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Show MONDAY, SEPT. 25, 2000 · N ·V I E R s I V 'WALK' SUCCESS DESPITE RAIN SUUans and other county residents participated in the third annual Relay for Life during the weekend, helping raise nearly $65,000 for The American Cancer Society Although the rain dampened the track, it didn't dampen spirits. SEE PAGE 3. SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY· CEDAR CITY, UTAH Edited movies spark student· controversy BY PAIGE MARIE HENDRICKSON JOURNAL STAFF WRITER. VIL\ • Two SUU students have begun to circulate a petition to stop the showing of edited movies on campus. while members of SUUSA say showing edited versions of Rrated films on campus merely caters to what most SUU students· ,want. Ryan Jeffs, a senior commu_nication major from Fremont, Calif., and Stephanie Kukic, a sen1or political science major from Salt Lake City, would like to put an end to the showing of edited films in th~ Sharwan Smith Center theatre. ·censor$ip is wrong," Jeffs said. "We'd like to see the theatre utilized in other ways. Vvhy can't they show movies that don't need to be edited in the first place?" "It's not censorship," said Mindy Benson, director of student activities: "SUU's policy states that R-rated movies can be shown on campus.· "It would be censorship if we were in my office editing the movies ourselves, but we aren't. We get the edited movies from the vendors,· Benson said. Three edited and three unedited movies have been scheduled for viewing this semester. Sheri Stowell, SUUSA union programming director, said the uproar is a result of a lack of understanding on some students' part. Stowell and Benson said the editing process begins in Hollywood, with an unedited version of a movie. The movie actors sign a release that allows the film to be edited. The movie producers then decide which words to dub over and which frames to cut, Benson further explained. The movie is reproduced ;t as an edited version, or an "airplane ~ version," and sold to vendors who Qrent the film to organizations like isuu. ! "Students need to understand that we do not edit the film. Hollywood ~..........:-.;;;......__ _...__, ~ produces two versions and sells Jake Eyre, a sophomore theatre major frol1J Salt Lake City, .stands in protest of the showing of the them to vendors. We buy our films PG-13 version of the R-rated 'Erin Brockovich. ' The showings of 'edffed' movies have sparked wide from the vendors,· Stowell said. controversy among SUV stud~nts, faculty and staff. · Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. is one of these vendors. Swank offers ~ edited films as titles that "have been edited to remove and/or eliminate · offensive language, nudity, violence and sexual situations.· reports www.swank.com. Swank carries both edited and unedited versions of several PG-13 and R-rated movies. Edited titles include a wide variety of titles from Adventures in Babysitting to The Silence of the Lambs. Stowell said the decision to show edited films in the theatre was based on a survey administered to students during Welcome Week. The results indicate that the majority of students on campus would prefer to watch edited movies. • Kukic disagreed, saying there was "no formal, professional survey to validate· that conclusion. Jeffs called the survey "bogus· in its distribution. The survey was available for students to fill out and submit at the Clue Fair and the Welcome Back Dance. Stowell said that an ad also ran in the University Journal encouraging students to fill out a survey in the SUUSA offices. Jeffs said the problem with that type of distribution is that the results · do not reflect a true random sample. A limited number of students saw the survey, and a minor amount of those students actually filled it out. Stowell estimated that 50-60 surveys were submitted for review. The survey asked students to vote for four movies they'd like shown during fall semester. The options included 10 different movies, several of which were offered as both edited or unedited. Stowell said the number of requests for each movie were tallied, and those were the movies rented for showing. · The film U571 , rated PG-13, received the most votes, along with the edited versions of Erin Brpckovich, Face/Off and The_ Green Mile. Jeffs and Kukic would like to see the distribution of a new survey, administered by an unbiased third party. Ken Laundra, assistant professor · of sociology.. has already begun (continued on page 6) 1• |