Friday, March 1, 1968
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
Interest in 'flicks' flares on Hill
By Linda McCrerey Kansan Staff Reporter
KU students are turning off their TV sets and turning on with movies.
"There's no question about it. Interest in films is going up, and it will keep going up," said Bruce Linton, head of the radio-TV-film department.
Linton said there is not enough equipment or faculty to handle the increasing demand for his "Cinematography" class. Each semester he must turn away more and more students wanting to enroll, many majoring in areas other than radio-TV-film.
Richard D. MacCann, associate professor of radio-TV-film, found that enrollment in his "History of the Motion Picture" class has increased from 20 to 80 to 150 students in the three semesters since its creation.
"I know that everywhere on campuses there is a great interest in the film, not just as entertainment, but as an art," MacCann said. "People feel this is part of their background as a civilized person.
Gerald Rabkin, associate professor of speech and drama and teacher of "Studies in Theater and Drama," said film-watching is "one of the most vital areas of student activity on this campus.
"All over the country, young people are extremely interested in film as an art." Rabkin said.
"The problem is, there is no art cinema in Lawrence," he said. Thus, several campus film series have been created because of the "failure on the part of the town" to provide them. Among these are the popular, classical and special series Student Union Activities, the University Free series, and the KU Film Society (KUFS).
Norm Abrams, assistant professor of design, also found his "Special Problems in Design" class contains students majoring in such varied fields as math, education, and journalism, as well as design. But his cinema course is limited to those who have their own equipment, currently six beginners and 13 advanced students
Abrams said the KUFS deserves a lot of credit for spreading the popularity of film among
Official Bulletin
TODAY
TODAY Big 8 Indoor Track Championships. 6:30 p.m. Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Mo.
Popular Film. 7 & 9:30 p.m. "The Bedford Incident." Dyche Auditorium.
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.
7 p.m. Paul Steuere "The Love of Jesus Christ." 829 Mississippi.
Lutheran Grad. College
Inst. 829 Mississippi.
Lutheran Grad Group, 7:30 p.m.
Meet at a campus parsonage, 1506
Crescent Rd.
Childcare Ward
Children's Theatre. 7:30 p.m. "Androcles and the Lion." University Theatre. Rockefeller Center.
Rock Chalk Revue. 8 p.m. Hoch
Auditorium.
SATURDAY
SATURDAY
Last Day to Cancel Enrollment.
All day. Window No. 2, 120 Strong
Hall.
Children's Theatre. 10 a.m.
"Andrea and the Lion." University
Theatre.
Children's Theatre. 2 p.m. "Andocles and the Lion." University Theatre.
Hindi Society Meeting. 5 p.m.
Mind map and discussion. Methodist
Student Center.
One of Abrams' students is Nick Eliopoulos, Prairie Village sophomore, who has been making his own movies for more than two years. His most recent one, "Ophelia of the Stockyards," was shown at the Feb. 6 Underground Film Festival.
While most KU students are content with the role of spectator, a few have been creating their own films.
KU students, and predicted film-making will eventually become part of the design curriculum. The fact that the School of Fine Arts will add a dean of visual arts to the faculty is indicative of the increasing importance of film, Abrams said.
Popular Film. 7 & 9:30 p.m. "The
Bird Book Incident." Dyche Auditorium
Student film-makers
Big 8 Indoor Track Championships.
Tennessee Municipal Auditorium,
Kansas City, Mo.
Rock Chalk Revue. 8 p.m. Hoch Auditorium.
"Ophelia" shows a woman tormented with the conflict of wanting her departed lover to return and wanting to be free. Eliopoulos said he wanted to make a "real statement" in his film, and "capturing an emotion is a good start.
SUNDAY
Carillon Recital. 3 p.m. Albert Gorken.
Lutheran Students Association &
Gamma Delta. 5:30 p.m. Program:
Viet-Nam II. Speaker: Prof. Michael
Michaud University Lutheran Church.
Popular Film. 7 & 9:30 p.m. "The
Bedford Incident." Dyche Auditorium.
"That's about the only successful thing this film does," he said. "It sustains the emotion of her wanting to be free."
Making a personal statement this seems to be the primary concern of most KU student filmmakers.
"Film is a way of expressing yourself," said Elliot Gage, West Chicago graduate student and chairman of the SUA Special Film series. Gage is still looking for actors for his film for master of science degree, but he knows what he wants to say. His film will examine the journey of a man to a "nadir point" of his existence, relying more on visual aspects than dialogue. Gage
wants to make his an unique film, combining the visual and dramatic arts.
Film can be used to communicate, Gage said, but this is not related to film as an art. He believes that film can be "art for art's sake," in which the artist creates an object independent of himself.
Filming for profit
Several KU students find film profit-making as well as expressive. Bill Mauk, Overland Park graduate student, works part time for Centron, a professional educational film studio in Lawrence. He has also filmed 13 one-minute TV inserts about KU for the Pepper Rodgers Show.
On his own, Mauk is working on a parody of parliamentary procedure in the U.S. Senate and an experimental film a day in an average family, using only cigarettes and ashtray instead of actors.
Roger Doudna, Baldwin graduate student, got the job of filming the Dartmouth University Peace Corps Training Program in Quebec, Canada, an assignment which also allowed him to spend summer, 1966, filming in Africa.
Another KU student, Joe Goodman, Leawood sophomore, is Lawrence correspondent, for WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Mo., and has filmed about a dozen TV commercials. Goodman and Randy Lefflingwell, Wilmette, Ill., sophomore, are planning to make an absorb comedy of "sight-gags," using KU scenes and people. Lefflingwell began filming in high school, where he helped make a spy-spoof, an animated cartoon and an abstract "commentary on modern society."
"The film medium is expressive because there are no limitations whatsoever," Goodman said. "The end-product is whatever you want. There's nothing to stifle your creativity—that's the beauty of it."
Goodman said he tried several media of expression: still photography, painting, acting and music, but found none as satisfying as making movies.
Richard Widmark Sidney Poitier
No specific "label"
Fri., Sat., Sun. — 7:00 & 9:30 p.m.
Only 40c
in
"You can't sit back and watch your own recital or your own play," he said.
DYCHE AUDITORIUM
POPULAR FILM SERIES
These and other student filmmakers are not sure of what to call their movies.
It's not an incident . . . It's the Works! plus CLASSIC COMEDY SHORT
Student film shouldn't automatically be labeled "underground." Doudna said, because that implies using the camera as a non-communicative tool, with total indifference to the craft.
influence to the craft.
"Student films are not underground because students want to experiment within the medium, exploring its possibilities, seeking to master it in a new way," he said.
But the
But the term "experimental" is no better, because "student
films are, by definition, experimental," said Doudna. "They are fumbling attempts at expression, attempts to create experience."
Whether one wants to watch or create whatever-its-called films, the trend is catching on fast at KU.
Fri., March 1
The unrivaled RISING SONS
An eleven-piece Soul Group
-featuring-
Soulful Walter "Dynamite" Downing
Plus the Temptation-Type TIPS In Person—1 Night Only—Friday Night
Sat., Mar. 2 THE KRAFT MUSIC HALL Kansas City's Finest
— So —
"Leg" it on down to The Red Dog after Rock Chalk Admission 1/2 Price with Ticket Stubs
Friday, Mar. 8-Eric and The Norsemen Back after exciting tour with "Uncle S"
Wilson Pickett Show—Wed., Mar. 13 Tickets on Sale Mon., Mar. 4 Advance only 2.25—Get them while they last