Kids + Films—Is your child interested in filmmaking? The Continuing Education Department at UNM is offering a chance for kids to make their own digital video movies with a junior filmmaking class this summer. “Film Fantasy Camp” will take place July 11-15 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Kids will learn camera operation, lighting, sound and grip techniques. They'll choose scenes, schedule, shoot and edit their projects. The class will conclude with a screening for family and friends. Cost is $295, but the kids should learn a lot and they will be out of your hair for an entire week. The classes will take place at Rio Grande Studios. For more information, call 277-6036 or visit their Web site at dce.unm.edu.
American studios rush to remake a slew of Far East films
By Devin D. O'Leary
There was a brief period when Hollywood was obsessed with remaking French comedies. Three Men and a Baby, Cousins, Three Fugitives, Pure Luck, Father's Day, Jungle 2 Jungle and The Birdcage all got their start as successful French films (and, in more cases than not, ended up as bad American flops). Why? The answer is simple: Like lazy American schoolkids, studio executives hate coming up with original ideas. Original ideas can be risky. Better simply to steal an already successful idea from someone else. And if you can steal it from some foreigner, all the better. Chances are most Americans have never heard of it, and it will seem perfectly original to them.
Are you sick and tired of played-out Hollywood pretty boys trying their hardest to be “action stars” and convince you how cool they are? I think I just might have the cure for your dilemma--and it wears a skintight rubber outfit. That's right, boys and girls, the folks at Paramount have finally decided to dip into their archives and unleash upon the world a DVD so damn cool that you could throw it in an ice chest to chill your drinks. So let's bust out the tie-dye and sitars and take a dip into the psychedelic '60s for film legend Mario Bava's spectacular tribute to the Italian comic book series Danger: Diabolik.
As my distaste for “reality television” grows greater, I find it harder and harder to watch real human beings engaged in actual human activities. After a while, even a documentary about World War II starts to look like a black and white version of “Big Brother”: We put Adolph Hitler, Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler and sexy Eva Braun in a bunker for one month. What happens when they stop acting polite and start being real.
