Inside Iowa State
January 22, 1999
'99 National Institute looks at reality in American film
by Tracy Griffin, News Service intern
Film director John Waters will be one of the speakers featured in the 1999 Institute on National Affairs, "Film in America: Creating Reality."
Events of the institute will look at how Hollywood filmmakers reflect society's cultural and political realities in their films. Speakers will examine the filmmakers' responsibilities regarding reality, as well as the context in which they use gender, race, class and generation differences. All of the events will be held in the Memorial Union and are free.
Water's films include Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray and Serial Mom. His lecture, "Shock Value" will begin at 8 p.m. Feb. 4 in the Sun Room. He will discuss "good and bad taste" and censorship.
Waters also has written several books, including Shock Value, Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters, Trash and Director's Cut.
Water's recently released film, Pecker, will be shown at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, in the Sun Room. Pecker (rated R) tells the story of a young man (Pecker) whose idio- syncratic photographs are accidentally discovered by a New York art dealer and make Pecker a superstar.
Movie critic Molly Haskell will talk about perceived fantasy, and women and men in film during her 8 p.m. talk Monday, Feb. 1, in the Sun Room. Haskell has been a movie critic for a wide range of magazines including Nation and Vogue. Her books include Holding My Own in No Man's Land: Women and Men and Films and Feminists, and From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies.
Tanya Zanish-Belcher, ISU library, will introduce the ISU film, The Home Economics Story, at noon Thursday, Feb. 4, in the Pioneer Room. The 30-minute film follows four Iowa State freshmen girls majoring in home economics through to graduation. It was featured on the Comedy Channel's Mystery Science 3000. Zanish-Belcher is responsible for the Factual Film Collection.
Institute on National Affairs
Feb. 1-5
Memorial Union, 4-9934
Monday, February 1
- 8 p.m., Lecture, "Science in Film: When the
Idiosynchratic Becomes the Norm," Carolyn Porco, University
of Arizona, leader of the imaging team for the Cassini
Mission to Saturn and adviser on the movie Contact,
free, Sun Room.
Tuesday, February 2
- 8 p.m., Lecture, "Whose Fantasy Are We Seeing? Women and
Men and Film," Molly Haskell, movie critic and author, free,
Sun Room.
Wednesday, February 3
- 8 p.m., Film, Pecker, directed by John Waters,
free, Sun Room.
Thursday, February 4
- Noon, Film, The Home Economics Story, Tanya
Zanish-Belcher, curator of the ISU Archives for Women in
Science and Engineering, free, Pioneer Room.
- 8 p.m., Lecture, "Shock Value," John Waters, movie
director, free, Sun Room.
Friday, February 5
- Noon, Lecture, "The Business of Entertainment: From Iowa
to Hollywood," Carmen Weets, owner of New York film
production company; Chris Brock, attorney at Twentieth
Century Fox, free, Pioneer Room.
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