0 Hughes and Lee: Poet and Filmmaker 88. Those who missed Do The Right Thing this past summer. probably didn't attend many cocktail parties, and most likely totally missed the gist of all afternoon TV from Oprah Winfrey to Donahue, because the film was on the minds and Black filmmakers series continues with two documentaries in every area from extras to construction, and cleared out two crack houses with the help of Lee's hired security force, the Flower of Islam. The second in a month-long series sponsored by the Program in Film and Video Studies and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, with the support of the King/Chavez/ Parks visiting scholars program, St. Clair Bourne's Making "Do The Right Thing" chronicles the ten week production period of Lee's film. In addition, Bourne filmed the neighborhood before and after the film crew's presence to examine its effects. The documentary features interviews with the film's stars (Danny Aiello,.Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and others), interviews with Lee himself, and reactions from the cast and crew. Bourne captures Spike Lee in the process of directing, and intercuts the production footage with scenes from the aftermath of the Howard Beech incident, on which Do The Right Thing was loosely based. Bourne has described his work on Making "Do The Right Thing" as a labor of love, some of the best work he's done. Bourne began his career with public television's Black Journal series, and has since become one of the most prolific Black documentarians. After being expelled from both Georgetown and Columbia for his involvement in the Black student movements, he was recruited to be a producer for Black Journalin conjunction with documentarian William Greaves. Through their struggles to make films in the '60s, Bourne credits himself and other filmmakers with having paved the way for contemporary Black artists such as Lee and Robert Townsend. In addition to his issue- oriented documentaries, Bourne has made two specifically biographical films. The first portrays the life of Amiri Baraka, the former Leroi Jones, while the second depicts the life, work, and times of Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper examines the African-American poet-writer's influence from the '20s Harlem Renaissance to the Black Pride movement of the '60s. Hughes' life fleshes out through scenes of Senegal Africa, the land which inspired much of his poetry, through comments from James Baldwin and others who knew Hughes, and through poetry and performances by other artists. Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper also evaluates Hughes' role in both Black and mainstream American literature, specifically his use of jazz and blues in his poetry. Through the eyes of the man who shaped the Black documentary, the effects of two influential Black artists - past and present - bring to life our rich history of Black and African- American art. Making "Do The Right Thing" and Langston Hughes: Dream Keeper will be shown on Friday, February 9, in Lorch Auditorium, at 7p.m. Filmmaker St. Clair Bourne will be in 2520 Frieze Building for an informal chat with students on Saturday, February 10, from 10a.m. to 12noon. byden Bilik a - - - w - - - - - - N - - - m - - - - - - m - m - - - - m - -- -- - *U - - in~ - z N V.. -- -""'-- 4 Spike Lee and St. Clair Bourne discuss the making of Do the Right Thing tongues of the country. Filmed on location in the Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Do The Right Thing's production is notable in part because of its relationship to the residents. Spike Lee and crew solicited community cooperation Ar De the Stanley and Iris: a film with a cause ANNUAL CAMPUS RADIO FUNDRAISING BASH They almost escaped a clich6. Late in the movie Stanley and Iris, there is a scene where Stanley (Robert DeNiro) is reading aloud in a library. It is his triumphal achievement: his conquest over illiteracy. Given the previous formulaic aspects that had occurred in the movie, one would have expected him to read something noble or meaningful in this scene. Instead, he reads passages about engines and manure - decidedly non- formulaic. But, he then randomly picks up a book, randomly opens to a page, and reads from the Book of Genesis, "...and-there- was-LIGHT!" Oh well. Predictability aside, Stanley and Iris is not a bad movie. DeNiro as Stanley and Jane Fonda as Iris turn in their usual solid performances, and they're almost cute as they inevitably fall in love. Iris riding home on the handlebars of Stanley's bicycle; Stanley standing in the rain, asking Iris to teach him to read just as the bus door closes- definitely cute. Iris works on the production line in a huge snack factory, making Twinkie and Ho-Ho look-alikes. The drudgery of her life is made immediate; spending all day flipping muffins or squirting icing on chocolate snackcakes is as close to being a drudge as she can stand to get. The intrusion of Stanley upon her life is almost a relief from her job and her troubles at home, since the task of teaching him to read lets her forget her own problems. Of. course things can't be made too easy, she still has to recover from the recent death of her husband. Stanley's simple . charm, though, eventually woos her. While performing his lessons of reading aloud simple sentences, Stanley says, "'The- girl-has-a-fish-in-her-hand.' It's not exactly a cliffhanger." The film itself loses any charm it had in the last 20 minutes. The slow pacing that was set throughout the film suddenly accelerates to schizophrenic jumps from scene to scene. Their first time in bed suddenly appears in mid-thrust and quickly ends; he suddenly gets a job, he moves, he reappears. The realism of this last part is lost without the deliberate pace, and the advances Stanley makes are trivialized by their quickness and the extent to which they are taken. The last line of the movie - "Iris, anything is possible" - should be appended with "especially in the last 20 minutes." The real story of Stanley and Iris is Stanley overcoming his illiteracy which had denied him many aspects of life that a literate person takes for granted: driving car (can't take the written test); reading the names of streets, or a baseball scoreboard, or a newspaper.headline. Illiteracy affects far more than a person's book reading habits. Fonda and DeNiro seemed to place a greater emphases on the campaign against illiteracy instead of ART "Dial 2 and see what happens!" reads a hand-painted sign near the outdoor phone of the Student Activities Building. Wiping the building's fogged windows, peering in, you notice no one's around. After all, it's around midnight. Suddenly, a faint glow appears from the basement. A compassionate disc jockey responds to your rotary dial. Sweet rhythm and blues, along with sounds of laughter, flow from the phone's earpiece. You're invited in. The buzzer rings. The door opens. Free, or rather, free-form at last... Welcome to WCBN 88.3 Ann Arbor. We're here to guide you through the barren wasteland which is radio... by Donna Iadipaolo Photos by Amy Feldman S Febtuary 1,1990 00 l WEEKEND