6- THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FILM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2002
Film department strives for racial diversity
By Stephen Shupe
Jayplaywriter
Through student recruitment programs, minority hires and special interest classes, the KU film department is addressing the issue of diversity in movies.
Kevin Willmott, professor of film, said the limited diversity in films was a problem. He cited the wide release of broad AfricanAmerican comedies, such as this weekend's Ice Cube film, Barbershop, as a key detriment to the issue.
"There's a variety of images a culture needs to see to understand a race," Willmott said, "and it just isn't there."
In an effort to ensure the image-makers who graduate from the film school will help broaden the industry, the department has taken advantage of the Gerap program which allows minority students to sit in on classes and helps take away some fears about college life.
"These programs can make college seem less like a remote experience," said Wilmott, who in his third year at the University is among the film professors attempting to bring diversity to the curriculum. "It's tough for Kansas to get minority teachers, because there's no urban base to build from."
Chuck Berg, associate chair of the film department, said new professors had brought both Latin-American and African-American approaches to film production and film studies. He said the department's efforts were beneficial to students.
"This is significant for our minority and female students in that they have actual role models," Berg said.
Shawn Martin, Leavenworth junior applauded the department.
"I don't think it could be any more diverse," said Martin, who might enroll in Willmott's African-American Images class
this spring. The class covers the history of stereotypical images of African Americans in movies.
"We cover five main stereotypes," Willmott said. "The coon, the Mammy, the buck, the Mulatto and the uncle."
Willmott said new stereotypical images of African Americans had shown up in recent years, such as the "spiritual friends" featured in The Family Man and The Green Mile.
"Some of these characters can be good," Willmott said. "But they're negative in that they never have lives of their own. They're always there to serve the white characters in the film."
Student feedback from the class has been positive from majors and non-majors alike, Berg said.
Willmott said he was unsure when he'd be able to teach a film class that focused on positive African-American images. The variety of images has gotten worse, he said,
and audiences are quickly becoming unused to seeing African Americans in dramatic situations.
Martin, who with Heavy D produced a documentary on the rap business, Street Dreams, said stereotypical images only separated people.
"It's especially difficult if you didn't grow up around any Black people," Martin said. "Even if you did, the images that are out there aren't identifiable with Black Midwesterners."
Sohyun Lee, native Korean and Lawrence graduate student in film, said it was difficult to get minorities interested in the film school because of low recognizability.
"That part of the University isn't well known to international students," Lee said.
Berg said the department was working to develop scholarship initiatives to boost minority student recruitment.
REVIEW
'City by the Sea' worth seeing for true story
By Stephen Shupe Jayplay writer
James Franco and Robert DeNiro play a bad son and a good cop in 'City by the Sea.'
Contributed art
Grainy images of an orange-burst beach appear over a title card, telling us that Long Beach, Long Island, once provided an escape for urban New Yorkers in the 1950s. Cut to the present day, where seagulls screech over the waves, graffiti rises up along the sides of the tenement houses and a gray light swallows everything.
From this dreary landscape emerges Joey (James Franco), a crack-addicted youngster who's selling his guitar for his next fix. After Joey scores, he murders a man in a knife-fight in self-defense. When his estranged cop of a father, Vincent LaMarca (Robert DeNiro), finds out, he fights to bring Joey in safely.
City by the Sea may sell this true, epic story short, but the arch of the movie is too commanding not to recommend it. The change in the characters maps the change in Long Beach, even in America, over the last half-century. You rarely feel that the film is living up to its potential, but its themes resonate nevertheless.
The riveting half of the movie involves Franco. Except for a few unwelcome bouts with William Forsythe — who plays a drug enforcer cursed with perpetually bad hair days — Franco's performance feels almost completely authentic, from his subdued
accent to his skeleton-like facial features. Franco is good-looking enough to be the next poster child for crack-smoking Americans, but that ends up being an asset near the end of the film, when our sympathies for Joey are tested.
The other half belongs to DeNiro, and even he can't make it all that interesting. Most of his screen time is spent with Frances McDormand, and their lovebird relationship bleeds a lot of life out of the
movie. The rest is devoted to LaMarca's police procedurals, and they bring nothing new to the countless movies and TV shows that make up the cops-and-criminals genre.
As directed by Michael Caton-Jones, the film frequently looks too muted, and as each scene ends with a slow fade to the next, you wonder if he's trying to cover up gaps in the script. The film comes in at under two hours, but it feels much longer.
SEE CITY BY THE SEA
L. L. L. L.
City by the Sea ★★★ (out of four)
Frances McDormand and Eliza Dushku
Starring Robert DeNiro, James Franco,
The film's most stirring element ends up being a character played by Eliza Dushku, the butt-kicking beauty from Bring It On and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As Joey's junkie ex-girlfriend Gina, Dushku gives a clear-eyed face to all those girls and boys who wait too long to stop binging. Gina most effectively voices the dilemma faced in the very real world City by the Sea presents: "Sometimes what you want and what you can do are different."
Rated R for language, drug use and some violence
Playing at Southwind 12, 3433 Iowa St.
Things pick up around the 70-minute mark, when DeNiro and Franco finally share their first scene. Themes of loss, irrevocable mistakes and crossed thresholds come to a head in a big way.
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Want another opinion? Read James
Owen's review at kansan.com