AGGIELIFE
Wednesday, February 2, 2(KX)
THE BATTALION
Page 3
The roads not traveled
BY JUAN LOYA
The Battalion
Programs come and go on the Texas A&M campus.
As each year passes, so does another Robert Earl Keen
concert,or another OPAS event that many intended to
see but didn't. Sometimes, however, it is worthy to take
note of what programs didn't come and go — the events
lit at never come to A&M, but maybe should have.
The Seventh Annual Texas Film Festival, the largest
student-run film festival in the world held annually at
A&M, began accepting entries for the 2000 festival last
all. Among the first to be
received was Cass Paley's
WADD: The Life unci Tune
dfjpim C. Holmes.
Paley’s. film chronicles
the life of the once famous,
but now deceased, porn star.
The film, which won the
Best Documentary award at
the 1999 (South by South
west) SXSW Film Festival
in Austin, has been shown in
festivals and on college
campases across the country.
From the very beginning, it was understood that the
film would cause controversy.
“I was intrigued when we received WADD," said
Ryan Whitworth, chair of the MSC Film Society and a
senior biomedical sciences major. “1 saw all of the arti
cles about the success of the film, and it seemed like a
film that would be good to show at our festival.”
Several scenes in the movie are excerpts from his
pornographic work, edited for content, interlaced with
commentary from people who knew Holmes and
worked with him. The film portrays graphic situations
and uses blunt language to tell the story, and even the
thickest-skinned individual would be challenged not to
blush at the candidness of the film and its subject matter.
The movie goes on and tells of his life before and af
ter 1 lolmes joined the pom industry, but the bulk of the
ilm is about Holmes’ infamous career.
Raj Sethuraju, MSC Film Society adviser, first took
his position in October 1999. About a month afterward,
he was told ot the movie WADD and the possible debate
it could produce.
"People said it was a great movie, but sort of a risque
subject.” Sethuraju said. "Among the general commit-
“There's a difference be
tween a film's content
being controversial and
the film's topic being
controversial."
— Dr. Terrence Hoagwood
English professor
tee members of the Film Society, it was considered to be
one of the better films submitted to the festival. Screen- g
ings were provided and 1 ike all of the entries, it was avail-1
able to be checked out and viewed.”
“It was a hard one to check out,” Whitworth said. “It
was a hot commodity.”
But the chances of the film being protested was known
to be substantial, and several soludons were considered to
keep the public outcry over the film to a minimum.
“From the very beginning we knew that there might
be some problems,” Whitworth said. "But initially we de
cided to back it. It was a good enough movie that we took
the position to support its
inclusion into our festival.”
The idea was proposed
to make the screening of
the film an after-hours,
midnight show at the festi
val. It was also recom
mended that the festival
adopt several guidelines for
entries into the festival, to
make known to the public
that controversial material
Would not be shown if it did
not offer any artistic merit.
But the question stll I loomed as tawhether or not the
public would negatively receive the movie. The orga
nizers then decided to consult an outsider, someone who
could offer another view of the situation. Sethuraju,
Whitworth and Casey Starr, the oirectm of the Texas
Film Festival, sought the advice of Dr. Terrence Hoag
wood. an iingUslv |»ofcssqj- and the adviser to the new
ft lr% ixunorpr^am^t A&M.
Sethuraju said Dr. Hoagwood helped the group to see
the film from both perspectives.
“There’s a difterence between a film’s content being
controversial and the film’s topic being controversial,”
Hoagwood said. "Natural Born Killers is a good exam
ple. Some people will argue that the film is a ‘commen
tary’ on violent films, and others will say that it is an ‘ex
ample' of violent films. It is difficult to determine which
is right.”
It was this problem that kept the decision of whether |
or not to show the film a central topic. Most everyone in
volved believed the movie's main detractors would be
people who had not seen the film.
See Road on Page 5.
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