The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 6, 1973 Page: 4 of 12
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Women add new perspectives to American filmmaking
The NOW Film Festival of
Women Directors will close
Sunday, December 9 with pres-
entation of Caucus by Jamice
Blue and Christopher Strong,
an early Katherine Hepburn
film.
The festival showcased ex-
amples of women's accomplish-
ments in what is traditionally
a man's field; it has also pro-
vided encouragement and in-
centive to women interested in
expressing themselves on film.
"Womety are rethinking new
roles for themselves," said Jan-
ice Blue, who documented the
National Women's Political Cau-
cus held in Houston last March.
"And film is an area in which
we have made progress, and
will continue to do so.'
Blue discussed some of the
problems in having exclusively
male participation in filmmak-
ing. In one example, she ac-
companied her husband, James
Blue of the Media Center (di-
rector and film professor) and
ex-Rice prof David MacDoug-
all to Kenya, Africa to film a
series of ethno-documentaries.
The men based their filming
on three boys and their fathers
—a totally male perspective on
".he tribe; on the other hand,
she was warmly welcomed into
i.fie women's circles while there,
and was eagerly sought out
•'y the women who disc-ribed
-v.uch of their lives to her.
"Here was a wealth of infor-
mation about the tribe that the
men couldn't get to use," Blue
remembers. "The women would
:alk about their methods of
childbirth, or the special love
=ongs they sang about their
iovers |as opposed to their hus-
bands), things that were never
ever revealed to men."
In another case, Blue de-
scribed her filming on autistic
children. A film has already
been Imade documenting one
child's progress at age seven;
she will soon make another
on him at age nine. "Psychiat-
trists from Freud on have often
blamed some deficiencies in
autistic children on the 'refrig-
erator/mother' who doesn't give
enough affection,' she explained
The male filmmaker's view-
point will often support this
attitude, but the female per-
spective might enhance knowl-
edge about the concepts involved
.in this special mother-child re-
lationship.
Blue's favorite subject for
film is polities, "a most im-
portant field for the conscious-
ness-raised woman." She docu-
mented the National Women's
Political Caucus on a budget
of $100; the resulting videotape
has bean screened by the Smith-
sonian Institute for the mem-
bers of the Anthropological
Film Conference this year, and
is now being considered for
broadcast by several public
broadcasting systems. Blue
would like to do her next film
on "Texas Women in Politics"
—for example, Frances Farent-
hold, Barbara Jordan, Ann
Armstrong (Cabinet member)
and Sarah Weddington (who
argued the Supreme Court
abortion case).
"Six per cent of the elected
positions in this country are
held by women, and Texas has
a high proportion of "that six
percent."
A lot of women are put off
by the thought of having to face
all the equipment and technical
aspects of filmmaking. "Pro-
duction isn't all that difficult—
it's really basic if you just have
an eye and a basic sensitivi-
ty."
The first semester course of
Filmmaking I will be offered
during spring '74, and Blue
hopes that women on campus
will be enthusiastic. "The tools
are available on campus, and
should be thought of by women
as a social tool. In a way, it
is realy our social responsibili-
ty to use whatever is available
to us."
* # ♦
Last weekend the National
Committee for Film and Tele-
vision Resources and Services,
organized and financed by a
grant from the Rockefeller
Foundation, convened at the
Media Center. The committee's
aim is to search out means, to
organize and establish an enti-
ty representative of, and re-
sponsive to, organizations and
individuals concerned with the
financing, making, preserva-
tion, collection^ distribution,
presentation, exhibition and/or
study of film and television
produced on an independent
basis. The eight members of
the committee, currently
chaired by Eileen Bowser (film
archivist for the Museum of
Modern Art, New York), were
appointed by a larger group
of thirty participants at an
earlier conference on regional
development of film centers
and services held last February.
Other committee members
include James Blue, director of
the Rice Media Center; Jonas
Mekas, editor of Film Culture
magazine; and Ron Sutton, di-
rector of the National Associa-
tion of Media Educators.
According to Blue, "It's a pio-
neering task—now that nation-
al recognition is being given to
film as an art form with aca-
demic standing, recognition as
something other than a com-
mercial product, a more organ-
ized way of keeping filmmak-
ers in touch must be estab-
lished."
Meetings In February and
March have been set for Penn-
sylvamia and Florida.
Kismet opens TUTS indoor season
by TRICIA REGAN
'Theater Under the Stars,
well-known for their product-
ions in Miller Theater in Her-
mann Park during the summer
is attempting a winter season
indoors at the Music Hall. The
second play of their second
season, Kismet, a musical, was
truly fantastic.
The play, an Arabian Nights-
type fable, takes place in Bagh-
dad and deals with what at first
seems a hopeless love affair
between Marsinah, a beggar's
daughter, and the Caliph, ruler
of all Islam. The beggar Hajj,
intent on improving his .lot in
life, unknowingly collaborates
with the villainous Wazir (Chief
of Police). But, in the end, Mar-
sinah and the Caliph are happily
married, Hajj becomes rich and
the Wazir is foiled, in the best
of musical traditions.
The acting and singing in this
show were generally very good.
TUTS was fortunate to have
Howard Keel play Hajj; he
added a very professional, ex-
perienced aspect to the product-
ion with a tremendous voice and
great characterization.
Marsftiah was played by
Diane Tobola (who often works
with Houston Grand Opera);
her voice was lovely and well-
suited to the part. She was
truly believable. She and Gimi
Beni, as the Wazir, were the
outstanding acting talents in
the play. Beni managed to
play the part with just the right
combination of comedy and vil-
lainy. His wife Lalume, who
betrays him every chance she
gets, was also excellently cast—
Pamela Whitten gave a show-
stealing performance as the
seductress.
Kismet was certainly an ad-
mirable endeavor on the part
of all concerned. TUTS' first in-
door season is off to a great
start, and promises to add a
new dimension, to musical thea-
ther in Houston.
COLLEGIATE
Students 10
/O
CLEANERS
discount
on
Drycleaning & Alterations
"Let us do your dirty work"
2430 Rice Blvd. 523-5887
(straight up the street in the Village)
O© is NEAR
>3
J
But so is your local campus store. There is no
need to fear the end of the semester with such a
friend so close at hand.
Finals this semester end on December 19th, 6 days
before Christmas. Naturally the remainder of the
19th will be spent in revelling or sleeping, whichever
your system needs the most. The infamous "trip
home" takes at least all of the next day. You can't
shop on Sunday and you don't want to shop on Mon-
day. (Shopping on Christmas Eve is like walking
blindfolded into a herd of rabid elephants.) That
leaves you only two days in which to locate suitable
gifts for all your family and friends.
Moral: The end may be near but so are we.
Chances are that you can find a gift for everyone on
your list at your own Campus Store . . . before the
end of finals.
RICE CflmPUS STORE
the rice thresher, december 6, 1973—page 4
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Jackson, Steve. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 6, 1973, newspaper, December 6, 1973; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245180/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.