University Daily Kansan / Thursday, October 15, 1987
7
Arts/Entertainment
Explicit death scenes make video a favorite among cult following
By KIRK ADAMS
Staff writer
One popular videotape that is rented now days boldly warns on its box that it contains a video of a knife.
No, it's not a slasher, folks, but it's about real people whose deaths have been captured on film.
Captured on the film, "Faces of Death," is a woman jumping from a burning building to her death. Captured is a forest ranger in the Florida Everglades who tries to lasso a pecky alligator and is dragged into the water from his boat and ripened to pieces. Captured are the last minutes of the life of a murderer who dies strapped to the electric chair.
Captured is a rare culinary celebration where the feasters share in the killing of their meal — a small, live monkey locked in a unique stockade that leaves its head exposed in the middle of the banquet table. The monkey is spun around. The table does not move. Tourists proceed to beat the spinning monkey on the head with little wooden hammers until the creature's screams abate. They cut open the monkey's skull and eat its brains.
"Faces of Death" is a three-part series distributed by MPI Home Video that explores the many ways in which animals and people die. The film is not rated, because it is not shown in movie theaters but is sent directly to video stores.
The host of the video series, actor Michael Carr, portrays Dr. Francis B. Gross, the medical examiner who collected the film footage and killed himself in death rather than an exercise in morbidity.
According to several Lawrence videotape centers, there seems to be a high demand for the technology.
Stephanie Shipe, assistant manager of Miracle Video, 910 N. Second St., which carries the "Faces" series, said that the videos were rented every weekend.
Shipe said the store had stopped renting the tapes for a while because of recommendations the managers had read in the a videostore store. The company that told of the tapes" graphic violence.
"But people asked for it a lot, so we put it back on the shelves," she said. Miracle Video specializes in horror movies and action and animation. She says they rent "Faces of Death" to any person jumbo 18.
Ship said that after she had seen one of the tapes, it bothered her for days. She said she was concerned that some stores might rent the movie to children even though it carried a fire hazard.
She said that before she saw the movie, she had supported capital punishment. But after she saw the man in the film being executed in the electric chair, she changed her mind.
Ken Wilson, owner of Videoexpress, 1447 W. 23rd St., carries all three "faces" tape and says his customers rented the tapes frequently. The store did not rent the tapes to anyone under 18.
Tom Hay, Lawrence junior and a sales clerk at Video Biz, 832 Iowa St., said the store's managers had not wanted to carry the tapes until they could do so after receiving many calls for them.
Hay said the "Faces" tapes were rented more than many other tapes in the store and that they were usually rented each weekend.
Hay said he thought most people who rented the tapes knew what the movies were like. He
said he thought the films had a cult following and that some people got enthusiastic when they learned the store carried the movies.
Other people, he said, rent the movies, too. "People are curious to see what it's like," he said.
The Kinks, a British rock 'n' roll band, on the tite twirl from 1958. Give the People What They Want.
"When Oswald shot kennedy, he was insane, but still we watch the reruns and again. And I sit glued while the killer takes alms — 'Hey! there goes a piece of the president's brain!"
Scott Christenson, Topeka freshman, who said he had seen the first "Faces" movie, said some of his friends left after the movie started, and some felt sick.
But Bob Montgomery, Lee's Summit, Mo,
junior, who has seen two of the "faces" tape,
has been on a roll.
"I don't think it changed me in any way," he said.
Ned Smith, Topeka freshman, said he remembered several of the scenes in the first
He said the film sometimes had a sobering effect on people.
"Even people that have seen it before get enthusiastic about it, but when the movie gets going they get more quiet."
Smith said he vividly remembered the scenes in which the park ranger was killed by the alligator and the woman jumped from the burning building.
Laura Lorson, Olathe junior, said she was bothered by the way the movie seemed to trivialize death.
"It makes it seem like death is kind of a matter-of-fact kind of thing. I could see where it would send people who are really mentally unbalanced over the edge," she said.
"You see so much death in film anyway. I don't think it changed my ideas about death, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth," Lorson said.
Aletha Huston, co-director of the Center for Research on the Influences of Television on Children, said the fact that the movies depicted real footage of death increased the films' effect on people because the viewers would see them as being closer to real life.
Huston, who also is a KU professor of psychology and human development, said adults could become desensitized toward death and violence after viewing a lot of it. These people would then be less likely to be revulsed by such occurrences in real life.
"Those who get a kick out of it are more likely to be affected."
She said that some people were likely to find violence humorous and were not bothered by such scenes, but that these people might be more affected by the scenes.
Huston referred to a study of prison inmates convicted of violent crimes. The convicts were shown a boxing match in which the losing opponent was bleeding and appeared to be in great pain. One group of convicts was shown a tape that emphasized his pain; the other group watched the same boxing match from a more objective point of view.
Huston said the inmates who watched the most violent version committed more acts of violence after the showing than did the control group.
KU Forum to feature four films by women
By BRIAN BARESCH
Staff writer
Three award-winning filmmakers will appear at Liberty Hall this weekend as part of the third KU Forum for Women, put on by the University of Kansas Division of Continuing Education.
Vivienne Verdon-Roe, Lyne Littman and Yvonne Rainer will each show films and speak at the forum at 642 Massachusetts St. Verdon-Roe man each have won an Academy award for best short documentary.
Verdon-Roe won this year for "Women — For America, For the World," a film featuring well-known women such as actress Joanne Woodward, former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colo) and columnist Ellen Goodman talking about the nuclear arms race. She will show her film at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Littman won her Oscar in 1977 for "Number Our Days," a portrait of elderly Jewish people living in Venice, Calif. At the forum, she will show "Testament," a drama about a mother's love for her children. "Testament" will be presented with Verdon-Roe's movie Saturday night.
Rainer has been a dance choreographer since 1960 and has been making films since 1972. Her work has received many awards in the United States and in Europe. Rainer will write a book on dancing for Women," a comedy about a college professor with a split personality, tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
Also on the program is "Sleepwalk," a film by Sara Driver about the intersection of dreams and reality. Driver produced "Stranger Than Horse" for Jim Jarmusch, who did the cinematography for "Sleepwalk."
Rose Rousseau, program manager for arts, humanities and women's programs for KU Continuing Education, said the forum was designed to address issues facing working women and are juggling careers and family, by presenting women who have been successful in their fields.
Rousseau said the forum was not butting heads with the Kansas Film and Video Festival this weekend because the festival was presenting only one feature film, "Picnic," which would run three nights.
Also, Mark Syerson, executive secretary of the film and video festival, has agreed to promote the For- Women during festival events.
Headlining the forum will be Maggie Litvin, a fitness counselor who formerly hosted a PBS series on physical fitness, "Maggie and the Machine." Litvin also lectures and has written a book on nutrition.
Festival encourages new film talent
Bv BRIAN BARESCH
Staff writer
Movies are becoming big business in Kansas, and this weekend's Kansas Film and Video Festival aims to encourage creativity and interest in filmmaking with its fifth annual "Ozzi" awards.
The "Ozzi," named for the mythical land Dorothy flee to in "The Wizard of Oz," is awarded to winners in various film and television awards and to two special winners each year.
The festival, which begins today and runs through Sunday in Downs Auditorium in Dyche Hall, is put on by the Kansas Film Institute, a private nonprofit group dedicated to promoting and encouraging filmmaking in Kansas.
Mark Syverson, executive secretary of the festival and Lawrence graduate student, said that he would give nice bluntmakers the opportunity to rub shoulders with professionals.
At least half of the entries are from KU students, Syverson said. Beginners will be mixing with people who are four or five films ahead of them, he said, which may help not only in technique but in job-hunting tips.
"Anyone in film, video or media has a chance to get a tremendous audience in a few days," he said. "A lot of professionals are going to be around here in a few days."
Also, more out-of-town entries than ever before have come in, helping make it more of a state festival, he said.
Competition starts at 7 p.m. today with the music video competition at Downs Auditorium.
"Picnic," based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by the late William Inge, a KU alumnus, stars William Holden and Kim Novak. It will be shown at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. tomorrow and Friday and at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturday.
All events, including the awards ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, are in Downs Auditorium. All events are open to
the public. The awards ceremony is free, but some other events have an admissions charge.
The Grand Ozi and Lifetime Achievement Ozi will be presented Sunday night at the awards ceremony. MarJ) Dusay, KU alumna and actress who recently starred as Myrna Clegg in the CBS soap opera Capitol (the Grand Ozi), also appears frequently on The Facts of Life" and has been in numerous films and TV series.
Since "Capitol!" was canceled earlier this year, Dusay has been enjoying her free time and deciding what to do next. She also has been active on the Advisory Council to the Kansas Film Commission, a part of the Kansas Department of Commerce, working to promote Kansas as a place to make movies.
Richard Dyer MacCann, a KU alumnus and professor eminent of motion picture history at the University of Iowa, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Ozzi MacCann, who was a professor of speech and journalism at KU in the 1960s, has published several documentaries and was a writer for the Christian Science Monitor.
Dusay, a Russell native, attended KU from 1954 to 1956, leaving when her husband moved. She was homecoming queen in 1955. She modeled and acted in commercials before joining an improvisational theater in San Francisco. Since then, she has compiled a long list of television, stage and film credits.
"Our main interest is to get some of the money that's been floating around in New York and California and spread it around in Kansas," she said.
MacCann has been studying the effects of living with television and other mass media, and he will speak at the awards ceremony about the differences between the frontiers of mass communication and the frontier society in the United States.
He also will show some of his short films,
including the award-winning "Degas:
Master of Motion."
McCann will speak at 8 p.m. Monday in Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union on "American Movies: We've Been Framed." McCann's speech is the first Julie Stough Memorial Lecture in theatre and media arts.
About 70 films and videos were entered in the festival's competition. Syverson said this was the largest crop ever. Three new films were created to handle the films, he said.
Ozizis will be awarded for the best works in the music video, experimental, long nonfiction, short nonfiction, commercials/public service-promos, long narrative film, long narrative video, short narrative film and short narrative video categories.
Clark Jamison, Beloit senior, has entered the competition for the second time with his music video, "Dance of Creation," which he calls a montage of water images accompanied by Ravi Shankar sitar music.
Jamison was part of a rock band, Patian, that won the Ozi for long video last year with "Song of the Sword." That album resulted in making films and videos, he said.
"We decided to make a movie, and we got a camcorder. We designed our own movie."
Tim DePaepe, Emporia senior, has entered all five years. This time, his eight-minute film "Moments" is competing for the long narrative Ozi, and "Side Effects of Higher Education," a short comedy, is in the short narrative competition.
DePaepe said his longer film showed a married couple in a violent relationship. 'It's about ambiguity and emotions — why people accept these types of actions,' he said.
DePaepe got interested in video as a hobby 12 years ago. "It's still for the most part interesting, living at it," he said. "I just got interested in animation and special effects."
Studio to give experience
And more are coming, thanks to the plans of Oread Entertainment Group Inc. to build a major film studio in town.
Oread Studios will be allied with KU's Division of Communication and Theatre, making it the only ongoing studio-university relationship in the country. The setup will allow students to choose chances to work on educational, industrial and feature films for real-life experience.
Construction will probably begin within two months, and the studio should start working by next September, said Marcus McCloud, who will be the studio's general manager. The studio will be west of the construction at 15th Street and Wakarusa Drive.
Show business is picking up in Kansas. Several feature films have been made here since 1828, when "The Day After" turned Lawrence into one big nuclear family.
Staff writer
By BRIAN BARESCH
"This will help students immensely in interfacing knowledge gained from the classroom readings in real-life situations," he said. While music and theater students get chances to perform their arts, film students have not been able to get hands-on experience at KU before, he said.
Chuck Berg, director of film studies at KU, is excited about the new studio and the effect it will have on KU film studies.
Berg stressed that not all film students would be working in the studio with the pros; only the "best and brightest" would get the chance. Interns will be selected according to grades and attitudes, which, Berg said, reflect responsibility and reliability. Also, an intensity of desire, or "spark," would be helpful, he said.
The school may also benefit as KU film studies alumni succeed in the real world and
"We aren't really planning to accommodate everyone," he said.
date everyone, he said.
Berg hopes the studio will make KU attractive to students who are deciding where to go to college. "We are hoping to draw better students and serious students," he said.
then contribute to the school. Apart from that, Berg said, the department would realize no direct economic benefit from the studio.
Oread Studios is the brainschild of filmmaker Doug Curtis, who graduated from KU in 1968. Curtis produced "Nice Girls Don't Explode" in Lawrence last year, and has also produced "Black Moon Rising" and co-produced "The Philadelphia Experiment."
During the production of "Nice Girls Don't Explode," 14 full-time interns got credit for working with the production crew, Curtis said.
Curtis has several good reasons for putting a studio in Lawrence. Principally, he said, Kansas is a right-to-work state, which means that actors and production workers don't have to work in the studio such as the Screen Actors' Guild. This means movies cost less to make.
Second, geographically speaking, Kansas can represent any place that doesn't have mountains or an ocean.
Third, the alliance with KU's department of theater and media arts will provide filmmakers with eager interns and students with valuable experience.
Also, the ease of production, including the film's low budget ($1 million), made it plain that Lawrence was a good place to make films. "It was an experiment," Curtis said.
Future general manager McCloud said the recent refusal by the Internal Revenue Service to grant Oread Studios tax-exempt status, which would have allowed it to qualify for tax-free industrial revenue bonds, would not delay construction. Oread Entertainment is looking to see if private financing is cheaper than the bonds it does qualify for.
"The company has grown substantially from what we planned," McCloud said, explaining why the additional financing was needed.
While the right-to-work advantage in Kansas is important, McCloud said coming to Kansas also meant tapping a new region of talent. "Some producers are burned out on the West Coast," he said, and are looking for something new.