Weekly Wilson - Blog of Author Connie C. Wilson

Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!

Bob Woodward’s Book “FEAR”

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(Image from “The Headline”)

Bob Woodward’s new book “FEAR” came out today, and I am reading it.

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Bob Woodward (Twitter image), co-author of “All the President’s Men” and “Fear”

As with Omarosa’s book about the goings-on inside the White House (“Unhinged”), I will attempt to share with those of you with less idle time on their hands some of its revelations.

Today’s installment will deal only with the first 1% (I ordered it in e-book format), the Prologue. First, let it be known that Woodward had A LOT of help from his research assistant Evelyn M. Duffy, who has worked with him on five previous books.

PROLOGUE:

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(General Mattis, Gary Kohn, and General Kelly from the ArmWood Opinion Blog)

Gary Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs and one of the president’s top economic advisers comes off as one of those who is trying to keep Trump from screwing up by signing things he shouldn’t. Cohn, who spent 27 years at Goldman Sachs, is 6′ 3″ and full of self-confidence, notes Woodward. He is also from GOLDMAN SACHS, and, if you remember, Trump made a Big Deal of Hillary Clinton’s speech to Goldman Sachs, but now brings its president on as one of his most trusted advisers. (Go figure).

The Prologue deals with Trump’s unhinged (Omarosa’s book title) efforts to withdraw from the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, or KORUS. It isn’t so much that we get economic good from this agreement as that we get the ability to detect any attack that might  be heading towards the U.S. mainland from North Korea because of the work of the military infrastructure present in South Korea, which has been there ever since I was a little girl (the early fifties). The U.S. stationed 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea and operates the most highly classified and sensitive Special Access Program (SAP) providing sophisticated Top Secret codeword intelligence and military capabilities.

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(Image from 9news.com.au)

Woodward’s book (“FEAR”) notes that a missile from North Korea would take 38 minutes to reach Los Angeles. Thanks to this treaty and the intelligence apparatus in place there as a result of it, we would know that it was headed for us in 7 seconds. Compare that to the time it would take for Alaska to let us know if an attack from the Russians (15 minutes) and you realize that the ability to detect a lunch “in seven seconds” would give the United States military the time to shoot down a North Korean missile.”

Does Trump recognize that fact?

Apparently not. Woodward notes that it is “Perhaps the most important and most secret operation in the United States government. The American presence in South Korea represents the essence of national security.”

Why, then, did Trump want to withdraw from this important strategic alliance? Because he was angry that the U.S. had an $18 billion annual trade deficit with South Korea, plus our troops there cost us $3.5 billion a year to maintain.

Woodward notes, “Trump was always shifting, rarely fixed, erratic.” Prior to that, Woodward says, “Despite almost daily reports of chaos and discord in the White House, the public did not know how bad the internal situation actually was.” (Or should we say “is”?).

The letter, which Woodward displays on the page, was dated September 5, 2017. It was the trigger to a potential national and international security catastrophe. And Cohn, therefore, removed the letter draft from the Resolute Desk and placed it in a blue folder marked “KEEP.”

Woodward: “In the anarchy and disorder of the White House, and Trump’s mind, the president never noticed the missing letter.” Rob Porter is then noted as contributing to this attempt to stop Trump from doing something stupid. Porter attended Harvard and Harvard Law School and was a Rhodes Scholar, something no one has accused Trump of being.  “Cohn and Porter worked together to derail what they believed were Trump’s most impulsive and dangerous orders.” “Cohn at times would just yank it (an order), and the president would forget about it. But if it was on his desk, he’d sign it.”

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(No copyright infringement is intended & there is no profit from the reprinting of this cartoon image.)

Cohn: “It’s not what we did for the country.  It’s what we saved him (Trump) from doing.” Porter said, “A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he (Trump) had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren’t such good ideas.” After citing the technique of “slow walking” a bill or order that Trump might unwisely sign, Porter said:  “It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually…It was like you were always walking right there on the edge.”

When confronted with arguments as to why the treaty with South Korea needed to remain in place, Trump said, “I don’t care. I’m tired of these arguments! I don’t want to hear about it any more.  We’re getting out of KORUS.” The cooler heads told son-in-law Jared Kushner that a good draft needed to be prepared and, from there, “Cohn and Porter did not prepare a next draft. So there was nothing to show the president. The issue, for the moment, disappeared in the haze of presidential decision making.”

Concludes Woodward, as the Prologue winds to a halt:  “The reality was that the United States in 2017 was tethered to the words and actions of an emotionally overwrought, mercurial and unpredictable leader…It was a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world.”

Omarosa’s Book “Unhinged” and What It Has to Say

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(People image of Donald J. Trump and Omarosa Manigault Newman in happier days)

Omarosa’s new book “Unhinged” has been released and, as a service to readers, I have read it.

As a writer, I appreciate that Omarosa’s prose is readable and interesting. She shares her own life story, and I’ll have to admit that her image as “the villain of the piece” on “The Apprentice” was about all I knew about her. Who knew that she had worked in the Clinton White House, for instance?

Towards the end of “Unhinged,” Omarosa’s book begins to echo the forthcoming Woodward book, which I will also read when it is released to the general public on September 11th. (Nice timing there. One national disaster is chronicled on the date of another).

Here is a paragraph from near the end of Omarosa’s book that seems to echo Woodward’s forthcoming book: “Rest assured that there is an army of people who oppose him and his policies.  They are working silently and tirelessly to make sure he does not cause harm to the republic.  Many in this silent army are in his party, his administration, and even in his own family.” Sound familiar? It should, because that is one of the principal tenets of Bob Woodward’s book, according to preliminary publicity.

Omarosa also writes, near the end of her book, “Change is coming.  To bring it about we must be participants and not spectators in the pursuit of equality and unity.  Together, we can make this country honor the sacrifices of our ancestors.” She uses that tired cliche, “We are all in the same boat now,” and her apologies for putting us in that boat are not nearly intense enough. She had “a blind spot” where Trump was concerned. She didn’t believe the tape of DJT using “the N word” existed.

As a writer, that is one good thing that Omarosa has done in her book. She has structured it as sort of a treasure hunt or detective search for the Holy Grail of the MIA “N” word tape—outtakes from “The Apprentice” where Donald J. Trump used the “N” word and other perjorative terms. Why this matters so much to Omarosa is more easily understood when we consider that she is an African American woman, but, at the end of the book, the reader feels a bit cheated not to at least read a transcription of same. One of the magician duo Penn & Teller has come forward and said he heard it, but, aside from that, we have only whispered conversations on the phone between Omarosa and co-workers who assure her that he DID say it.

My response to that is, “Who doubts it?” If he would wander off-script during a ceremony to honor the last of the Navajo code workers who helped win WWII, and, instead, insult  U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren by calling her “Pocahontas,” then who doubts that Trump will continue using derogatory name-calling, whether it is “Little Marco,” “Lying Ted,” or “Low Energy Jeb?” Also noteworthy is that the ceremony to honor the Navajo code breakers was held under a portrait of Andrew Jackson, who ordered the “Trail of Tears” movement of native Americans to reservations, an atrocity that saw many of them die in one of our nation’s most tragic avoidable acts of atrocity towards the people who originally inhabited this land. Using slurs, racial and otherwise, is baked in Donald Trump’s DNA. It’s usually a sign of a person with an inferiority complex, who is striving to make himself (or herself) feel more important. [It is telling that “W” used it extensively, also. One of his Cabinet members lost respect for George W. Bush when he assigned everyone a nickname. He famously called his Chief Strategist Karl Rove “Turd Blossom.”]

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One of the book’s most interesting portions, for me, a 37-year veteran educator, dealt with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. DeVos has absolutely no experience in education and it can be said that she bought her spot in the Cabinet.  She refused to give opening remarks to the HBCU all-stars that Omarosa was championing, and Omarosa had to approach head of Cabinet Affairs Bill McGinley to get him to intervene. DeVos had tried to shut down the event by sending a blast notice that it was off. She cost the U.S. government $75,000 in cancellation fees. (The event ultimately went forward). She writes, “By June I’d given up on Betsy DeVos…” She goes on to say that she had made it her priority to get congressional support for HBCUs and overall African American policy priorities and, therefore, invited the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to meet with Trump on at least 2 occasions. (It did not go well.) Here are Omarosa’s words about Betsy DeVos:

“She is still serving and destroying the education system in this country.  The depth and breadth of her ignorance is a travesty for the children.  In each Cabinet meeting, I was seated in the row near her.  I can tell you, after a year of sitting in those meetings and observing her, that she’s woefully inadequate and not equipped for her job. She is just as horrible as you suspect she is.  When she recently visited New York City, she went to several schools, but not a single one that was run by the city. New York has more than 1,000,000 public school students, but she did not tour one public school. Not one. She does not care about your children.  Be afraid.  Be very, very afraid.”

Paul Manafort’s Trial/Verdict Under Attack by Trump

I’m not sure I’ll have a graphic to illustrate today’s Trump ruminations. 

Having just heard Trump going on  about what a “good person” Paul Manafort is (or was) in a news clip, when is it acceptable for a President to use his bully pulpit to interfere in the jury deliberations of a man against whom there is overwhelming evidence that he tried to defraud the U.S. government (and others) of rightful taxes by establishing overseas accounts in various tax havens? Shouldn’t the Donald be shutting up right about now?

But, no. He is ranting on about what a “great”  and “good” person Manafort, his former campaign chairman, is, which has certainly got to be considered anything but objective weighing of the evidence against Manafort AND prejudicial to a jury that might have dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporters amongst the twelve.

Any fact-based person would take a look at the faked bills of sale from gardeners and others, (with the owners of those companies taking the stand to testify that that is NOT their legitimate bill), and would say, “Well, at the very least, he’s a crook.” And a liar. And an opportunist who worked for the worst of the worst amongst dictators in Russian countries, which is not undocumented and not in dispute.

When the money ran out, Manafort began creatively spinning various stories to get money to support what most of us would say was a lavish lifestyle,–unless you are “in” to $900,000 ostrich jackets. (Loved the skit where an ostrich takes the stand and testifies against Manafort, on Seth Meyer’s late-night TV commentary). There’s a fantastically revealing story about Manafort’s financial decline in the latest issue of “Vanity Fair.”

The defense would have you believe, “Well, his second-in-command (Gates) is reponsible.” But, as one talking head put it, “If Gates was the quarterback, Manafort was Jerry Jones and owned the team.” It is worth noting that Gates netted a salary of only (note: I say “only” because we’re talking in millions of dollars for Manafort) $240,000 a year for keeping the books, while Manafort supposedly was paying himself over a million and a half (or more) from off-shore accounts to himself, illegally. And, of course, Gates embezzled from Manafort, so: “birds of a feather.”

At the very least, the presence of multiple offshore accounts to keep from having to pay U.S. taxes does not make Manafort a “good” person when he was the ring master for putting Donald J. Trump in office. Nor does it make Betsy DeVos a good choice for a Cabinet post (Secretary of Education) when she doesn’t have ANY experience in education (or much in finance) and sails a ship that is NOT registered under a U.S. flag, to keep from paying normal higher wages to the ship’s employees and to avoid port taxes of a U.S. registered ship. But that’s the kind of “draining the swamp” we’ve had with the Head Alligator in charge. Trump charges the Secret Service for use of his golf carts and really gouged those who rented the floor above him in Trump Tower for a while (his security detail). Since then, an unsightly trailer has been established outside the Trump Tower and is set up as Command Central for Trump’s security detail, to avoid the fleecing that was taking place in billing the government outrageous sums for a roof over their heads.

And let’s not even get started on the many other ways Donald J. Trump and family are making out like bandits while in office. It sure makes the days when former Presidents like Harry S. Truman (“The buck stops here”) refused to even take his pension, or when Jimmy Carter said he would not take positions, post presidency, on boards that might make it appear that he was profiting from having held the highest office in the land seem quaint and long ago. Has the entire morality and ethics of the U.S. really gone this far downhill in such a short time?

A few (not many, but a few) of my smart friends voted for Trump and have the cojones to admit it. They thought they were getting somebody from “outside” politics who would stop wasteful spending and rid the government of people like those now exclusively running it. They were wrong, and, some day, they will admit they were wrong, but, for now, can we just agree that jacking the national debt up, the way it has been increased under Trump is NOT a good thing? (Oh, for the days of Clinton’s surplus) and removing Obama’s ban on selling the extremely accurate missiles and bombs that just killed a schoolbus full of children in Yemen (when aimed at them by the Saudis) was probably another “bad” idea. Why remove that prohibition, which was put in place precisely because the previous administration feared that the Saudis might use them in such a way. (Let’s not forget that most of the 9/11 bombers were Saudis, something that the Bush administration tried to have us conveniently forget.)

In fact, this entire Trump presidency: bad idea. Let’s figure a way to start over and push the restart button that Hillary Clinton famously offered Putin once. No, I don’t mean by putting the much-maligned and unpopular former First Lady in office, but simply by getting rid of  Agent Orange (as Spike Lee calls him)  as quickly as we can. Our very survival may depend on it as we teeter and careen from crisis to crisis without a sane or smart hand on the tiller and with the entire National Security apparatus under constant attack. (John Brennan, anyone?)

Trump Revokes Security Clearances of True Patriots Like John Brennan

Wouldn’t it be too perfect if a black woman (Omarosa) finally took down Donald J. Trump’s presidency? For her part, the reality TV star turned White House hanger-on has said, “Donald Trump has met his match.” And this sorry presidency marches on, revoking the security clearance of former CIA Chief (and CBS on-air expert) John Brennan.

Today, with the vindictive actions of Trump in regard to true patriots like former CIA Chief John Brennan, in revoking Brennan’s (and others) security clearances, primarily to divert attention from the release of and content of the Omarosa tapes (the original order removing the security clearances was dated July 27, but NOW is a better time to distract the public) there has been push-back. Trump has admitted he took his action in a vindictive fashion, much like dictators in tin pot banana republic might punish opponents by actions like this, or worse.

When will ALL members of Congress wake up and see this for themselves? Some have, but they are the ones (Jeff Flake comes to mind) who have deserted the sinking ship of state, even though Trump is ostensibly a Republican. Hard to believe that anyone believes he is really a Republican, but nevermind.

Attorney McNamara (also a woman) for Simon & Schuster has taken the grenade that Trump directed be thrown through their publisher’s window, picked it up and thrown it right back, with the response that they will not let their clients be intimidated and are planning on releasing Omarosa’s book. McNamara said they have documentation that sounds vaguely intimidating if you are Donald J. Trump, crouched in the White House in a stance that Richard M Nixon learned to know only too well. The guy has to be unraveling and this latest action—-erratic, unkind and ungrateful as it is—seems to be just another symptom of Trump’s spiraling status.

“Is it appropriate for you to punish your critics?” asked a reporter at the White House. Trump glowered and did not respond, as per usual.

“Mr. Trump’s claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash,” said John Brennan. A retired Navy Admiral called John Brennan “a man of unparallelled integrity and honor.” He went on to say he would consider it a badge of honor to have his own security clearance revoked by the current occupant of the White House, whom Spike Lee calls Agent Orange.

But Donald J. Trump a man of integrity? Not so much. I saw a “breaking news” bulletin that stated this even more baldly, declaring that “Trump has humiliated us abroad, embarrassed us, and divided us as a nation.” All true.

Fierce fall out has come from Congress, (but not fierce enough yet). Susan Collins (R, Maine) says she doesn’t see the grounds for revoking John Brennan’s security clearance. Senator Orrin Hatch came to Trump’s defense; really, Orrin? Trump’s unconscionable actions speak for themselves, including his dalliances with prostitutes and porn stars and other remarks (“dog” aimed at Omarosa) and embarrassments (remember him shouldering aside the head of another country at that summit meeting?).

In a free democratic society, freedom of speech is granted each of us and there is no excuse for this kind of vindictive action towards John Brennan or anyone else who has dared to point out the fact that it is very likely that Donald J. Trump colluded with Russia in order to win the 2016 election. He is entitled to his opinion, which is also my opinion and probably that of the majority of right-thinking U.S. citizens, at this point.

Only Trump’s most loyal base members think otherwise. Savvy customers like John Brennan can see for themselves what most of the rest of us admit, (some of us more grudgingly than others.)

None of us WANTS to believe that the plot of The Manchurian Candidate has become fact

As my former chemistry teacher, Bill Hatfield, used to say, “Facts and figures don’t lie.”

He also used to say, “Figures don’t lie, but any fool can figure.”

This guy in the White House is a verified serial liar who can’t get the facts right,— if he even knows them. Nor can his Press Secretary, who released incorrect data during a recent press conference on the number of jobs for African-Americans that were created under Trump vs. Obama (Trump’s nemesis and constant target.)

When will those in Congress and the Senate decide that “enough is enough” and impeach this guy?

 

 

Spike Lee Is Back With A Vengeance In BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee’s new film “BlacKkKlansman,” winner of the Cannes Grand Prix award in May, is based on the early 1970s true story of Ron Stallworth, who was the first African-American hired by the Colorado Springs Police Force. Ron is played by Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington, a new face to contend with for future roles, but previously better known as the subject of father Denzel’s television comments on his son’s football playing prowess. (John David—his full name, as he has no middle name—was drafted by the St. Louis Rams after graduating from Morehouse College in 2006 and played for the Hamburg Sea Devils as a running back in ’06 and ’07.)

Lee said of John David’s casting (“Time” August 20th cover story by Rembert Browne), “I told him, ‘I knew you before you were born.’ I didn’t have him audition or read. Even before I sent him the script, I knew brother man could do it.” And so, a star is born. IMDB even awarded John David Washington the STARmeter award in Cannes on May 9th, 2018. Expect to see a lot more of him in the future, (even if we’ve seen almost nothing of him in the past).

The improbable story that Spike Lee’s terrific cast brings to life is the story of black police officer Ron Stallworth’s infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan. It is based on Stallworth’s book “Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime,” which shows up now on Amazon with the movie’s poster as a cover, but was out as a hard cover book in June with the close-up of a single eye, peeking out through a KKK hood eye hole.

This film is a direct commentary on the subject of bigotry and racial prejudice in America, and Lee doesn’t mess around. He never has in dealing with racism, violence and inequality in America. Real news clips are used depicting Donald J. Trump speaking, as well as footage of the Charlottesville murder one year ago of 32-year-old white protester Heather Heyer, run down by a car driven by a racist demonstrater. Real film of the event ends Lee’s film, used with permission of Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro. Lee told (“Time”) “I consider her a martyr.”

That event in Charlottesville one year ago also prompted Spike Lee to say, “That is nothing more than home-grown, apple pie, red-white-and-blue terrorism,” in a telephone interview with the New York Times.

The film is certain to make the list of Best Films of the Year and deservedly so. It is Spike Lee’s best non-documentary film in years, and perhaps the strongest commentary on this incendiary topic since “Do the Right Thing” won him an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay in 1989. Spike Lee has been telling America to “wake up” for 30 years and this latest film underscores the need with current film inserts and newsreel and other footage.

FILM REFERENCES:

The film opens with the famous scene from “Gone With the Wind” depicting Scarlett O’Hara is wandering amidst the dead, dying and wounded lying on the ground in Atlanta. It uses footage of 1915’s “Birth of A Nation” to show Klansmen celebrating the abhorrent behavior laid out for us in grim detail by none other than Harry Belafonte in a cross-cut scene with the Klan shouting “White Power!” while the African American group meeting across town shouts “Black Power!” The 70s were, indeed, a time when unrest, bred in the sixties, made it appear that race warfare was going to be our next Civil War. If it wasn’t Stokely Carmichael (using the name Kwame Ture in a speech that he gives onscreen) it was SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) or the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) that worried white Americans.

As Alec Baldwin’s character of Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard says in the first few moments of the film, playing a White Supremacist narrator of a propaganda film, “We had a great way of life, until Martin Luther King.” He goes on to refer to the “monkeys, rapists, murderous super-predators and blood-sucking Jews” who have, in his opinion, ruined the country, calling it an international Jewish conspiracy. The “N” word is thrown around quite liberally in the film, as well as many other demeaning names for African American citizens. It is not till film’s end that Ron Stallworth’s character (John David Washington) has the chance to respond in kind to the Grand Wizard of the KKK, David Duke (Topher Grace) during a phone conversation. One small criticism I might make is that the scenes showing the great amusement of Stallworth’s fellow officers during these conversations are over-done at times.

It is a telephone conversation that sets the entire investigation in motion, as Ron Stallworth notices ads in the newspaper for Klansmen and responds by phone, posing as a loyal White Supremacist. Ultimately, he becomes a card-carrying member of the KKK—a completely unlikely scenario—but the investigation could not have gone forward without the in-person substitution of fellow officer Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver of “Star Wars”) for Stallworth’s phone persona.

THE CAST

The cast was terrific throughout. The casting by Kim Coleman was right on the money, with many recognizable faces in the crowd. If John David Washington was an unknown before this film, it is a certainty that he will not be after this film. If you listen closely, you can hear some of Denzel’s cadence in his vocal delivery of lines, but he is clearly a talent in his own right, hitting the right notes throughout.

Contributing to the excellent ensemble, besides Washington and Driver, are Robert John Burke as Chief Bridges. I recognized him immediately from “Rescue Me” where he was Dennis Leary’s “sponsor” at AA meetings. (Bridges was also in “RoboCop”). Laura Harrier, who plays the love interest Patrice, is a more recent arrival, from “Spiderman: HomecEggoloming” in 2017. Ryan Eggold as Walter Breachway, is a face you’ll know from “The Black List,” where he was the evil husband of the female lead. (Eggold has a new medical drama starting on TV this fall and had a short-lived show that focused on his character from “The Black List.”) Eggold is the Klansman who eagerly accepts Driver as the real deal and wants to make him head of the group! Michael Joseph Buscemi plays Jimmy Creek, one of the police investigators, and, while he is not Steve Buscemi’s son, he is related (nephew?). Brian Tarantino plays Officer Clay Mulaney and Nicholas Turturro, not much in evidence since 1993’s “NYPD Blue,” is a familiar face. The dim-witted Ivanhoe is Paul Walter Hauser, most recently playing a thug in “I, Tonya” (2017). Two faces I did not recognize were Jasper Paskkonen as Felix Kendrickson, the craziest of the Klansmen, and his wife, Connie (Ashlie Atkinson), who worked with Lee in 2006’s “Inside Man.” Arthur J. Nascarella as Officer Wheaton is from “The Sopranos.” All were excellent.

THE MUSIC
Lee has worked with the same music person many times and Terence Blanchard put together a terrific score, complete with seventies hits like “It’s Too Late to Turn Back Now” and “Oh Happy Day.” The soundtrack will be terrific. We are also treated to some dancing scenes to lighten the mood, which has comic moments amongst this dead serious topic.

THE CINEMATOGRAPHY

Chayse Irvin is responsible for many of the trademark Spike Lee camera shots, most notably the double dolly shot, where the actors seem to be floating towards the camera (both actors and cameras are placed on dollies on tracks). The grainy high contrast footage, saturated colors, evocative end credits and the “wake up” call to his audience are also typical Spike Lee touches. In this film, the close-up shots of faces in the crowd at Stokely Carmichael’s (Corey Hawkins of “Straight Outta’ Compton) speech are an added plus. In order to be able to both shoot the crowd scene (which Officer Stallworth is monitoring from inside) and to focus on the faces of individuals in the crowd (Washington and Patrice, for example), a separate camera had to be set up in a side room and the actors had to be pulled aside to shoot them in close-up to integrate the close-ups into the crowd scene.

THE POLITICS OF Blackkklansman

In a line from the film, heard during Stokely Carmichael’s speech, he tells the black crowd: “We must unite and organize to fight our oppressor. We are being shot down in the streets by white racist cops.” He goes on to add, “If I am not for myself, who will be? If not now, when? and if not you, who?” Powerful stuff on the heels of so many recent shootings. As a student at Berkeley who remembers the protests of the Vietnam War led by Mario Savio (they were locking him up then; now there’s a statue of him on campus!) and lived through the violence of the sixties, the parallels are much more than theoretical. “Wake up!” is, indeed, a call to all right-thinking U.S. citizens when the KKK is quoted as feeling that, “We’re cleaning this country of a backwards race of chimpanzees. First the N—– and then the K—- (Jews).” Is Spike Lee going too far, when, just today, Omarosa’s book is touting the racist epithet’s popularity as used by the man who once was the star of “The Apprentice” and is now President of the United States?

Another telling line that clearly shows the parallels between these two diametrically opposed groups and times is: “We’re a family and, right or wrong, we stick together.” While that line is spoken by a police officer, the comment immediately follows, “That reminds me of another group.”

I went to hear Spike Lee speak years ago in person in Rock Island, Illinois. The author of the “Time” cover story acknowledged that Lee has a reputation for being controversial, “brash, contrarian and intellectually intimidating,”— a guy who is prickly and wonders “when black people, liberals and Americans in general will stop falling for ‘the okey-doke.'” Some have characterized Lee as “indignant.” He was all of those things that night, causing me to ditch my carefully thought-out-in advance question and remain silent. He is said not to suffer fools gladly and to be impatient. He reminds us all of things we would rather forget, like how Muhammad Ali’s status changed from the sixties, when he was characterized as a draft-dodger and thrown in jail, to Ali’s final years, when he was hailed as an American and global icon.

By “the okey-doke” Lee means the skullduggery, shenanigans, the subterfuge and bamboozling that white America uses to stay in control. It is what one of the O.J. documentaries portrayed as being how O.J. became more involved with the white community than with the black community, after he achieved football and movie stardom. As writer Rembert Browne put it in the “Time” cover story: “Lee makes movies to reopen wounds that white America would like to pretend have healed. He’s a provocateur who clearly knows what his role is: to say difficult things about both the history and the present state of race in America.”

MISCELLANEOUS:Jordan Peele Picture Jordan Peele

Spike Lee inherited this project after “Get Out” director Jordan Peele (who remains as a Producer) found himself too busy to follow up on making it. Lee was exactly the right person for the film. Jason Blum of Blumhouse Pictures (who I recently spoke with at the conclusion of a panel on horror movies at SXSW entitled “The Bleeding Edge”) is also one of the producers.

OSCAR TIME FOR LEE?

Spike Lee has made 35 films since 1983 and is 61 years old. He has also taught film in New York (Tisch Center) and been its artistic director for 16 years. He has had celebrated feuds with others, including one with Clint Eastwood when he criticized Eastwood’s two war films (“Letter from Iwo Jima” and “Flags of Our Fathers.”) Eastwood said that Spike should “shut his face.”

While that feud has been resolved, Spike Lee is still stereotyped as “an angry black man.” Given the fact that the grim story Harry Belafonte relates in the film is true and the lynching of Chicagoan Emmett Till in 1955 for supposedly whistling at a white woman happened 63 years ago (and the men who committed the act were acquitted), can we really blame Director Spike Lee for speaking out at this time in history. Or should we all just wake up

Don’t miss this movie. It’s bound to garner awards at award season…maybe even the biggest of them all.

San Antonio Film Festival, August 1-5 in San Antonio

The 24th Annual San Antonio Film Festival kicked off at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts at 100 Auditorium Circle, San Antonio, Texas, on August 1st, 2018.

Longtime director Adam Rocha, who has led the group for 24 years, did not greet us as we drifted in to get our credentials, and my badge, listing me as a Screenplay Finalist for THE COLOR OF EVIL, was MIA. (I was given a VIP badge, instead.)

Most of us waiting for the 6 p.m. kick-off films were directed to a small café across the street called Pharm Market that was heavily in to health food(s). There were literally no soft drinks (like Coca Cola or 7-Up) but there was a table serving free alcoholic beverages (beer and wine) and many strange delicacies that I did not have the time nor inclination to sample.

We headed over to the opening film(s) at 6 p.m. selecting between “Tecumseh, the Last Warrior” directed by Alvarez Studio and Larry Elikann or “They Call Me King Tiger,” directed by Angel Estrada Soto.

6:00 p.m. Premiere Showing was here.

My husband chose the latter film, which had this synopsis:“In June, 1967, the court of Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, was assaulted by armed men under the command of Chicano leader Reies Lopez Tijerina.  The outcome of such bold action was the largest manhunt in the recent history of the United States.  Tijerina managed to survive prison, a psychiatric hospital, and several assassination attempts.  The Chicano movement faded away, and everyone thought the same of Tijerina.  People spoke of him as a saint, a man illuminated, a man that used violence looking for a fair cause.  They called him King Tiger.  King Tiger is alive and he wants to tell his story.”

Some of this was misleading, as King Tiger recently died at age 88 (and insisted that he be dressed in his coffin as a Muslim to illustrate his conviction that he was a prophet; people had to be flown in from Chicago to accomplish this).

The story as told by Director Larry Elikann had a meandering documentary quality that did not serve the  extraordinary story well. There definitely was feature film potential in the story of King Tiger, but this treatment, witnessed by only 9 people sitting on hard-backed chairs, was probably not it.

San Antonio, Texas, Aug. 1-5, 2018

For one thing, this was the Premiere of the film and the Director was not present.

For another, as we moved into the main substance of the story, it was still unclear what injustice, exactly, King Tiger was trying to rectify. It purports to be the story of New Mexico’s Hispanic peoples losing their land to “the gringos,” much like the Indians lost their land to European settlers. Quote:  “These lands were robbed, and we want them back.” The 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty was at the bottom of much of the dissent, but the terms of that treaty are never spelled out for the viewer.

There were allusions to such historic figures as Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez and Malcolm X, but King Tiger’s followers never numbered more than 14,000 to 20,000, from the film’s reckoning, and, when he was a handsome firebrand of a man who had “boundless courage because he was always living in some other realm” he didn’t exercise his power as skillfully as MLK.

A conversation is recounted that supposedly took place between Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy and Chicano leader Reies-Lopez Tijerina. Bobby Kennedy supposedly said, to the firebrand leader, “There was a war.  You lost it and we won it.  Go home.”

Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

A Treaty of Hidalgo is constantly mentioned, supposedly transferring one-half of what was then Mexico’s land to the United States.  The statement is made:  “They lost their lands through diverse legal movements, so he (King Tiger) led a campaign to reclaim those lands.”

How devoted the followers were seemed to be one problem. A friend and acquaintance of Reies’ recounted a rally at which Reies asked how many of those present “will fight like a she-dog fights to protect her puppies” to get back the land. He asked them to stand up, if willing. One-third of the men present stood up. Reies then told his followers that those who didn’t stand up should be among the first killed. This took me back to a horrifying documentary I saw at the Chicago International Film Festival about just such neighbor purging neighbor that happened in the Philippines, when the U.S. encouraged the removal of Communists and atrocities were perpetrated, neighbor upon neighbor.

Interior of Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

The film consisted largely of interviews with the extremely elderly (age 88) Reies himself, who wandered on about dreams and angels and was a shadow of his former firebrand self. If anything, it was an object lesson in how death comes for us all and the most dynamic among us will be weakened and withered by time, as Reies definitely had been. His three wives are interviewed and many of his numerous children, some of whom recount beatings at Reies’ hand. The prettiest daughter from his first marriage was incarcerated after Reies formed a small band of armed men and marched on the courthouse.

He then was arrested in a manhunt (2,000 National Guardsmen were searching for him) that was not as dramatic as the program claimed. He said he was in the back seat of a car on the way to Coyote when he was apprehended. Reies is quoted as saying, “I’m chewing up the gringos no matter who is in the middle.”

One of his wives—a second wife who left him—said, “He wanted to be fighting, fighting, fighting. I didn’t want to do anything.” His son by a second marriage remembered that Dad told him: :You are nothing.  You are never going to be a man like I am.” The prettiest daughter, Rosita, who went to prison after the attack Reies engineered on the courthouse, said, “I don’t want to talk about or remember any of that.  I think that people saw him as a terrorist.  All my 6 brothers and I were beaten by him.”

So, not overwhelmingly positive as a leader and Man of the People.

The English subtitles were also rife with errors. Example:  “”Take this (sic)  pills, please.” This was in reference to what was said to be psychological torture that Reies underwent in prison. His first trial, when he defended himself, he was found innocent, but the film suggests that he was a victim of double jeopardy or that various trumped-up charges  kept recurring. One of his wives, Maria Escobar, had a house that was attacked and Reies swears that the attack was by thugs from the government.

Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

As nearly as I could determine from the meandering plot and lack of  focus, Reies was declaring that all those lands were taken illegally by District Attorney Alfonso Sanchez and that they were taken from Mexican and sold to white people and Sanchez was the person they hoped to get when they marched on the courthouse.

Just before his death, Reies told the interviewer, “What happened, happened, my friend.” His wife said he asked for forgiveness before he died.

The Awards Ceremony for the San Antonio Film Festival will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday night and the world premiere of “Stella’s Last Weekend,” a new comedy from writer/director Polly Draper (“Thirty Something”) will follow at 9 p.m.

Formerly of “Fame.”

A debut film from Director Jesse Borego (“Fame”) “Closer to Bottom,” will screen on Sunday, August 5th.  It deals with two brothers who are coping with the death of their father when both fall for the same girl.

The San Antonio Film Festival began on August 1st and will conclude with the showing of Boreo’s film on Sunday, August 5th.

Michael Kutza Is Honored In Chicago as Founder and Director (55 Years) of the Chicago International Film Festival

“Celebrate Michael” In Chicago on July 14, 2018 celebrated Michael Kutza’s retirement as longest-serving Artistic Director of a Film Festival in North America.

Michael Kutza, Founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival for the past 55 years, was feted at a gala celebration at Loews Hotel, 455 N. Park Drive, in Chicago on Saturday, July 14th.

(Photos by Connie Wilson)

Michael Kutza with Paula Wagner, producer of the “Mission Impossible” films.

Those present to honor his legendary career as the longest-serving Artistic Director of a Film Festival, (which is also the oldest Film Festival in North America), included Producer Paula Wagner, known for her collaborations with Tom Cruise on the “Mission Impossible” series (among others); Kathleen Turner, star of “Body Heat,” “Romancing the Stone” and many other films; Andrew Davis, Director of “The Fugitive”, Joe Swanberg, Steve James and many others.  Kutza started the Chicago International Film Festival in 1962 as a 22-year-old film buff.

Mr. and Mrs. Terrence Howard. (Photo by Connie Wilson)

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Terence Howard, of television’s “Empire”, (which shoots in Chicago), was present with his wife at the invitation of Chaz Ebert, widow of Roger Ebert, who served as one of the co-chairs of the event. (Howard received a call from their babysitter while on the Red Carpet). Howard said he’d only met Kutza once previously, in 2005, when given an award by the

Michael Kutza, with the co-chairs of the “Celebrate Michael” gala on July 14 at Loews Hotel, including Chaz Ebert, (widow of Roger Ebert), center.) (Photo by Connie Wilson)

Phone call from the babysitter. (Photo by Connie Wilson).

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Chicago International Film Festival, but expressed admiration for Kutza’s contributions to cinema in Chicago. He also told Chinese/American interviewer Meiling Jin that family was important in delineating a character, as it formed the basis for all human emotion.

Meiling Jin has been interviewing celebrities in the United States since high school and now, at 27, is listed as the 91st most influential media expert on films for a Chinese audience, with millions of hits daily. She also models and serves as CEO of Meiling Jin Television and Video Productions.

Kathleen Turner (Photo by Connie Wilson).

Kathleen Turner, in speaking with me, advised that “Less is more” (Mies Van der Rohe) in acting and urged directors to “trust their actors,” but also suggested that a screenwriter might wish to think about the many sets or set-ups in writing a screenplay. (As a Finalist in several screenplay competitions right now, including the Windy City Film Festival to be announced tomorrow at 2:30 p.m., as well as San Antonio’s, this was good advice for me).

(l to r), Connie Wilson, Patrick of the omnipresent hat, and Meiling Jin, CEO of Studio Meiling Productions, LLC. (Photo by Studio Meiling Productions, LLC).

Also on the program this night, besides awarding Kutza a Lifetime Achievement Award, would be bidding on a series of gala items, including a guitar signed by Tom Petty, a poster signed by the entire cast of the movie “Black Panther,” and a limited edition poster from the original “Star Wars” film (only 25 were made) signed by all the original “Star Wars” cast members.

Windy City Film Festival Opens in Chicago on July 12, 2018

The second year of the Windy City Film Festival kicked off on July 12th at the Victory Garden Biograph Theater in Chicago. This is the very same theater made famous by John Dillinger’s assassination outside it after viewing “Manhattan Melody” in the 1930s.

Windy City Film Festival

As a Finalist in the Screenplay Category, I was fortunate enough to be able both to see the interior of the remodeled theater at 2433 Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, a feature length film (“Double Major”) and a series of 8 short films.

We were all warmly welcomed and the choice of hors d’oeuvres was the best and most innovative of any festival I’ve attended as a critic (and I’ve attended a few). Plates of candies  are what they serve at the Oscar gala were arrayed, along with grapes, and the bar offered a discount to those of us who were Festival Finalists. Still, with a glass of wine reasonably priced at $7 that 20% discount wasn’t totally necessary. Bravo to the organizers!

After the opportunity to chat with fellow contestants, I was fortunate enough to chat at length with an actress in one of the selected films,  Jen Buhrow, and, later, had conversations with other contestants, including 2 directors of the shorts that we watched for 2 hours, Thom McCloud and Brad Riddell. All of the films were shot in Chicago.

THE SHORTS

Windy City Film Festival organizers Josh Hope and Mindy Fay Parks .

First, let me compliment the film festival organizers, Mindy Fay Parks and Josh Hope, on the truly great opening credit sequence that introduced several short films. They were as good (or better) than those shown at the opening of the much-larger (and 25 times older) Chicago International Film Festival.

SHORT #1:  RUNNER (Grade: “A”)

This was a riveting short piece featuring Clare Cooney and Shane Simmons. Clare is a runner and, while jogging down an alley in a suburb that had alleys that resembled those in Bridgeport, where my son lived for years, she is an eye witness to a murder. The murder appears to have been an accident caused by an argument between a young couple, when the young man shoves the girl and she falls and hits her head. Still, when the murderer then begins chasing Clare, everyone senses the danger she is in, and when the murderer later turns up at a gathering at a local bar and follows her home, the stress level goes even higher. This one was terrific! Clare Cooney not only acted in it, she directed it. Watch for her in the future.

SHORT #2:  TEN MORE (Grade: “A”)

DePaul Screenwriting Instructor and Windy City Film Festival Finalist Brad Riddell on July 12 at Opening Night.

This was my second favorite of the night. I told Director Brad Riddell that I could relate to it more easily, because, based on a roughly autobiographical brain injury he incurred, it leaves the viewer thinking about his (or her) own mortality and was not aimed exclusively at a young audience. Another huge plus for this film was its star, a local Chicago actor who looks as though he could be Adrien Brody’s brother (if Adrien Brody had a brother, which he does not). The actor’s name was David Tasques and it opens with Tasques playing the piano (which also summoned memories of Adrien Brody’s 2003 Oscar win at age 29 for “The Pianist.”) Puzzled by the water dripping through his ceiling from the floor above and the apartment of the old lady who usually bangs on the floor with her cane when the concert pianist is practicing (causing him to yell “Ten Minutes More”), Tasques’ attempts to find out what is going on leads to a surprising discovery. Director Brad Riddell has written 4 feature films and is currently working on a feature film for a Hollywood studio, as well as on a podcast. He is both a faculty member at DePaul and a working screenwriter.

SHORT #2:  MARGARET AND THE MOON (Grade “B”)

A chubby little girl is watching the film “Danse pour la luna”  that predates cinema as we know it, going all the way back to the Lumiere days and the Man in the Moon. We then see the girl being bullied at school by two young classmates and a lesson about true friendship is learned. Trevor Morgan, who made the film, circled back to the Man in the Moon  film for a sweet ending.

SHORT #3:  SPACEMAN (Grade “B+)

This one was light-hearted, as we follow the adventures of  a young man named Rupert Madursky who refuses to let NASA’s demise stop him from wanting to become an astronaut. As one character reminisces, “Becoming an astronaut was pure and American. We all wanted to grow up to be President or an astronaut.” Christopher Olva wrote, produced and edited this gem, with lighting and lenses by DePaul University. I think one reason I related to it as well as I did is that my husband and I toured Cape Canaveral when they were dismantling one of the towers and having the last NASA manned flight and it was a bittersweet thing to think of this nation’s space program being mothballed. (It still is). The film also had the advantage of being humorous in spots, as when Rupert ticks off a Russian cabdriver by saying to him (in Russian), “Cosmonaut is for second place,” when the driver asks if he is training to become a cosmonaut. (Rupert is fond of wearing NASA gear at all times.) The driver unceremoniously dumps his fare in the street.

SHORT #4:  STEP ONE (Grade: “B”)

Written and directed by Thom McCloud, who is primarily a local Chicago actor, a stressed man in a car is shown sitting near a railroad track and practicing the “Hello, I’m _____” speech that normally means the individual is going to be attending an AA meeting.  As the film opened, the car’s positioning near the railroad tracks immediately made you wonder if the driver intended to join a meeting (he has said his wife will leave him if he doesn’t attend) or if he is suicidal enough to drive that car onto the tracks. Speaking with McCloud later, he shared that the film is autobiographical and that it was shot in one day. Asked about the difficulties of making it, he singled out Pre-production, saying that raising the money to fund it was largely done through crowd funding and by him pitching in his own funds.  It was a thought-provoking piece.

SHORT #5:  CHEESE SHOP (Grade: “B”)

The director of “Cheese Shop”

The director of “Cheese Shop” shared, from the stage after the viewing, that Director Sammy Zeisel also had experience at working in a cheese shop, and learned how difficult things that are seemingly simple can be. The out-of-work actress who takes the job in the cheese shop learns that everything from wrapping wedges of cheese to mopping floors can be difficult. Cheese Shop is a bitter-sweet, funky little film…like a simple wedge of cheese, says the write-up, and it is.

SHORT #6:  BLAKOREA (Grade “B-“)

This film was also an autobiographical story of the marriage of a black G.I. suffering from PTSD and his Korean bride. Two young children are in the middle of their parents strife and are ultimately left with their black grandmother, Pearl.  Christine Swanson, its director, cast the film well and the actors all deliver. The reason it was slightly less appealing for me was difficulty with understanding the Korean battered wife. The film almost needed subtitles for some of her dialogue. I winced when the black grandmother served watermelon to her Asian/American grandchildren on a visit that turns into a permanent placement. Not sure that plays well in the P.C. world of today, but this was obviously an earnest effort and it was well done. The child actors were outstanding and the picture of the real Pearl with her granddaughter at the film’s finale was priceless.

SHORT #7:  MICKEY’s PETS (Grade:  “B-“)

Mickey’s Pets star is fourth from the right.

Ashley S. Brandon made this short documentary about Mickey’s pets, and the real Mickey, multiple tattoos covered by a lovely green dress, was present onstage following the film. She is shown with her pts, saying, “I’m never lonely and they never judge me.” Mickey is working on stuffing a peacock to enter in the 45th Annual National Taxidermy Competition in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. The winner of the title Taxidermist of the Year will take home a $1500 prize. Mickey Alice Kioapte certainly stood out in the room full of exclusively male animal stuffers (if that is a term). Side bar: I had a boyfriend in college (Frank Cornwell) who used to be in to taxidermy, and, of course, we all know that Norman Bates was. Of course, Frank also used to work for the phone company and randomly climb a telephone pole outside my  apartment window to phone me, so THAT was odd, too, and so is this nice little film.

SHORT #8:  COME TO LIFE (Grade:  “C”)

The plot here is that, when a young man’s wife leaves town for a few days, he is lonely and so creates talking creatures, made from pillow cases and socks to keep himself company. The first problem was that the sound and the lip movements were “off,” (which I was later told was because the film was being “streamed” from a computer.  The second problem, for me, is the current insistence that all marriages onscreen must be inter-racial. If that isn’t true, then there has to be a LGBQT character or somebody has to be handicapped. [This is based on recent reviewing at SXSW and not on these shorts, but it’s getting to be a bit much.] I’m sure many of the viewers were really intrigued by the concept, but, plot-wise, I was not. I do understand that creating them onscreen must have been quite an accomplishment, but the idea that this grown man was so lonesome for his wife because she left for 2 days that he resurrected characters (from his youth?) who he said had been hiding in the attic just didn’t work for me. It sounded incredibly juvenile, since he is depicted as an adult, not a college student.

Still, impressive work from all. Go Chicago! It is an honor to have a screenplay being considered amongst the 24 others (25 total) and I have no illusions of grandeur for what is only my second solo outing in screenplay writing.

Michael Kutza To Be Honored as Retiring Head of Chicago Film Festival

In 1964, film buff Michael Kutza founded the Chicago International Film Festival, with silent screen star Colleen Moore. The debut of the Chicago International Film Festival (now in its 54th year) was at the Carnegie Theatre at Rush and Oak Streets, on November 9, 1965. (Photo of Michael Kutza by Connie Wilson)

Mimi Plauche will become Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival, while Vivan Teng will remain Managing Editor. (Photo by Connie Wilson)

Kutza, then 22, has served as Artistic Director longer than any other film festival director in the country (55 years). The Chicago International Film Festival is the oldest film festival in North America; it is often called a Director’s Festival. Kutza will be passing the torch to Mimi Plauche as Artistic Director and VivianTeng as Managing Director.

Michael Kutza. (Photo by Connie Wilson)

Kutza’s illustrious 55-year career heading up the festival and Cinema Chicago and his contributions to film as a visionary helping advance the careers of so many luminaries in the industry will be celebrated on July 14th. He is being honored (Saturday, July 14th) with “Celebrating Michael,” an event that will take place beginning at 6 p.m. at Loews Hotel Chicago and will culminate in the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Kutza.

ORGANIZERS

Chaz Ebert, one of the “Celebrate Michael”organizers. (Photo by Connie Wilson)

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Bruce Rauner are Honorary Chairmen and the event chairs are Chaz Ebert (widow of famed critic Roger Ebert), Candace Jordan and Maria Pappas. Many celebrities will be in attendance, either in person or via video-taped salute, including Kathleen Turner (“Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Romancing the Stone”) and producer Paula Wagner (“Mission Impossible I-III”).

GALA AUCTION ITEMS

Exclusive items will be available for purchase at the Gala, including an autographed “Black Panther” movie poster, an autographed Special Edition “Star Wars” poster (one of only 25 in existence), a signed “Godfather” poster, and a guitar signed by Tom Petty, a trip to Naples, Florida and much, much more.

HONORS

Michael Kutza with Michael Douglas at the 1997 Chicago International Film Festival. (Cinema/Chicago Archives).

Kutza has been a ubiquitous presence on the Chicago International Film Festival scene and he will remain affiliated with Cinema Chicago as Emeritus CEO. Over the course of his 55-year career he has received many awards, including the Chevalier de l’Order des Arts et des Lettres from French Minister of Culture Jacques Lang at Cannes in 1984, the Silver Lion Award at the 32nd Venice International Film Festival, the Chicago “Sun Times” award for “Exceptional Contribution to Chicago” and, in 2010, placement by “Chicago Magazine” on their list of the Top 40 Chicago Visionaries. Also weighing in with awards have been the President of the French Republic for Kutza’s achievements as “an internationally recognized graphic designer, filmmaker and the Founder of the Chicago International Film Festival” in June of 2015. In 2017 Kutza was awarded the Onorificenza di Cavalierato, the highest honor awarded to someone in the arts, bestowed by the President of the Italian Republic.

CELEBRITIES

The list of those whose careers Kutza has fostered is long. A partial list would include Martin Scorsese, Rainer Werner Fassbender, Krzysztof Zanussi, Claude Lelouch, Wim Wenders, Margarethe von Trotta, Tsai Ming-liang, Mike Leigh, Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, John Carpenter, Joe Swanberg, and Taylor Hackford.

Clint Eastwood with Michael Kutza at the 38th
Chicago International Film Festival. (Official Cinema/Chicago archives).

Among those who have attended the Chicago International Film Festival over the years, a partial list would include: Harold Lloyd, Bette Davis, Jack Lemmon, Vincent Minnelli, Sophia Loren, Jack Nicholson, Shirley Maclaine, Francois Truffaut, Director Spike Lee, Director Oliver Stone, Director Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Clint Eastood, Liv Ullmann, Dustin Hoffman, Will Farrell, Jodie Foster, Director Kevin Smith, Halle Berry, composer Howard Shore, Director Richard Zemeckis, Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Sidney Poitier, Helen Mirren, Director Claude LeLouche, Director Philip Kaufman, Jane Fonda, Chadwick Boseman, Vanessa Redgrave, John C. Reilly, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Director Guillermo del Toro, Director Danny Boyle, Director Peter Bogdanovich, Ed Burns, Alan Cumming, Robert Downey, Jr., Forest Whitaker, Director Steve McQueen, Writer/Director Charlie Kaufman, Sterling K. Brown, Geraldine Chaplin, Gary Cole, Colin Farrell, Jessica Chastain, Helen Hunt, Dennis Farino, Joan Allen,Directors Lilly and Lana Wachowski, Mark and Jay Duplass, Ron Perlman, and the director of “La La Land,” Damien Chazelle.

Said Executive Board Member Byron Pollack, “Michael has had a tremendous impact on the film industry world-wide as well as on the cultural vibrancy of Chicago.” Gala co-chair Candace Jordan said, “We are pulling out all the stops to make this the most spectacular Cinema/Chicago gala ever!”

For tickets to this event, call 312-683-0121, x108, or visit chicagofilmfestival.com. Tickets start at $500.

Two Screenplay Wins for THE COLOR OF EVIL

Just received word that my screenplay based on Book #1 of THE COLOR OF EVIL trilogy (series) has won another Los Angeles Screenplay competition, this time the L.A. Edge Film Awards. Having also just gone out to see “Hereditary” with Toni Collette, which I will review momentarily, I want to quote the June 18th issue of “Time” magazine which heralded “Hereditary” as “among the films forming the swell of a new wave in horror, pictures that are smart, subtle and artfully made.”

The article goes on to say that this is not to put down the “Saw” or “Halloween” more overtly horrific films of yesteryear, but that those who say they don’t “like” horror movies means “you have haven’t met the right one yet.”

W

SXSW proved this to be true with the smash opening of “A Quiet Place,” which, in Mexico, they described as “alien on a farm.” My interview with the two young writers of that film (Scott Beck and Bryan Woods) convinced me that I should go home and write a screenplay based on THE COLOR OF EVIL, which I did in 3 weeks, while reviewing SXSW.

My script (whose ending I reworked 3 separate times) was checked over by producer John Crye for content and looked over for formatting errors (up to page 57, anyway) by founder of the Chicago Screenwriting School and AFI Film School graduate Dan Decker and then off it went to many festivals, which are now weighing in on (yet another) horror film that taps into the zeitgest of the nation right now. It has won two, is a Finalist in several, and is running above a 75% acceptance rate. (Woot!)

CONGRATULATIONS!

We would like to thank you for participating in The LA Edge Film Awards. There were a.lot of great submissions. It was very difficult to choose this month, but we are now excited & proud to announce the winners for MAY 2018!

Best Narrative Feature

It’s Just a Game
by Wilder Troxell
in Narrative Feature
Runner Up
Aakashee Pullover
by 24 OURS
in Narrative FeatureBest Documentary Feature
Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy
by Richard Stevens
in Documentary Feature, Additi

Runner Up
The Bateman Lectures on Depression
by Scott Bateman
in Documentary Feature2nd Runner Up
A Piece of Germany
by Ela Beken
in Documentary Feature

Best Narrative Short
Help Wanted 
by Michael Madden
in Narrative Short 

Runner Up
A View from The Mountain
by Anthony Stoppiello
in Narrative Short2nd Runner Up
No Wonder!
by Anjani Pandey
in Narrative Short

3rd Runner Up
The Projection
by Oleksandr Herasymenko
in Narrative Short

Best Documentary Short
Namibia
by Matthieu VINEL
in Documentary Short

Best Director
The Bateman Lectures on Depression
by Scott Bateman
in Documentary Feature

Best Screenplay
THE COLOR OF EVIL
by Connie Wilson

Runner Up
The Serum
by Tom Thorpe

2nd Runner Up
Joseph (4th)
by Ian Davies

3rd Runner Up
Diu
by Haritrushi Purohit

Best Actor –
Mac Estelle“Mac”- ‘Help Wanted’

Best Actress –
Aloknanda Roy“Subha” – ‘Aakashee Pullover’

Best Supporting Actor –
Virgil Apostol “Kade” – ‘A View From The Mountain’

Best Supporting Actress –
Rene Michelle Aranda “Lucy” – ‘A View From The Mountain’

Best Cinematography –
Namibia
by Matthieu VINEL
in Documentary Short

Best Score –
Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy
by Richard Steven

Best Visual FX –
The Bateman Lectures on Depression
by Scott Bateman
in Documentary Feature

Best Editing-
The Bateman Lectures on Depression
by Scott Bateman
in Documentary Feature

 

Time” said of “Hereditary”, “It’s a movie about feeling small and inconsequential in the larger pattern of danger churning all around us.” Those who have been horror afficionados for years will remember that “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was often said to be a film about Communism and the cold war threat, although that was denied by the writer and director. Nevertheless, it was films like that one (which was remade several times to varying degrees of success) that captured the mood of the moment.

Whatever your opinion of it, horror is hot, right now.

If anyone out there is reading this: I’ve got literally hundreds of short stories that can be made into great onscreen movies, part of my 50+ year love affair with film and residing in such collections as “Hellfire & Damnation” (Books 1, 2 and 3) and “Ghostly Tales of Route 66.”.

I also wrote THE COLOR OF EVIL, 3 novels that follow a young boy with the paranormal power of Tetrachromatic Super Vision (a real thing, by the way) and put him in peril because others don’t understand that it isn’t necessarily a predictive power. By book three, when we’ve followed Tad (McGreevy) and Stevie (Scranton) and Jenny (SanGiovanni) and Janice (Kramer) through their junior and senior years of high school and on into adulthood, you’ll feel that you know them well.

Set in Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 2003-2005, the books are right in touch with today’s mania of the moment, and I hope those of you in a position to see for yourself check out the e-book boxed set (THE COLOR OF EVIL series by Connie Corcoran Wilson) and find out for yourselves.

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