The Brown Daily Herald M onday, A pril 21, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 55
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Scorsese: ‘Film what you feel’
At Ivy Film Festival, love and bowling By Alex Seitz-Wald Staff Writer
By Simon Van Zuylen-Wood Senior Staf f Writer
Technology has allowed filmmakers to produce movies that beg grand productions such as “Titanic,” Thomas Rothman ’76 P’11 said at the closing ceremony of the seventhannual Ivy Film Festival on Saturday night. But simple films like “Juno” can also be commercial successes because the quality of a movie is dependent on its story, not its budget
the guidance of Elizabeth Hoover MA’03 GS, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Hoover said she first started doing pow wows as an undergraduate at Williams College and then discovered an interest in holding a pow wow among NAB students when she came to Brown. NAB’s current membership is 15 to 25 students, Brown said. “Turnout was incredible,” Brown said, crediting the change in location. Brown said she counted 330 attendees at lunch time, usually one of the slower times of day. Both Brown and Hoover said they were particularly pleased for this year’s good weather, which allowed them to hold the pow wow outside.
Salomon 101 was filled to the brim during Saturday’s Ivy Film Festival “Masterclass,” when it welcomed acclaimed film director Martin Scorsese. The capacity audience sat rapt for two hours as Scorsese spoke about his relationships with individual actors and music while addressing the centrality of improvisation and personality in his movies. Scorsese, who has repeatedly directed actors Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Harvey Keitel in his films, emphasized the value of an actor’s ability to improvise during filming. The director said, for example, that De Niro and Keitel fully improvised a scene of “Mean Streets,” which, along with several other clips from films he directed, were screened for the audience. Scorsese, who forgot to bring his notes to the set that day, said the two actors “just go off on jazz solos, the both of them,” comparing Keitel’s straight man and DeNiro’s libertine to the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. The Academy Award-winning director said his first documentary, “Italianamerican,” was a chance to let a film “relinquish to the power of personalities.” The picture featured his parents interacting in their own home as “directors” of their own lives, Scorsese said. Documentaries “give me a sense of freedom, in terms of breaking away from narrative structure,” Scorsese said, referring to the “con-
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REVIEW or technological grandeur, added Rothman, who oversaw production of both the nautical romantic tragedy and the dry comedy. This keynote address by Rothman, now co-chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment, and the awards ceremony at Sayles Hall that followed wrapped up the annual, week-long film festival. About 200 student filmmakers, industry talent, festival staff and guests gathered to celebrate the close of the “only film festival for and by college students,” said Meg Boudreau ’08, the festival’s executive director. The week included 35 student film screenings, filmmaking panels and addresses by film industry professionals, including a conversation with “filmmaking legend” Martin Scorsese, IFF Associate Director Elizabeth Backup ’08 said. The festival received more than 250 film submissions this year, and 35 were chosen to be featured in the festival, IFF Program Director Eric Dahlbom ’08.5 said. Students from across the globe — from Oregon to Greece — submitted movies. The festival usually expects many entries from certain schools with strong film programs, like New York University and the University of Southern California, Boudreau said. The nine festival winners, except for the audience choice award, were selected by three industry judges. Dahlbom said he was impressed with the quality of this year’s films, saying he found himself “not being able to choose which to tell my friends to go to.” In addition to films, the festival also received about 75 student-written screenplays, a “record amount,” he added. “Finding Matty’s Voice,” a film about a boy with autism, won the grand jury award, a high honor the festival’s judges offer. The audience choice award went to “Duckpin,” a documentary by students from the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles. The film explores the subculture surrounding duckpin bowling, which is a miniature version of the more familiar 10-pin style and popular in the Northeast. The film was crafted continued on page 4
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ARTS & CULTURE
Art and community Music Teaching Associate Consuelo Sherba wins Trinity Rep’s Pell Award
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Meara Sharma / Herald
Native Americans at Brown held the seventh-annual Spring Thaw Pow Wow on the Main Green this weekend.
Pow Wow hits Main Green for first time By Robin Steele Arts & Culture Editor
Anyone passing through the Main Green last weekend was treated to more than the usual frisbee players and sunbathers. They also got to see the unusual sight of a Native American pow wow. The seventh-annual Spring Thaw Pow Wow took over the Green on Saturday and Sunday, presented by the student group Native Americans at Brown. The two-day event included dance competitions, storytelling, songs and vendors selling crafts, clothing, jewelry and food. A pow wow is a large social gathering of Native Americans, which features traditional dances blended with contemporary elements and include “drum music,
feasting and dance competition,” according to the event’s program. Pow wows are historically rooted in the traditional dances and gatherings of the Omaha people, spreading to other tribal groups, resulting in its modern incarnation, which dates back 50 to 70 years, the program said.
ARTS & CULTURE This year’s pow wow was the first to be held on the Main Green, said Mikel Brown ’08, a member of the 2007-08 Pow wow Committee. In previous years, the pow wow locations have included Sayles Hall, the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center and the Pizzitola Sports Center. The annual pow wow was started seven years ago by NAB under
Relay for Life sees less cash, but more Loui’s this year By Scott Lowenstein Metro Editor
About 600 walkers spent last Friday night strolling the Main Green for Brown’s Relay For Life, an annual event that raises money and awareness for the American Cancer Society. This year, participants raised around $58,000, a substantial dip from last year’s total that several involved in the event blamed on the current weakened state of the economy. Despite the drop in fundraising — $79,000 were donated last year — “the event was definitely a success,” said Sujata Gidumal ’10, one of Relay’s three co-chairs this year. She said the event last year drew a similar number of participants and that this year’s “ran smoother than in previous years,” according to what students with a long involvement in the event told her. The relay started at 6 p.m. last Friday and ran until 6 a.m. on Saturday morning in recognition that
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CAMPUS NEWS
“cancer never sleeps,” Gidumal said. The event featured talks from organizers and cancer survivors, the lighting of luminarias — decorated bags with candles inside — “to remember all of those who have suffered from cancer” and a “fight-back ceremony,” in which participants made small pledges to fight cancer in their daily lives, Gidumal said. Gidumal said one of the biggest challenges in putting on Brown’s Relay for Life is keeping people at the event until its conclusion. “In previous years, people would leave at around three or so, and then at around five. Everyone who’s remaining tended to go to Loui’s,” the Brook Street eatery known for opening at 5 a.m., Gidumal said. To combat fatigue this year, Gidumal said, organizers set up “Red Bull pong” starting at 3 a.m. “People were definitely starting
(not) rising up While Funk the War protesters rise up, Passover matzoh does not
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OPINIONS
Kim Perley / Herald
Campus groups took part in Friday night’s Relay for LIfe, the annual non-stop stroll around the Main Green to raise money and awareness for fighting cancer.
Bottoms up Sean Quigley ‘10 explains how enlightening a conservative take on hitting the sauce can be
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
cloudy, 66 / 46
tomorrow’s weather Tomorrow’s weather calls for a ‘Funk the Clouds’ dance party. Bring our sunny days home now!
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