students, faculty and staff in community service. The Corporation announced the admission to the Honor Roll earlier this May.“This is another important affirmation of our engagement and outreach efforts and of the hard work done by our service-learning staff and the students and faculty who participate in these activities,” Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson said in a press release. “It shows that IU-Bloomington has a positive impact well beyond the Sample Gates.”In addition to IU, the Corporation for National and Community Service admitted 640 other colleges, including IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, which joins the Honor Roll with distinction. A total of 851 institutions applied for the 2010 Honor Roll.
(05/11/11 11:30pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At the 4th annual Coach Hep Indiana Cancer Challenge on Saturday, participants will run, walk and bike in support of cancer research. The fundraising challenge is in honor of former IU football coach Terry Hoeppner, who died in 2007 of complications from a brain tumor. The event includes a 2K walk, a 5K run, 25K, 50K and 100K bicycle routes and an ice cream social sponsored by Hartzell’s Ice Cream. Registration for the event is $35 for adults 16 and older, $15 for children ages 6 to 15 and free for children 5 and younger. Registration is available online until midnight Thursday at http://www.coachhepcancerchallenge.org/. Proceeds benefit the Hoosier Oncology Group and the IU Simon Cancer Center.Coach Hep Indiana Cancer Challenge6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. SaturdayRaces start at the Memorial Stadium2K Walk registration is from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. The walk begins at 11 a.m.5K Run registration is from 8 to 9:30 a.m. The race begins at 10 a.m.Registration for the 25K, 50K and 100K Cycle courses is from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. The 50K and 100K Cycle start time is 7:30 a.m. The 25K Cycle start time is 8 a.m.- John Seasly
(05/08/11 11:13pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The William T. Patten Foundation has announced its Patten Lecture Series for the 2011-12 school year. The series features three speakers who will each visit Bloomington for a week to give multiple lectures. Here is a summary of the speakers.RAY JACKENDOFFRay Jackendoff is a philosophy professor at Tufts University and one of the world’s leading figures in the disciplines of linguistics and cognitive science, according to an IU press release. Jackendoff has developed a theory of consciousness and has written on the relationship between the mind, language and consciousness. He will speak at IU Nov. 6-11.CHARLES HILLCharles Hill is a distinguished fellow in International Security Studies at Yale University and a former diplomat. He served as a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Hong Kong and as a mission coordinator during the Vietnam War. He served on the staff of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State George Schultz and was assistant secretary-general of the United Nations under Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Hill will speak at IU March 4-9. PETER GALISONHarvard University physics professor Peter Galison is one of the most visible and respected historians of modern physics and of contemporary experimental science. Galison is interested in the intersection of philosophical and historical questions, according to his biography on Harvard’s website. He has contributed to documentaries for public television and cinema. Galison will speak at IU April 1-6.
(04/29/11 4:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With its 260 plush seats, restored Benton murals and crystal clear presentation, the IU Cinema creates an intimate setting that transports the audience in style. It’s the product of a director’s dedication and a small staff’s hard work in the cinema’s inaugural season. This is their story.THE DIRECTORWhen the movie theater in Jon Vickers’ hometown of Three Oaks, Mich., went on the market in 1993, he bought it, thinking he and his wife could live a bohemian lifestyle there. He could show interesting films, and his wife, an artist, could turn the lobby into an art gallery. They could sleep in the projection booth. The rundown theater, however, took three years to refurbish. By the time it opened, their second child was on the way, and the bohemian lifestyle was no longer a reality. But the Vickers Theatre gave him what he always dreamed of, a place to showcase the independent, foreign, avant-garde and classic films that would otherwise never see the silver screen in a small Midwestern town. “I was known in my little town as the guy that liked the weird movies,” Vickers said.Fifteen years later, Vickers is the director of the IU Cinema, overseeing every aspect of the facility. There is the technical side — preparing the projection, audio and spotlights for screenings and guest speakers. There is marketing — getting the word out about not only screenings but also the theater itself, which opened in January. There is programming — creating a lineup of films and guest filmmakers that reaches out to a diverse university audience, films from East Asian cinema to “Breaking Away.” There is fundraising — Vickers’ goal is to have the cinema fully endowed within seven or eight years. And finally, there is relationship building — establishing connections within the IU community to support academic goals and stay relevant to the audience. The audience watches the films, but Vickers makes them happen.Vickers had never visited Bloomington before he was offered the job, but having lived here now for almost a year, it has surpassed his expectations. “I love that it still has a small town feel that makes us feel comfortable raising our family here,” he said. “I love that there’s an audience for film. I thought it’d be much more of a challenge to reach an audience.”Under his direction, the cinema has seen not only great films, but also great filmmakers. From the director of “The Last Picture Show” to the writer of “Taxi Driver,” guest speakers give public lectures, introduce their films and answer audience questions afterward.“Our goal is to make these artists acceptable,” Vickers said. “I don’t think that we’ll bring in a guest that won’t be willing to do that.”Vickers’ personal favorite was documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, a pioneer of the direct cinema style and director of “Grey Gardens” and “Gimme Shelter.” “He’s the favorite filmmaker I’ve hosted in the last 15 years,” he said. “The humanity that he brings to his films and even his conversations...he genuinely cares.”In the midst of preparing for the cinema’s fall season, Vickers reflected on his position.“There’s a joy that comes from being an exhibitor,” he said. “We’re accomplishing one of our goals; we’re affecting people’s lives.” THE PROJECTIONISTAs the technical director of the cinema, Manny Knowles ensures that the presentation is seamless. That means inspecting the physical reels of film for imperfections, preparing a sync sheet for the student projectionists and controlling the sound and lights from his projection booth above the audience. On Tuesday, he is working on the print of Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’Avventura,” on loan from the British Film Institute’s archives.“This is one of the last prints around,” Knowles said. “It might be the best print on the planet.” Wearing protective gloves, Knowles runs the reels through his fingers, feeling for any inconsistencies. Since he took over the production of family home movies from his father at age 8, Knowles has known the feel of film for most of his life. “I’ve always been somehow doing something with movies,” he said.As a teenager in the 1970s, he would rent a projector and a 16mm print of a Hollywood film from a local business and screen movies for his friends.“Sometimes I charged, sometimes I didn’t,” he said. “It depended on whether I needed money to get the next movies.”He attended film school at the University of Southern California and bounced from one job to another on the technical side of the film industry. Becoming a veteran projectionist nearly ruined film for him. “There was a time when I couldn’t go to movie theaters,” Knowles said of noticing minute imperfections of multiplex screenings. “It got to the point where I said, ‘I just have to let it go.’”Sometimes a print arrives in rough shape, as in the case of “Breaking Away.” The film’s technical director and Bloomington resident Tom Schwoegler loaned the cinema his print. He had bought it on eBay, and it is one of the few known prints left in existence. The color, however, was faded, and the film was covered by a thin layer of dust. “With color fading, there’s nothing we can do,” Knowles said. “It’s a hard feeling. You’re powerless.” He points to a special lint roller he used on the “Breaking Away” print.“All that lint you’re seeing there, that would have been onscreen,” he said.Each film reel lasts around 20 minutes, and with the cinema’s dual projectors, the projectionist has 18 frames, or three quarters of a second, to switch reels. If the switch is early, the onscreen image will appear to jump; if it is late, the screen will show black. “It’s exhausting,” said Amanda Keeler, one of the student projectionists. “He’s better at it.”Knowles’ job keeps him extremely busy, and his immersion into film has its price. “Right now, the last thing I really want to do with my free time is watch a movie,” he said.His emphasis on presentation has not been lost on visiting filmmakers, many of whom have made a point to praise the quality of the screenings. “I’m not used to that,” he said. “That’s kind of what I strive for.”Despite the demands of the job, he enjoys it immensely.“My fun comes when people say, ‘That was a great presentation.’”THE FILM FANATICWhen Andy Hunsucker, a graduate of the School of Informatics and current staff member of UITS, heard about the IU Cinema in October 2009, he was in awe.“This is like the coolest thing I ever heard of,” he said. He donated a small amount of money from his monthly paycheck to the cinema, and when Vickers contacted him thanking him for his donations, Hunsucker wanted to help.“I thought, ‘I’ve got to convince this guy that I can help him somehow,’” he said. He showed Vickers some of his graphic design ideas for the cinema, and Vickers tasked him to design posters and banners, as well as record a weekly podcast on film. “I’ve always told Jon I am here to benefit the cinema,” he said. “What Jon needs from me I am available for.”Hunsucker’s current interest in film came with the advent of DVDs and their wealth of special features.“I am as interested in the history of a film as the film itself,” he said.When he sees a movie at the cinema, he sits in one of two places — if he knows he’s going to like it, he’ll sit in the center, seven or eight rows back; if he’s unsure, he’ll sit next to the aisle so he can leave discreetly in case he doesn’t enjoy it. Hunsucker works for free, but to him, it’s worth it.“I am a cold, hard volunteer,” he said. “It is not a monetary thing. I am well compensated in experiences.”
(04/11/11 1:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Editors-in-chief have been confirmed for IU Student Media following Friday’s spring publications board meeting. Junior Brooke Lillard will serve as the summer Indiana Daily Student editor-in-chief, junior MaryJane Slaby will serve as the fall IDS editor-in-chief and junior Kayleen Cohen will serve as the editor-in-chief of the 2012 Arbutus Yearbook.The board, which is made up of representatives from various areas of student media and organizations and professional members in the community, interviews candidates each semester to select the next editor.Lillard, from Memphis, Tenn., will succeed junior Jake Wright, the spring editor-in-chief. Her previous positions on staff include region editor, copy editor and page designer. Summer will be the first full term with the IDS redesign and smaller paper, and Lillard said she wants to focus on online content.“I plan to emphasize the web a lot,” Lillard said. “I want to make content available to readers.”Slaby, from New Carlisle, Ind., has served as managing editor, campus editor and arts editor, among other positions, and she is the current IU Police Department beat reporter. Slaby said she wanted to focus on breaking news, alternative story forms and thinking for the website, not just the newspaper.“Every semester at the IDS you learn something different,” Slaby said. “I think being management last fall was helpful in seeing what a day in the life was like for (then-Editor-in-Chief) Sarah Brubeck.”Cohen, a Bloomington native, has served as an IDS arts editor and Arbutus managing editor, among other positions. In her application for the position, Cohen said she wants to create more visual diversity from page to page. All Student Media publications — including Arbutus and Inside magazine — have editorial independence granted by the IU Board of Trustees. The student editors are in charge and take responsibility for the content.
(04/11/11 12:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>During the production of the film “Hoosiers,” a small placard rested above screenwriter Angelo Pizzo’s desk, director David Anspaugh said. It read: “This is not a sports movie.” Pizzo and Anspaugh, spoke at the IU Cinema on Thursday and presented the screening that night in honor of the classic film’s 25th anniversary.After the screening, Anspaugh spoke about his three most memorable viewings of the film. The first was watching its premiere in Indianapolis. Second was a screening at the largest theater in Moscow, before the end of the Cold War. More than 4,000 people watched his film that night and gave him a standing ovation. “This ranks as number three,” Anspaugh said of the IU Cinema screening. He and Pizzo had originally planned to go to dinner during the movie but ended up staying for the duration. Anspaugh and Pizzo spoke about the relationships they had with their actors and what it was like making their first feature film.On screen writing and making it in the movie industry:PIZZO: You can’t fall in love. You’ve got to cut really great stuff that’s close to your heart.ANSPAUGH: I tried every day to do something to further my goal ... You have to be a warrior. You have to be relentless, and you can’t personalize rejection.on dennis hopper, who plays shooterANSPAUGH: When actors come up with suggestions, there’s a lot of ego at stake. Dennis could come up with six ideas, you could say no to all of them and he wouldn’t be bothered by it.On gene hackman, who plays coach Norman Dale:ANSPAUGH: With Gene, we had head-knocking sessions and it was personal, real personal ...He gave me my first panic attack. The walls were breathing, and I wasn’t ... This man, it’s like working with Satan ... I was like raw meat.PIZZO: The truth is, David was scared to death.
(04/08/11 1:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Tickets are still available for the private screening of “Hoosiers” at 6:30 p.m. today at the IU Cinema. Director David Anspaugh and writer and producer Angelo Pizzo will attend the screening and the reception in the IU Auditorium. At the reception, guests will hear about the making of the film and have an opportunity to talk with the creators. On Friday, the IU Cinema will screen “Rudy” at 6:30 p.m. and “Hoosiers” at 9:30 p.m. Both events are free, but ticketed. Tickets are available at the IU Auditorium box office. Should an event sell out, those without tickets can wait up to 30 minutes prior to the screening in the IU Cinema lobby for available seats.
(04/07/11 7:53pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Tickets are still available for the private screening of “Hoosiers” at 6:30 p.m. today at the IU Cinema. Director David Anspaugh and writer and producer Angelo Pizzo will attend the screening and the reception in the IU Auditorium. At the reception, guests will hear about the making of the film and have an opportunity to talk with the creators. On Friday, the IU Cinema will screen “Rudy” at 6:30 p.m. and “Hoosiers” at 9:30 p.m. Both events are free, but ticketed. Tickets are available at the IU Auditorium box office. Should an event sell out, those without tickets can wait up to 30 minutes prior to the screening in the IU Cinema lobby for available seats.
(04/05/11 4:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC Entertainment, which is distributing “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” introduced director Werner Herzog’s 3-D documentary Monday at the IU Cinema. “This feels like an event,” IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers said to the packed and buzzing theater before the show. Introducing the film, Sehring lauded the theater’s quality.“This is one of the best, if not the best, theaters I’ve ever been in,” Sehring said. “It’s a spectacular venue. You guys are very, very lucky.” He explained why his company immediately chose to distribute Herzog’s documentary.“This is something, unfortunately, none of us will ever get to see with our own eyes,” he said of the Chauvet Cave, which houses the 32,000-year-old cave paintings featured in the film.After the screening, Sehring talked with Vickers and answered audience questions. “The overarching thing for us was to work with Werner,” Sehring said of distributing the film. “You want to work with filmmakers whose movies will stand the test of time.” Earlier in the day, Sehring talked to the Indiana Daily Student to about the movie business.On working for an independent film distributor“I’ve been doing this almost my whole life, my professional life. Everyone I work with is passionate about movies, art-house movies especially.”On choosing films to distribute “Sometimes, if it just sticks with you, there’s probably an audience.”On life after college“I wrote to every film and TV company in existence, literally. I got an offer from Janus Films. That was my first job.”On whether knowing how a film is made changes the viewing experience“The only time it changes is if it’s a movie you’ve made. You always see everything wrong with it ... (Otherwise) that doesn’t change the film-going experience at all.”On ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’“You come out of there and your head is swimming.”On distributing ‘Cave’“This is the first 3-D movie we’ve done. If somebody told me a year ago that we’d be doing a 3-D movie about cave paintings, I’d say you’re nuts.”
(04/01/11 2:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson will lecture and present the U.S. theatrical premiere of his new documentary “Freedom Riders” on Friday at the IU Cinema. The film, nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, takes viewers into the Deep South of the 1960s, where more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives simply by traveling on buses together. The film’s premiere marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders’ movement.Nelson has spent his life raising awareness of social issues through film documentaries. He cites as one of his greatest achievements the impact of his film, “The Murder of Emmett Till,” which led to the reopening of the investigation of the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Till. The U.S. Justice Department stated that the witness testimony in the film was a major factor in its decision to investigate. Nelson will give a free, public lecture at the IU Cinema at 3 p.m. Friday and will present his film at 7 p.m. No tickets are required for the lecture. The screening is free, but tickets, which are still available, are required. Those without tickets can wait in the IU Cinema lobby up to 30 minutes before the screening for available seats.
(03/29/11 3:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bodies clothed in medieval garb littered the Bryan Park battlefield Sunday afternoon in the wake of the most recent battle. Fighters, many dead just moments before, stood up and rearmed themselves in preparation for the next conflict. But the battle was temporarily put on hold, as the herald, or referee, held up a set of keys.“Has anybody lost their keys?” herald Ben Samuelson asked. “A new issue Chevy?” A man raised his hand, and once the keys were returned, Samuelson yelled for the battle to commence. This particular battle marked the spring opener for the Bloomington Battle Games Club. Composed of students and community members interested in medieval style combat, the group meets from 1 to 4 p.m. every Sunday at Bryan Park, weather permitting.Teams of four rushed toward each other with foam-padded weapons and savage energy. Angel Patterson, of the Numenor realm, picked off fighters from afar with green foam-tipped arrows that nonetheless packed a punch. “I usually always get some bruises, no matter how safe the weapons are,” said Cyrus Cunningham, a member of the Bloomington Battle Games Club and a recent IU graduate. He wore the yellow sash of the herald over his hand-sewn garb, a black tunic with red trim, and goes by “Hash” on the battlefield. He held his sword in his right hand and his shield in his left, adorned with green and white, the traditional colors of Rhovanion, his realm. The name comes from the wild ungoverned lands in which most of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” takes place. The club was founded three years ago by then-IU graduate student Jeff Sartain, who had been involved in medieval-themed combat since he was 14.He stressed the difference between the Battle Games Club and LARPing, or live-action role-playing, as seen in the film “Role Models.” “All we do is fight,” Sartain said. “There’s really no role-playing or characterization ... it’s like rugby for nerds.”The term “nerd,” Sartain said, carries different implications with every member.“Some people are really in the closet about their nerd,” he said. “Some people are very, very fine about whatever people think.”The rules of combat are simple. All weapons are checked before battle to ensure that 2.5 inches of foam cover any contact area. Weapons include the traditional one-handed short sword and shield, longer two-handed swords, thrusting weapons and missile weapons like spears and arrows. A hit between the neck and the groin is death. A hit to an arm disables that arm; the same is true for a leg. Two disabled limbs equal death. Head shots are prohibited. “The swords are standardized, so the costumes and the people don’t have to be,” Sartain said.Characterization applies only to the extent that players design their own medieval garb and can choose to give themselves combat names. Michael Neff goes by Krucifer. The imposing, steel-eyed bald-headed warrior was clad in all black and sported a pentacle on his breastplate and an arm-length death-metal inspired tattoo that took eight six-hour sessions to complete. He’s only been fighting for a year and a half, but Sartain said Neff immediately fit right in.“Don’t let the archer get me,” Neff commanded his teammates while he dodged Patterson’s onslaught of arrows. “I can’t deal with this archer nonsense.” One of Patterson’s arrows hit Neff’s chest. Neff kneeled down with his javelin touching his head, the signal for death. “I hate missile weapons!”Fighter Cheryl Medley said the sport allows people not interested in traditional sports to participate in a physical activity.“While we like to be physical we don’t get along with the jock-y set,” Medley said. One of the more interesting side effects of the medieval-themed combat, she said, is the emphasis on crafts.“You have guys who want to beat heads in, but they’re sewing.”The sport creates a bond between fans of both fantasy and physicality.“You bash somebody with your shield, they’re down and you pick them up and you have a conversation about their trim,” she said.All but three of the 30 fighters at Bryan Park on Sunday were men. But Medley, along with Morgan Prestage, who is in her 10th year of fighting, and Allison Rook, who goes by Artemis in battle, don’t have a problem being the minority.“A lot of girls who do it, not all of them are big like me,” Medley said. “The smaller ones are either really fast or do archery.”“Friar” Steve Coppess, 54, in a brown robe and holding a plain white cross, sat above the battlefield and watched his son fight. A former Civil War re-enactor, Coppess said he feels that women fighters definitely rise to the challenge.“In my experience, the girls are a lot tougher than the guys,” Coppess said.
(03/28/11 2:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the rear of the IU Cinema, the writer of “Taxi Driver” watched his film’s final shot as main character Travis Bickle’s “metal coffin” of a taxi continued to float through the sewers of the city. Cinema volunteer and master’s student Gabriel Gutierrez tapped the film’s screenwriter, Paul Schrader, on the shoulder. “You know, I’ve never seen it, but that was amazing,” he whispered. Schrader answered audience questions after Thursday’s screening and gave a public lecture Friday. Schrader touched on Bickle’s psyche, the uncertain future of film and the end of a cinematic era.Schrader on the film “This film is a loop ... a continuously repeating evil loop.”“Travis Bickle’s a reptilian little creep. Maybe history has made him a good guy, but I never thought he was.”“This character was the fruit of European existential fiction.” “(Bickle) was saved by circumstance, made a hero by irony, but he is still trapped.”“The best thing about the restoration is the sound.” The original soundtrack was in mono, and the 2011 digital restoration is in stereo.Schrader on culture“America has lost its culture ... that time when you had a unifying cultural aspect is gone. Springsteen, Bonnie and Clyde, the Beatles. Without a center like that you can never have movies. We’re all lost in the blogosphere.”“It’s an odd thing, particularly in today’s culture, to say I wrote a movie for my own mental health ... and it worked.”“We have a crisis of form. We don’t know what movies are anymore. The only interesting thing is technology.”“In the end, filmmaking is just a cascade of decisions, several hundred decisions a day made extremely fast. You put it together and you say, ‘Well, I guess that’s who I am.’”
(03/25/11 3:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Writer-director Paul Schrader arrived at IU on Thursday to present the digital restoration of the landmark film “Taxi Driver,” directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Schrader. He sat down with the Indiana Daily Student to discuss his perspective on his craft.On writing “Taxi Driver”“The whole thing came about from suffering, not a desire to write a commercial film or sell a script.”On his parents’ religious opposition to film“When my father died, I went into his house, and there were all the videotapes of all my films, but they were all in their original shrink wrap.”On the future of film “Film, the projected image in a darkened room, is a 20th-century phenomenon. It may be becoming a thing of the past.” On filmmaking and analysis“The creative life and the critical life are two different animals. The film critic is like a medical examiner. He wants to find out why they died, how they lived. The writer is like a pregnant woman, working to ensure that the thing is born alive. If you let the medical examiner into the birthing room, he will kill that baby.”On the role of director“You just have to assume that your way’s the right way.”
(03/24/11 1:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>To Paul Schrader’s devout parents, films were a “worldly amusement” forbidden by the Calvinist Church. It wasn’t until age 17 in 1961 that Schrader disobeyed his parents and saw his first film, “The Absent-Minded Professor” — harmless fluff, but for the teenaged Schrader, taboo. Thankfully for film buffs, that taboo would become his passion and career. And today, almost a half century later, the critic-turned-director and screenwriter will visit IU.At 7 p.m. at the IU Cinema, Schrader, 64, will introduce the digital restoration of Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” one of Schrader’s earliest and most canonical screenplays. Written by Schrader in barely more than two weeks, the 1976 film was a labor of love for all involved, made on a shoestring budget of less than $2 million and untainted by studio control. Robert De Niro imbues cabdriver Travis Bickle with a manic ferocity, and the result is one of the most powerful performances in cinema history. Bickle is consumed by the question “Should I exist?” and his increasing frustration leads to an explosive climax of violence and rage. The film also marks the Academy Award-nominated screen debut of Jodie Foster, then only 12 years old, as the preteen prostitute Iris.The IU Cinema screening is sold out, but those without tickets can wait in the cinema lobby up to 30 minutes before the show for available seats. In addition, Schrader will give a free lecture at 3 p.m. Friday at the IU Cinema. No tickets are required for the lecture.
(03/21/11 3:38am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU associate professor of history Nick Cullather has received the 2011 Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians for his examination of the role of food in the Cold War.His book, “The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle Against Poverty in Asia,” was honored for its argument that food occupied a central place in American policy makers’ efforts to contain communism, OAH Executive Director Katherine Finley said in a press release.“With its breadth, imagination, broad research agenda and sharp analytic edge, ‘The Hungry World’ honors and expands on the legacy of Ellis Hawley and his work on the political economy of twentieth-century America,” the Hawley Prize Committee wrote in the announcement. The annual award is given to the best book-length historical study of the political economy, politics or institutions of the United States from the Civil War to the present, according to the organization’s website. Cullather is the first historian associated with IU to receive the award.
(03/03/11 4:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The polls are closed and Big Ten has been announced as the unofficial winner of the 2011 IU Student Association election. The ticket members campaigned on their commitment to its six B-SMART goals, which they said are realistic and attainable within their year of service. The results will not be official until after the IUSA Supreme Court gives its certification of the election Thursday. Big Ten carried the election with a significant majority of 4,811 votes, while BtownUnited came in second with 3,056 votes, followed by reviveIU with 1,204 votes.
(02/28/11 5:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Director Spike Lee discussed the Oscars, his start in film and education reform at the IU Auditorium on Saturday as the final event of the 27th annual ArtsWeek. Lee, born Shelton Jackson Lee, was dubbed Spike by his mother, a remark on his stubborn nature. He began making films in the 1980s, with his first feature length film, “She’s Gotta Have It,” debuting in 1986. Lee, along with United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, joined activist Jeff Johnson, whose task force is committed to putting 80,000 more black male teachers into classrooms because less than 2 percent of America’s teachers are African-American males. Lee said there are more black men in prison and jail than in colleges and universities. Lee said with this lack of positive black male role models for children at school, a vicious cycle perpetuates itself. His speech focused primarily on teaching reform. Below are some of his comments from the evening.On the Oscars:“Tomorrow night are the Oscars, don’t look for me. I’ll be in Miami for the Knicks.” “There were 26 people nominated this year. Not one was African-American. We got a half a one (Matthew Libatique, the cinematographer for ‘Black Swan,’ who is Filipino).” “A couple years ago, in a so-called watershed moment, Halle Berry won Best Actress, Denzel Washington won Best Actor and Sidney Poitier won a Lifetime Achievement Award.” “There was hoopla ... that a new day has dawned. We’d finally arrived. That so-called watershed moment did not happen.”“Denzel Washington was robbed for Malcolm X. In basketball terminology.”“The year Denzel was nominated, he was up against Al Pacino for ‘Scent of a Woman.’ Al is a great, great actor, and Denzel had already won supporting actor for ‘Glory.’ Al Pacino gets the Academy Award so (Denzel) gets robbed.” “It was a makeup call. He wins for ‘Training Day.’ Scorsese doesn’t win for ‘Goodfellas,’ ‘Raging Bull,’ ‘Casino.’ What does he win for? ‘(The) Departed.’”On becoming a filmmaker:“I was a below-average student ... I was just not motivated. In the summer of ’77, between my sophomore and junior year, I came back to New York City.” “I had no summer job, so what was I gonna do for three months?” “And someone had given me a Super 8 camera the previous Christmas and a box of film. For some reason something told me, instead of just sittin’ on your black ass, do something.” “So I spent summer running around New York City with a camera. With (his film teacher, Herb Eichelberger’s) encouragement, I took the raw footage and tried to make a film out of it. I spent all fall semester.” “In the spring I showed it to my class, and my class liked it ... When people ask me why did I choose film, I flip and say film chose me. Before I was a floundering C-minus student. After, I got A pluses at every class I took.”On telling parents your major:“Parents kill more dreams than anybody.”On education: “What’s criminal is that in young minds now they equate intelligence with being white and ignorance with being black.”“Now when you talk about slavery, people’s eyes cloud over. 1865 was not that long ago. At one point we are willing to risk our lives for education.” “Fast forward. You think you’re acting white if you’re intelligent? That’s genocide to me.”On misinformation:“We need to start telling the truth ... George Washington had sex with his slaves ... that is not taught.” “Christopher Columbus — He discovered America? How do you discover something when there are people there already?” A last bit of advice:“You should not leave this campus without having read ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley.’”
(02/22/11 3:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles lectured and presented four of his films at the IU Cinema on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, he sat down with the IDS to discuss his early career in psychology, his direct cinema style and the idea of truth in cinema.IDS What was it about psychology that appealed to you?ALBERT MAYSLES It all started actually earlier, about when I was maybe 10 years old. I ran across a book entitled, “Architects of Ideas: (The Story of the) Great Theories of Mankind,” and it had some 16 chapters devoted to a great thinker ... Among them was Sigmund Freud, whom I never would have known otherwise. All these great thinkers never entered any of my high school learning. But I understood the idea of the importance of the subconscious. The whole idea that you could actually study the mind appeals to me a great deal. So for many years thereafter I was intrigued by the possibility that you could have a science of the mind.IDS Can you talk about the parallels between direct cinema and new journalism that were coming out basically at the exact same time?MAYSLES Very close. Suddenly I had an obsession with getting the real thing and reporting it authentically. I still have a difficulty accepting what some people think is a betterment in documentary ... (which is) blurring the lines between fact and fiction. I don’t see any charm. Although I would say that if someone wants to do that then they have every right to do so, but they should somehow make the viewer aware that they have committed themselves to that style. Because all too often tricks of fiction become part of the documentary process and we’re fooled into thinking that it’s the real thing.IDS Along those lines, with the films of Michael Moore, for example, how does that change the message?MAYSLES Well, I think that any serious viewer has to question his work because everything he does is with the determination to prove his point, so any evidence that might question his purpose is left out of the film, and you’re left with a piece of propaganda. He has said that he doesn’t have to get people, they’ll do it to themselves. That’s quite a nasty attitude. There’s a film called “Michael Moore Hates America,” and I’m in that. These guys came to me. They said they were going to do a film about Michael Moore. I said OK, so I gave the kinds of criticism that made sense, the same sort of thing that I told you, and right as I was finishing, I heard one of them say the title of this film was going to be “Michael Moore Hates America,” and I said I don’t want to be in this film, that’s not right, and they wouldn’t take me out. I guess the irony of it is that as much as they hated Michael Moore and made a film which is a diatribe against him, they were using the same techniques themselves.IDS Can you talk about the parallels between Jeanne-Claude and Christo and how you and your brother worked? You wrapped an experience in film like they wrapped physical objects.MAYSLES The similarity — I wouldn’t use the word ‘wrapped,’ necessarily — the similarity is that what happens on its own becomes the inherent part of the project, and that’s obvious in my filming, and it’s obvious in their projects. They said the whole process is connected with real people reacting to it, when those gates go up or the running fence takes place, people make their own judgment as to whether it’s a work of art or not. They’re quite content with letting that be. They don’t try to control it nor do they try to make it permanent. They realize that it’s temporary.I was on the bus one day and (a friend) shows me this photograph he took with a panoramic still camera, so you can see all of Central Park and Fifth Avenue beyond, with the sky of course, but it had one thing added to it, not by an artist but by nature: a rainbow that went from one end to the other. I like to mention that because if nature can do it, why shouldn’t human beings try to add? It’s perfectly legitimate for an individual to try and add something to nature.IDS You think of yourself as an author more than a director.MAYSLES My brother and I had a little difficulty with Charlotte (Zwerin, editor of “Gimme Shelter”) in credits. We wanted to give her full credit equal to ours, but she felt that we should all get director credit, if only for the case that when awards are given they don’t give them to filmmakers, they give them to directors and from that practical point of view, deceptive as it is, we agreed with her and gave ourselves director credits. In most of our films it doesn’t say filmmaker, it says director.
(02/21/11 2:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers arrived at the Grant Street Inn on Saturday to say goodbye to documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, who presented four of his movies this weekend and lectured about his direct cinema style. “You touched a lot of people this weekend,” Vickers said.Maysles, who has been making documentaries for 55 years, signed some posters of “Gimme Shelter” and agreed to a photo of him and Jon. But the camera didn’t seem to work.A woman came out of room 22 behind them.“I have a camera,” said Lesley Wexler, an associate professor at University of Illinois. She is a little dazed at sharing a hotel, and soon a couch, with the legendary director.Vickers asked if she’d be willing to take their picture.“Only if I can have one, too,” she said.It’s a deal. Wexler held up her camera.“Just the, just the heads,” Maysles said.Click.“Let me see, let me see,” he asked.She showed him.“No. Just the heads.” “You remember he’s a photographer,” Vickers said, smiling.She took another and showed it.“Now you’re talking. Perfect,” Maysles said.Wexler posed with Maysles as Vickers took the photo. He showed it to Maysles.“Perfect.”On Thursday and Friday, the IU Cinema screened four films by the director — “Islands,” “Running Fence,” “Grey Gardens” and “Gimme Shelter.” His direct cinema style puts the viewer right next to the subject, establishing an intimate relationship between the two. His advice when making films? “Get close.”He quoted Alfred Hitchcock’s saying that in feature films, the director is God. In documentary films, God is the director.“Well you’ve got a good partner there,” Maysles joked.He emphasized two qualities that a documentary should have above all else. First, the film should humanize.“I’ve seen so many films that are technically perfect,” he said in his lecture Friday, “but they don’t have a heart or soul to them.” Second, the film should convey the experience. “Just as we’re filming the experience of people, the viewer gets to experience that experience.”Maysles said he starts shooting right away, and some of that early footage makes it into the film. In the same vein, he advocated patience.“When it seems as though everything is over,” Maysles said, it’s crucial to shoot that next moment.He finished his lecture by clarifying the title of director.“I think it’s a misnomer to call us directors,” he said, adding that the term is only used practically for awards purposes. With a selflessness rare in the film-making industry, Maysles shares the director credit with the cameraman, the editor and the producer.“We’re authors, not directors.”The audience applauded, and Maysles encouraged people to continue the discussion.“Anyone who’d like to continue the conversation, gather round here, we’ll do some more talking,” Maysles said, referring to the stage of the cinema.IU alumnus Jon Galimore asked Maysles to sign his copy of “Grey Gardens.”“He just has kind of a devastating humanity,” Galimore said.
(02/18/11 4:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Standing behind the camera, documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles has what Jean-Luc Godard calls “the eye of the poet.” Maysles has made films about The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude and traveling bible salesmen. Beginning Thursday evening, he brings his expertise to IU to lecture and introduce four of his most celebrated films. Thursday night Maysles introduced two films about husband and wife Christo and Jeanne-Claude, two artists recently recognized for the 7,503 orange gates they installed for 16 days in New York City’s Central Park in 2005.Thursday’s films, “Islands” and “Running Fence,” reveal what happened with these works behind the scenes, as Jeanne-Claude and Christo wrestle with bureaucracy and red tape to realize their artistic visions. In 1983, they surrounded 11 islands in Biscayne Bay, Miami, with 6.5 million square feet of pink woven polypropylene fabric, extending 200 feet from each island into the Bay. “Running Fence”, completed in 1976, was an 18-foot-high fence running 24.5 miles in Sonoma and Marin Counties, Calif., eventually vanishing into the ocean. The fence was made of 2,222,222 square feet of heavy woven white nylon fabric, strung between 2,050 steel poles.These films, which Maysles made with his brother David, capture the temporary grace with which Christo unites nature and human construction.Maysles will lecture at 3 p.m. Friday at the IU Cinema and will later introduce two films: “Grey Gardens” from 1976 and “Gimme Shelter” from 1970. The films will be shown at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., respectively. “Grey Gardens” has risen to near-cult status throughout the years, with its portrayal of Big and Little Edie Beale, two Hamptons socialites living in squalor. “Gimme Shelter” is equally iconic, showing the backstage lives of the Rolling Stones’ band members with camerawork which became a trademark of Maysles’ cinéma vérité, or direct cinema, style.Maysles continues to make films, with three documentaries currently in production.