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Show '1 rr out: j Small dancers take first steps News B6 Coal-ossal achievemen .News B1 Mrs. Utah sets sights high News A8 Lou Hudson still hustlin g Sports C4 rWn 1 J I 1 1" '--J Mi! FT rri LmMBU I Hill II IIM mwm i '" '" ii n mi. i ii i ,TTDne T ft. W JLmoX Jj I in Li 4 Vol. 106, No. 51 3 Sections, 46 Pages Thursday, January 30, 1985 Documentary, d win top Film Fes onors by KICK BKOl'GH Record staff w riter The coming-of-age drama. "Smooth Talk," and a behind-the-scenes documentary, "Private Conversations." Con-versations." won the top prizes Saturday night at the United States Film Festival award ceremony in Park City. Festival organizers reported (SaT revenues from the festival were 30 percent above 1985, which was considered con-sidered a record-breaking year for the event. The two winners prevailed over a field of about 25jndependent films in the festival competition. But in their acceptance speeches, the winning directors talked about the camaraderie between independent filmmakers. Documentary winner Christian Blackwood said the festival was the first time he had been able to meet his fellow filmmakers. "It's the most intimate festival I've ever been to. I can walk down the street and talk to people about their films and they can talk about mine." Blackwood's film, "Private Conversations." Con-versations." dealt with the making of the TV movie. "Death of a Salesman," starring Dustin Hoffman Hoff-man and directed by Volker Schloen-dorff. The director of "Smooth .Jalk Joyce Chopra, said. "I decided it wasn't a competition so I could enjoy all my colleagues." Her film, the winner in the dramatic category, deals with a romance between a 15-year-old girl (Laura Dern) and a volatile lover (Treat Williams). Also in the dramatic category, a special jury prize went to "Desert Hearts." a film by Donna Deitch about a relationship between two women. An award for outstanding achievement in youth comedy went to "Seven Minutes in Heaven" directed by Linda Feferman. In the documentary category, a special merit award went to "Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo," the story of Argentine mothers who protested the disappearance disap-pearance of their children under the military junta. A special director's award also went to a film in the Australian program pro-gram of the festival. "Half Life." directed by Dennis O'Rourke, won the honor for its story about U.S. atom-bomb tests over the Marshall Islands. Actor Peter Coyote was the presenter for the awards, held at the Ramada Hotel. He said independent filmmakers had two important qualities integrity and authenticity. authentici-ty. "The only thihg I really trust about people are their obsessions. They (the filmmakers) are going to tell the story by hook, by crook, by blood and by sweat." , The-films should not be regarded as winners or losers, but as 'temporary 'tem-porary high-water marks' to show to their colleagues," he said. V" I - i Lcal teacher Linda Preston had been thrilled to be among the top 14 candidates can-didates for Tuesday's tragic space shuttle trip. B"t the reality of the da'iger of space travel "me home to her Tuesday. - f X Sen Jake Garn: "I don't know anytime I have been so shocked and so moved since my first wife was killed in a car accident . . . it is very difficult for me personally when you lose so many friends all at once." Astronaut candidate shocked by crash j)' JANICE PERKY "word editor semTda, Prestn. one of 14 emifmahsts to be the first teacher H Toe:St00d in shock at Park City sT u1 after she Earned the TuJfn ShUtUe Challenger exploded aboard n takeoff witn a teacher ash-ll 3rk City's own shuttle 2?Utah Sen- Jake Garn, hi hk,tearsafter lhe explore explo-re 7hclaimed the lives of peo- cordTnJ T Cribed as his friends. actionals3 ac-tionals3 UnUed PreSS Interna- ed 'prpre.ally dunned that happen-mi'nutew," happen-mi'nutew," Said' her voice shaking allviLa?er the tragedy, "I feel The 2! Tlne PePie on board." neWr to'1 jU5t names in the most of Preston. She had met beet, s Jb' shaken their hands or SPken to bv them Hnrinc a week of intensive workshops for the astronaut candidates in Washington. D.C. ' She can remember the faces ol coomander Francis "Dick" Scobee. co-piiu! Michael Smith, astronauts Judith Resnick and Arnold McNair as well as Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who won the honor of being the first civilian and teacher to fly into space. Those five, together with satellite engineer Gregory Jams and Ellison Onizuka, perished Tuesday morning when the shuttle booster rockets ferrying fer-rying the Challenger into space exploded ex-ploded in mid-air during takeoff. Preston and fellow Utah teacher John Barasinca were among the 114 candidates nationwide competing for the honor of being the tirst teacher to flv into space aboard the space shuttle. She made the first cut Shuttle to A8 The festival hit its own high-water mark, according to media coordinator coor-dinator Saundra Saperstein. Box office of-fice revenues came to $112,000, a 30 percent increase over last year. With sales and money from sponsorships, sponsor-ships, she said, the festival should be able to pay its 10-day expenses of $144,000. The event was attended by 20.275 people. One concern voiced during the heavily-attended festival was that movie-goers frequently encountered sold-out houses at movies they wanted to see. "If we continue to grow, we do need additional facilities or larger facilities," Saperstein said. Sold-out houses were also difficult to predict because several people at the outset of the festival held passes or vouchers that could be used for any event. Saperstein suggested that in the future, a person with a general pass could designate events he plans to see and receive tickets for those Saperstein said no one in the festival organization wants to move the event to Salt Lake City. "They want to make it work in Park City." she said. The future depends in part on help it receives from the community. com-munity. On the plus side, the festival had a good, cohesive organization this year, she said In particular. Cinda Holt provided strong leadership as adminislra! ive head ol the event. Saperstein said festival officials will meet soon to determine the future direction of the event. ig" .1 1 tiUV. 4 i Mc.il Dii.mKn Gov. Norm Iiangerter helps Natalie Alder in Miss Wiss's third-grade class at Parley's Park Elementary School. inserter stomps elan to improve education by Kl'ltT KIDAI.W Itciord staff writer Utah Gov Norm Bangerter brought his education bandwagon to Park City Tuesday in an effort to gain support for his ALERT program. pro-gram. In a speech to PTA members, parents, teachers and school administrators. ad-ministrators. Bangerter outlined the problems lacing Utah's education system and his solution, the Agenda for Leadership in Educational Resources for Tomorrow known as ALERT. He also praised the Park City School District for its efforts in promoting pro-moting public education and said he urges other school districts to follow Park City's example. . The Park City district, through additional ad-ditional taxation, reduced its pupil-teacher pupil-teacher ratios to among the lowest in the state. "I don't believe that Utah is in a crisis mode right now in education, but we are definitely in an alert mode." Bangerter said at Pf-ley's Park Elementary School. 'We should do something about the problem pro-blem in education now, before it becomes a crisis." The problems facing those con- Covernor to A9 Mitchell awaits jury verdict by TEKI GOMES Record contributing writer A seven-woman, five-man jury-began jury-began deliberations Wednesday in the murder trial of Francis Preston Mitchell, a case filled with conflicting conflic-ting tales of drug sales and usage. Third District judge Scott Daniels delivered the instructions to the jury shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday, following seven days of testimony from more than 20 witnesses and introduction in-troduction of nearly 40 pieces of evidence. In closing arguments Wednesday morning. Summit County Attorney Robert Adkins told the jury that the Park City shooting of Fred Duncana Dun-cana shooting that Mitchell admitswas ad-mitswas "cold, bold and brazen." Repeatedly during his closing arguments, Adkins compared conflicting con-flicting testimony from the defendant defen-dant and the witnesses and said, 'Somebody's lying." Prosecutors contended the motive in the murder was that Duncan was "honing in" on Mitchell's drug clients. But Mitchell, in taking the stand in his own defense Tuesday, told the jury that the Aug. 4, 1984, shooting was an accident and that he had gone to the home where the shooting occurred because he feared for the safety of of his friend. Greg Oliver. He told the jury that Oliver was involved in-volved in a soured drug deal and that a man named Mike Shane had threatened to "rearrange Oliver's facial features." In his testimony. Mitchell told the jury he first checked at Oliver's condominium con-dominium and, not finding him home, went to the Woodside Avenue home of Oliver's father. Brian. He said he looked through the window and saw two figures lying still on the living room floor, the television blaring, blar-ing, and thought he saw movement in the dining room. Mitchell testified that when he burst through the door with the .45 caliber handgun drawn, he stumbled over Duncan's legs and the gun went off. Adkins quoted testimony from Duncan's fiancee, Patricia Tyrrell, who was with Duncan when he was killed. She said Mitchell was masked and that he pulled the mask from his face and said, "You bastard! " as he shot Duncan. The prosecutor said Mitchell had confessed the killing to a number of witnesses. Two of the witnesses said Mitchell told them the shooting was an accident. But Adkins took exception to that in his closing arguments, pointing out to the jurors that Mitchell was shot in the head. "The bullet wound is inconsistent with a struggle. If a person wants to kill someone with the use of a firearm, isn't he going to shoot him in the heart or the head? I think the placement of the shot (in Duncan's head shows it wasn't an accident. It was done with intent." Adkins said. Defense attorney Ken Brown, in his closing arguments, said the burden was upon the prosecution to show the shooting was a murder and he felt they had not done that. He pounded the lecturn. "You," he told the jury, "are the finders of fact." Brown maintained there was no evidence that Duncan was a drug dealer. He told the jury that in Kary Garner's testimony, "She said Preston had wept when he told her of the killing." He also asked the jurors to ask themselves. "Why this night?" Why was Fred Duncan shot and killed the night Mitchell had gone with friends to a Laura Brannigan concert in Salt Lake City and had planned a night on the town'.' "This is really a case about love," said Brown, who maintained Mitchell Mit-chell went to Park City on the night of Aug. 4 with a gun because he wanted to protect his friend. Brown told the jury Mitchell's actions ac-tions on the night of the shooting were consistent with the theory of an accident. "You're going to be foolish because none of it's planned," he said. Mitchell had no intention of killing Duncan, he said. Mitchell entered the Oliver home because he thought it odd that the house was dark on a Saturday night (Brian Oliver "par-tied "par-tied until the wee hours on a Saturday Satur-day night." Mitchell testified Tuesday) Tues-day) and he saw movement in the dining room and the two figures on the floor. Brown implored the jurors to find Mitchell not guilty, except to negligent homicide. In rebuttal, assistant county attorney at-torney Terry Christiansen said Brown threw up a number of "smoke screens." The only thing Hie state has to prove are the elements of the crime, he said. "I don't have to prove 'why this night' because that's a smoke screen." "Why would he tell people about the killing?" Christiansen said. He pointed out who Mitchell had confessed con-fessed to. He spoke of Sean Sears, his boyhood friend. "He -didn't think Sean Sears would testify against him." Christiansen also said Mitchell confessed the shooting to Ralph Garner, who was "a drug crony," and noted that Mitchell gave Garner two 10-ounce packages of cocaine the day after the shooting. "He thought he was in the clear i with telling Ralph)," he said. Christiansen Chris-tiansen also pointed out Mitchell had confessed the killing to Kary Garner, who drove Mitchell to Las Vegas days after the killing. Christiansen pointed out that Kary Garner, in transporting Mitchell, was an accessory to the crime. "He didn't think Kary Garner was going to testify against him," he said. Then Christiansen asked the jury, "Who in this case is lying?" He said Mitchell had lied about selling drugs, about using false names, about who owned the murder weapon and various other testimony. Christiansen then asked the jurors to return with a verdict of guilty !o first-degree murder. Brent's out, may be home in March Fifty-one days after receiving an experimental bone-marrow transplant to treat his cancer. Brent Bloomenthal packed up his toys and went home from the hospital Friday. The Park City kindergartener r e c e i v e d the b o n e -m a r r o w transplant from his half-brother, Ron, to replace the marrow that was destroyed during intense chemotherapy and radiation doses aimed at killing the neuroblastoma form of cancer that invaded his bones. Brent's father said Brent was happy hap-py to be home at the Seattle apartment apart-ment the family rents near the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where the procedure was perlormed. The treatment was made possible by the generosity of a family member who donated S50.0O0 toward the $100,000 deposit required by the research hospital and also by the i.ii..igy ot the Park City community, which more than m.v.cheii liiat amount through a series of fundraisers fun-draisers conducted over a six-week period. The treatment was an experimental experimen-tal one fo: the type of cancer from which Brent suffers. Bone-marrow transplants are common therapy for leukemia and aplastic anemia sufferers, suf-ferers, but the procedure has only been tried loi a relatively short time on neuroblastoma. Although Brent has been released from the hospital, he faces other hurdles in his recovery, as he continues con-tinues to take the drug Cyclosporin, a compound that suppresses the body's immune system to keep the graft (which produces antibodies) from rejecting its foreign host. But if all goes well, Brent may be able to return to Park City in mid-March. mid-March. His mother, Jeannie Bloomenthal. wants Brent home on his sixth birthday, March 16. INDEX Calendar A17 Classifieds C9 Columns A4 Business B3 Editorial A2 Entertainment B7 Letters A3 Legals C8 Sports CI Television B12 |