Arts & Entertainment
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Eric Gregory/Daily Nebraskan
Bourne of Cablevision
Cable vision’s public access channel
not well-known, but called important
By Chris McCubbin
StaffRcporter
It’s the station where no soap
opera queens bewail life’s count
less travails, where no valiant ani
mated robots battle aliens, where
not all women arc cither nubile or
wacky and some men are not virile
and charming. It’s the station
where no one dies and no one has
sex.
Cablcvision channel 14, the
public access channel, is perhaps
the least-known, least-watched
channel on cable. But, according to
some of its users, it’s Cablcvision’s
most important service.
Tracy Bourne, access coordina
tor at Cablcvision, said a public
access channel exists because
Cablcvision’s franchise with the
city requires it.
The public access channel is
“just a channel where the citizens
of Lincoln can come in (and) use
our studio for free,” Bourne said.
Public access programs cannot
contain advertising or obscenity.
Other than that, almost anything
goes, Bourne said.
Would-bc programmers must
take workshops in remote and stu
dio video, she said. These work
shops arc taught every week. After
completing the workshop, a 25
qucslion exam covering the work
shops and Federal Communica
tions Commission rules must be
passed. Then programmers fill out
an application for channel time
indicating first, second and third
choices for time.
Bourne said public access pro
grams must be locally produced or
have a local sponsor. Tapes must
be turned in two days in advance
for screening. Bourne said the
Cable Television Advisory Board
can censor the programs, but “we
haven’t... had problems with it.”
Ron Kurtcnbach is host of a
political commentary show on
which he responds to viewers’
recorded phone comments on
world events and human rights
issues.
“It’s a very amateurish thing,”
Kurtcnbach said. “I just sit there
and talk.”
Kurtcnbach said being the host
of a call-in show on KZUM radio
allowed him to gauge, to a certain
extent, the show’s impact on the
public.
“Some watch it very seriously,
and others watch it as they’re going
from channel 13 to channel 15,” he
said.
Kurtenbach said he thinks the
public access channel is an impor
tant free speech resource in Lin
coln.
“I just regret that more people
aren’t expressing their highest
aspirations on the access channel,”
he said.
But Kurtenbach also said he
thinks Cablcvision could do more.
“It seems to me there’s a low
priority for access,” he said.
Kurtenbach said it seemed to
him that more money goes to the
government access channel (Ca
blcvision channel 5) than to the
public access channel.
Sherry Miller, president of the
League of Women Voters of Lin
coln-Lancastcr County, said the
League has been relying on materi
als produced at the national level to
fill their slot for about the last six
months, but the local League of
Women Voters expects to produce
more original programming soon.
Miller said she doesn’t know
how much impact the League’s
public access programs have on the
community.
She said acquaintances will say,
“1 happened to catch you on access
last night as I was flipping chan
nels.” She said she often feels that
was the extent of their involvement
with the show.
Howfcvcr, Miller said, once a
program is produced using
Cablcvision’s equipment, it can be
videotaped and kept as a perma
nent resource.
Bourne said no demographic
studies have been done to deter
mine who’s watching the public
access channel.
She said no printed schedule of
public access programming is
available, but a schedule is some
times shown on the government
access channel between programs.
Most of the public access
channel’s programming is in the
evening and on weekend after
noons. Bourne said the program
ming is about two-thirds scries and
one-third special one-time pro
grams.
Most of the public access
channel’s programming is educa
tionally oriented, she said, but the
channel airs a pool show, a wildlife
show and a filler tape by Lincoln
New Age musician Dennis Taylor.
Students’ scripts sought for cable TV
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
student-play wrighLs arc being sought
to submit their work for possible pro
duction on cable television.
The play project is being jointly
organized by Doug Engh, a UNL
graduate student who also produces
“Intramural Game of the Week” for
television, and Thealrix, an independ
ent theater group affiliated with the
university.
Scripts that lake one hour or more
to perform can be submitted. The
deadline for submitting scripts is Feb.
1.
The play will be taped in mid
April. Only IJNLsiudcnts may submit
scripts.
scripts.
Camera operators and a production
director with video experience arc
also needed.
—.. ~ ~ «
A guideline sheet for interested
playwrights is available. For more
information, call Doug Engh at 476
0629 or Thcatrix at 472-1602.
---iT-1
/ V
Join in a tribute to Martin Luther King
Monday, January 18, 1988
Attend the symposium on
The Civil Rights Movement
followed by a walk to the capitol and a guest speaker
Sponsored by UPOBIack Special Events & APU
Meet at the Culture Center — 333 N. 14th — 6:00 PM
^ ' ..—..S
Film stereotypes absent
from Japanese film showing
By Micki Haller
Senior Reporter
The lips don’t move with the
words. Men in impossibly white paja
mas perform kicks that would make
the Rockcttcs wince. Godzilla rises
from the sea to tap-dance on several
large metropolitan areas.
The words “Japanese movies”
bring many images to mind, but the
stereotypes will be shattered when the
the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
modem language department pres
ents a series of five Japanese films by
Japan’s greatest directors.
Nelly Cheng, the Chinese and
Japanese language instructor at UNL,
said the series will start Thursday. The
Films will be shown at the Nebraska
Union every Thursday at 2 p.m., she
said, and the room number will be
posted on the calendar of daily events.
Sponsored by the department of
modem languages and literatures,
UNL and the Japan Foundation, the
films are all in Japanese, with English
subtitles, Cheng said.
The purpose of showing the films,
Cheng said, is “to help students to
understand more about Japanese cul
ture. Of course, you never know how
many people will come.”
Cheng said she expects about 40
people to attend.
The Japan Foundation provided
the films, Cheng said, and UNL is one
of five universities chosen for the
program. The others arc the Univer
sity of Wyoming, Oklahoma State
I
Un i versi ty, Dak ota Wesley an U n i ver
sity and Washington University.
UNL’s Japanese course was started
with a grant from the foundation,
Cheng said.
Chris Scordato, a program associ
ate with the New York office of the
Japan Foundation, said the organiza
tion targets a different region every
year. This year it chose the Midwest.
Scordato said the Consulate of
Japan recommended UNL for the film
series.
The films were chosen to appeal to
the most people and to show the
broadest range of postwar Japanese
culture, Scordato said. All the films
arc distributed by American compa
nies, she said.
The films should enhance the Japa
nese studies program at the participat
ing universities and promote interest
in Japan, she said.
“Rashomon,” the first film, will be
shown Thursday. Director Akira
Kurosawa uses flashbacks to tell four
different versions of a murder and
rape and to explore the unreliable
nature of truth. The black-and-white
film was made in 1950 and won an
Academy Award.
“I guess everybody knows when
you say Kurosawa, it’s a great direc
tor,” Cheng said.
On Jan. 28, ‘‘The Flavor of Green
Tea Over Rice” will be shown. The
film, made in 1953, is the portrait of an
unhappy middle-class marriage, told
through domestic details. The film,
directed by Yasujiro Ozu, is also in
black and white.
See JAPANESE on 10
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