Fexas Film Festival brings new talent to A&M
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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.”
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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
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