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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1998)
Fexas Film Festival brings new talent to A&M gp®K i Texas A&M University 66 I TODAY ii§r' i L 45 TOMORROW 04™ YEAR • ISSUE 93 • 12 PAGES COLLEGE STATION • TX WEDNESDAY • FEBRUARY 18 • 1998 By Chris Martin Staff writer Tonight is opening night for the 1C Film Society’s 5th annual as Film Festival, beginning at 7 in Rudder Auditorium and ining through Sunday. For some, opening nights bring mind images of bright, distant rs, glitz and glamour. But for the izos Valley community, the Texas H n Festival means a down-home /ironment where film audiences mot only see non-mainstream but can communicate direct- vith the people who made them. Whereas previous years’ festivals I re brought in big name directors :h as Spike Lee, Oliver Stone and in Waters, this year’s focus is to imote independent film making. Keryl Cryer, a senior journalism jor and associate director of the tival, said the purpose of the film tival is to expose the community independent films and educate i audiences through workshops sions with the film directors "At first we needed the big name lakers to draw attention to the fes- d,” Cryer said. “Lastyeaiwe learned i we can do all the other stuff with out the big name speaker and people will still support the festival.” Penny Ditton, adviser to the Film Society, said she is looking forward to meeting and talking directly to the filmmakers. “You have to meet [the directors], and the public get to do that, to see the excitement of their project and talk to them about how many years it’s taken and what their project means to them,” Ditton said. “Last year the Academy Awards celebrated independence—we felt like we were ahead of our time, because we’ve been celebrating independence for three years before that.” On Friday and Saturday, free public workshops will be held to discuss various aspects of the art of film. The workshops will cover mu sic in film, ethnicity in film, and the work of Quentin Tarantino. Alan Houtchens, an associate professor of music, will discuss Bernard Herrmann’s score in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo on Friday at 4 p.m. in Rudder Tower. “I hope that we can get some group insight into how film can be enriched by sound that is not just ambient sound, but carefully composed mu sic,” Houtchens said. “It is a good idea to have that kind of discussion.” Another first for this year’s festi val includes special activities for younger viewers. “This year we are having a chil dren’s screening room, because we had some really cute shorts,” Dit ton said. “I don’t think most film fes tivals do that.” A local highlight of the festival will be the presentation of “The List” on Friday night, a short by for mer A&M student Paul Ryan. Cryer said although Texas A&M does not have a film department, the festival is providing a fertile en vironment for student films. “It would be nice to have more student films,” Cryer said. “Only time will tell. But there is definitely a venue. If you have the time, mon ey and drive, then go for it.” The festival will host seven fea ture-length films and 24 shorts, rang ing from a romantic Venezuelan pe riod piece to a comedy short about mobsters running a fast food joint. Cryer said that although she is excited about the originality of the film selections, she is disappointed at the ones that got away. “We had one film called Trekkies about Star Trek fans — it was great,” Cryer said. “It had people who had their ears surgically altered to look like Spock, people who know Klin- gon better than English — way be yond the normal Star Trek fan. The film got picked up by Paramount... [they] would not let us have it. That part was kind of frustrating.” The Texas Film Festival began in the fall of 1992 when film society chair Paul Dykstra felt like A&M did n’t have a response to film or film media, Ditton said. “There were no film classes except for one in the English department,” Ditton said. “ [Dykstra] felt is was re ally important to give students what they weren’t getting at A&M. We had Spike Lee that year, and at that point it was one of the largest media events in A&M history.” Ditton said he hopes the faculty, staff and students of A&M, as well as the community, will take advantage of the independent art brought in by the festival. “I want [the community] to take with them a sense of the fact that there are really creative pro jects out there, and there’s no way they are probably ever going to see them unless they go to some thing like a festival.” ^> h0EMEN ‘ JOF ^ a< y Os r & # ■' e O 0 °cs F & f you build it... : ■ i SI ■■mr- JAKE SCHRICKLING/The Battalion fin Machac, a senior environmental design major, recreates the Pantheon in Rome out of Legos at he Building Technology Expo ‘98 in Houston Tuesday. Texas A&M finished third in the competition. amora found guilty of murder Raising awareness of MSG leads goals of president By Colleen Kavanagh Staff writer When the new MSC president, William Hurd, takes office April 1, he will try to increase student awareness of MSC services and programs. Hurd, a junior computer science and international studies major said he has two main goals for his term: to increase the MSC’s presence on cam pus and to form alliances with orga nizations outside of the MSC. “I hope we can increase the quality of life for students and faculty,” he said. “The MSC can complement students’ academic education with speakers. We want to provide students with a bal anced education with our programs and unite diverse groups of people.” Hurd said people are unaware of the variety of programs the MSC pro vides, and he encourages people to see what the MSC can offer them. “The purpose of the MSC is to uni fy diverse peoples,” he said. “Every one is welcome here, and we hope to unify the experiences people get at A&M. I am open to student respons es and flexible to students’ wants. “We are here for 43,000 students, and they are the experts on the pro grams the MSC brings here,” Hurd said. As the current executive vice presi dent of administration and chair of the Executive Lecture Series last year - , Hurd gained the necessary experience to make the job transition smooth. Anne Black, associate director of the MSC and executive director of OPAS, said Hurd’s ehthusiasm and experi ence as executive vice president made him the best candidate for the job. “Will’s enthusiasm is what sets him apart from most everybody I know,” she said. “He’s a very open, honest person who makes himself available to everyone. He’s kind of out there in the trenches.” Black said he is available and acces sible to anyone who needs his help. “That’s Will as a person as well as a leader,” she said. “He’s interested and sees the benefit of what he can learn from other people.” Hurd said he will make internal changes in the MSC so programs will run more efficiently. “We have a 40-year tradition of ex cellence at the MSC,” he said. “I plan for us to use our resources to get the word out about our programs.” Hurd said that one day he hopes to work in the telecommunications industry, live in another country and possibly get involved in politics. Anji Moore, chair of the OPAS stu dent committee and a senior zoology major, said Hurd is good at seeing the big picture and helping everyone else f RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion New MSC president William Hurd will try to raise campus awareness of MSC programs when he takes office April 1. see the same vision. “The thing about Will is that he is incredibly dynamic,” she said. “He meets you once and remembers your name because he genuinely cares about what you have to say.” Limits of veto powers questioned by Senate INSIDE FORT WORTH (AP) — For tier Naval Academy midship- Hart Diane Zamora, once an tobitious honor student with Ireams of becoming an astro- aut, instead will spend 40 fears behind bars for killing a omantic rival. A jury deliberated for six lours Monday, then needed inly minutes Tuesday morning to convict Zamora of the Dec. 4, 1995, slaying of 16-year-old Adri- Snne Jones of Mansfield. Showing no emotion as the v oniict was read, Zamora auto matically received a life sen- lonce because prosecutors w ere not seeking the death penalty. She will be eligible for parole after 40 years. During the two-week trial, Zamora tearfully told the jury that she confessed to police under duress. The 20-year-old defendant said she had mere ly read, memorized and re peated the same statement given by then-fiance David Graham, a former Air Force Academy cadet. One juror who requested anonymity told The Associated Press that her confession was the most damning piece of evidence. “No matter how you look at it, Adrianne Jones would still be alive if not for Diane Zamora. That seemed obvious even though the specifics were some times cloudy,” the juror said. Prosecutors said Zamora and Graham, her high school sweetheart whom she planned to wed after they graduated from their respective military academies, killed Jones to cleanse their relationship after Graham and the girl had a one-time affair. Jones’ father, mother and two brothers spoke to the court following the verdict. Zamora continued to remain stone-faced, although many in the courtroom dabbed their eyes. By Stacey Becks Staff writer Student Senate members said Tues day they are uncertain whether Student Body President Curtis Childers has in definite veto powers, a week after Childers vetoed a section of a senate bill. Childers vetoed a portion of a bill that would give student organization’s constitutions precedence over SGA election regulations. Amy Magee, a senator and a senior psychology major, said the Senate will probably introduce a bill for the clari fication of veto power. “Obviously there is a discrepancy between his (Childers) interpretation of the powers and other people’s inter pretation,” she said. “So there needs to be clarification.” It is the first time a student body president has vetoed a section of a bill instead of the whole bill. The Senate may override the veto by a 2/3 vote at tonight’s meeting. Mark Floyd, a senator and a senior speech communications major, said the Senate probably will not challenge the veto because the most important part of the bill remains intact. “The reason for not challenging the veto is because the heart of the bill is not touched,” he said. “He (Childers) left the yell-leader runoffs in the bill like the Senate wanted and that was the true intention of the bill.” Childers, a senior agricultural devel opment major, said Student Govern ment organizations should not have their own election regulations, but should follow Election Commission’s regulations to ensure fair elections. “Letting an organization make its own decisions is right,” he said, “but the way the bill was worded gave orga nizations the right to define their own election regulations.” “This would cause problems be cause organizations would be able to decide how many flyers per bulletin board, large signs and the amount of campaign expenditures allowed.” Childers also vetoed a bill that would randomly list candidates’ names on election ballots to prevent an unfair advantage to candidates at the top of alphabetical lists. Childers said he vetoed the ran dom-balloting bill to allow time for im provement of the process. “We’re still going to try to do ran dom balloting if we perfect it,” he said. “But since I vetoed it, we don’t have to implement it until it works efficiently.” Childers said the freshman elec tions used random balloting last se mester and mistakes were made, and he wanted to make sure that does not happen again. aggieiife Texas Film Festival begins its five-day run of independent film events. See Page 3 sports Aggies take two-game set from Dallas Baptist to re main unbeaten. See Page 12 opinion McDaniel: U.S. position on Iraq shows inflated sense of international importance. See Page 11 online http:// battaiioii.tamu.edu Hook up with state and na tional news through The Wire, AP’s 24-hour online news service.