Arts & Entertainment
Five movies memorialize victims of AIDS
By Joetn Zucco
Senior Editor
Memorials have been established
to recognize the Vietnam veterans,
the Holocaust and past presidents.
Now it is time to establish a memorial
to the victims of AIDS.
Frameline and The Names Project
have started the remembrance with a
tour of The AIDS Film Project — a
group of award winning Films and the
Names Project Quilt. Marc Heustis
and Wendy Dallas, producers of one
of the Films, organized the film/quilt
tour.
Frameline is also loaning out the
Films to AIDS projects in cities where
the tour isn’t stopping. The only
Nebraska showing will be in Omaha
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Theater, 3504 Center St. Michael
Francis, a board member of the Ne
braska AIDS Project, said that the
theater was the only location that
would donate space.
Francis said that 30 percent of the
proceeds will be redirected back to
the film project, while the rest will
benefit the Nebraska AIDS Project
The series of films started with
“ADS Epidemic,” an MTV-like
video. ADS is an acronym for Ac
quired Dread of Sex. The film’s main
message is that sex can be fun and can
be safe.
The film is very up-front. Two gay
men are featured as having fun and
being safe. One puts condoms on the
other’s fingers, in fun. A man in a
white suit, hat and dark glasses por
trays the population that has Acquired
Dread of Sex. He looks in disgust
upon the two and appears oblivious to
the fact that “Safe sex is fun.”
The second film, “Chuck Solo
mon: Coming of Age,” was produced
by Huestis and Dallas. Solomon was
a San Franciscan theater director who
died of AIDS.
The film is very moving. It opens
and closes at Solomon’s 40th birthday
party. Throughout the film, his
friends, co-workers and family are
interviewed about their relationship
with him, what they have learned
from him and how he handled the
disease.
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through scrapbook photos and by his
narration. He tells of his first sexual
experience, the realization that his
brother was gay, and his part in
“Crimes of Nature” — a play pro
duced in San Francisco in 1977 that
“changed the face of gay theater.”
The film also gives a new perspec
tive to how people react when they’ve
been diagnosed. Solomon said that
when he was diagnosed he “started
feeling better, looking better, sleep
ing better and feeling better. I wasn’t
afraid of dying, just getting tired.”
The third film, “October 11,1987
— The Inaugural Display of the
Names Project Quilt” by David Th
I
ompson follows the day the Names
Project Quilt was unfolded and
pieced together in Washington
Square in Washington D.C.
The film was shot in slow motion;
the day is overcast and dreary. The
tone adds to the emotion of the film.
During the film, speakers take turns
reading off the names on the quilt.
After the quilt is laid out, people start
to wander on and around it looking for
I
John Bruce/Dally Nebraskan
the names of loved ones.
On Oct. 11,1987, there were 1,920
panels. Francis said that by May 1988
there were 3,900 panels, by July 1988,
10,000 panels. He said that the quilt
/will be unveiled again in October
1988 and will be at least five to six
times larger than a year ago.
“They will continue accepting
quilt blocks ‘til the last AIDS death,”
Francis said.
masseur and his doctor. Each aspect
makes life a little more comfortable
for the patient, as the masseur points
out, “The touching factor is very
important. Humans respond to touch
and as AIDS patients get nearer to
death, the less people touch them.”
The fifth film, “Til Death Do Us
Part,” by Ginny Durrin, was not avail
able for showing at the screening in
Lincoln.
The AIDS Film Project is an hon
est and straight-forward look at the
people’s lives AIDS touches. The
films arc entertaining to a point but
mostly educational. The more people
learn about AIDS, the more they will
help in combatting the epidemic.
The last film, “Living with AIDS,”
by Tina DiFeliciantonio was as mov
ing as the second, but maybe even t
more so to young adults. It is the story
of Todd Coleman, a 22-year-old man
who dies of AIDS.
At 16, Coleman left his home in
Colorado. At 21, he was diagnosed as
having AIDS. The film opens with a
youthful picture of Coleman, then a
shot of his bedroom and oxygen
machine. He says that he feels like an
elderly person; he receives social
security and is in bed most of the time
because he is so weak.
The film shows the numberof help
programs for AIDS patients. It fo
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1
Wesleyan’s forum series begins with apartheid critic
By Anne Mohri
Senior Editor
An outspoken critic of South
Africa’s apartheid will begin
Wesleyan university’s fall forum
series SepL 9 with a talk called “Voice
From a South African Prison.”
Tshenuwani Simon Farisani, dean
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in South Africa, has been detained
without charges or trials four times in
the last 10 years by the South African
government, said Elaine Kruse,
chairperson of the university’s forum
committee. Farisani has been forced
to remain outside of South Africa
since 1987 but has not yet requested
exile status, she said.
The forum series is free and open
to the public. A speaker is scheduled
for every Friday at 10 a.m. through
Dec. 16 at the McDonald Theatre on
the Wesleyan campus. Kruse said an
open question/answer hour follows
each forum.
The schedule includes:
Sept 9, “Voice From a South
African Prison.”
Sept. 16, “The Fictional Vietnam:
The Art and Reality of War,” William
Holland, author and attorney.
Sept. 23, “Sex Bias: From Class
room to Boardroom,” Myra and
David Sadker, professors of educa
tion, American University, Washing
ton D.C.
Sept. 30, “The Unfolding
Constitution,” Warren K. Urbom,
U.S. district judge, Lincoln.
Oct. 7, “How to Live When Peace
and Justice Do Not Embrace,”
Stanley Hauerwas, professor of theo
logical ethics, Duke University, Dur
ham, N.C.
Oct. 14,“Readings from ‘Heart of
the Garfish,’” Kathy Callaway, assis
tant professor of English, Moorhead
State University, Minn.
Oct. 21, “Censorship in the Public
Schools,” Arthur Kropp, People for
the American Way, Washington D.C.
Oct. 28, ‘The Presidential Prima
rathon or Why Political Cartoonists
Hate Election Years,” Ed Stein, na
tional president of Association of
American Editorial Cartoonists,
Rocky Mountain News, Denver,
Colo.
Nov. 4, “The Shooting of Jame
Brady: The Case for Handgun Con
tol,” Sarah Brady, National Spokes
person for Handgun Control, Wash
ington D.C.
Nov. II, “International Studies:
Where in the World Are We?” Rose
Hayden, vice president of Educa
tional Products and Services, JEM
Communications, Inc., New York.
Nov. 18, “Promises and Problems
of Our Successes: Health Care, Medi
cal Ethics and the Good Life,” Ruth
Purtilo, director of program, and
Henry Knox Sherrill, professor of
medical ethics, Massachusetts Gen
eral Hospital, Boston.
Nov. 25, No forum, Thanksgiving
recess.
Dec. 2, “Reinterpreting the
American Dream: The Rise of White
Supremacy,” Jack Kay, associate
professor of speech communication,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Dec. 9, “Percussion Alone,” Gor
don Gottlieb, New York.
Dec. 16, “Palestine: An Update,”
Jafar Jafari, Palestine Congress of
North America, Washington D.C.
Sheldon Gallery
boasts three new
variable exhibits ,
Trevor McArthur
Suff Reporter
Beginning Sept. 20, visitors of the
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery will
have three new exhibits to peruse.
“The Valley Series” will feature
paintings and watercolors by Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln art profes
sor Keith Jacobshagen, created dur
ing his 1987-88 sabbatical.
During this time, Jacobshagen
worked primarily outside in the val
leys of the Big Blue, Mo., and Platte
Rivers. His work has merited national
attention for its grand scale and
underlying spirituality. The works in
this show were created responding
directly to the conditions of the natu
ral surroundings of the moment.
A brochure about the exhibition
will be available which contains an
See SHEL on 16
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