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Show CULTURE April 11, 2011 VOL L ISSUE 30 www.uvureview.com Looking for a fun class this summer? Try Post-Modern Hollywood By Kelly Cannon Asst. Culture Editor Andrew Petersen / UVU Review Wendell Nielson will be co-teaching Post-Modern Hollywood this summer. Movies that will be discussed in Post-Modern Hollywood THE GODFATHER (1972) SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004) THE GODFATHER, PART II (1974) THE PIANO (1993) JACKIE BROWN (1997) DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) ANNIE HALL (1977) UNFORGIVEN (1992) BRIDGET JONES' DIARY (2001) WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989) TAXI DRIVER (1976) THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) THE LAST SEDUCTION (1994) SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999) INDIANA JONES: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998) DIE HARD (1988) ADAPTION (2002) DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) Zombies, mobsters, flight attendants, drugs, cowboys, guns, mystery, murder and bowling. This is just a sample of the subject matter that will be discussed in this summer's HUM 320R class, Post-Modern Hollywood. Taught by adjuncts Steve Hall and Wendell Nielson, the course offers students a chance to explore the concepts of post-modernism within the realm of Hollywood cinema. Hall and Nielson, who received their MFAs in screenwriting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and the American Film Institute, respectively, will be the first professors to teach this class at this university. "I think we have a very distinct perspective on Post-Modern Hollywood," said Nielson. "[And] we're both cinephiles." The duo have already taught humanities classes together, where they had their students rip apart movies, paying close attention to theme, rhetoric, structure, style and character, as well as helping them realize how all of it feeds into an overall message. Their interest in teaching Post-Modern Hollywood stemmed from interactions with their students. "Another reason I was drawn to this topic personally was the idea of helping students understand where the language that they think is theirs came from," said Hall. "Because all of these genres came from somewhere and most students don't realize that." Nielson also hopes the class will allow students to appreciate films they already like because they will have a more full and rich understanding of where the artists are coming from. In discussion of what PostModern cinema means, Hall and Nielson referred to it as films that are based on, or at least use, references to previous films. When filmmakers first started out, they were trained in theater, literature or vaudeville. "Now, for the most part...all of these filmmakers learn how to make films at a film school where they watched a bunch of films," said Hall. "But that's [why it's] so rich, because then you can go back to the films these films are based on and see those influences and see how all of these influences build up to what [Post-Modernism] is today." If students are interested in taking Post-Modern Hollywood, they can register for the class now. The class is during the first summer block, Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9:00-10:50 a.m. Be advised that students who are uncomfortable watching R-Rated movies are strongly discouraged from registering for this class. Andrew Peterson / UVU Review Humanities professor Steve Hall will bring his love of film into the classroom this summer MWF from 9:0010:50 a.m.. Publications ahead By Kelly Cannon Asst. Culture Editor This week will celebrate the official release of not one, but three student journals on campus. Touchstones, Warp and Weave and Essais are three publications that celebrate and showcase the written and artistic talent of students here on campus. Touchstones is a creative writing publication funded by the English department. Released twice a year, Touchstones publishes prose, poetry and visual art submitted by students. English major Meggie Woodfield, the current Editor-in-Chief, has been working with Touchstones in an editing capacity for two and a half years, nearly five publications. One of the biggest challenges for Woodfield this year has been the difficulty of fitting in enough time for Touchstones while still maintaining the rest of her life. "Working on Touchstones is an amazing experience and will absolutely help you in the long run, whether you are going to graduate school or finding a job," Woodfield said. "But in the end it is still volunteer work." Besides being a full-time student, Woodfield also works full time at Symantec, a software company, as a technical communicator. Woodfield, who will be graduating at the end of this semester, was assisted by her two managing editors, Michael Brown and Roarke Stone. Brown, a junior originally from Oregon, recently switched from a Business major to an English Literature major. It was while he was in an American Literature class in the fall of 2010 that he met Woodfield handing out flyers, recruiting students to work on Touchstones. "It seemed like something I could really get involved with and really like," Brown said. Brown, who is planning on graduating in the spring of 2012, didn't have any publishing experience before working on Touchstones. "Meggie has a lot of experience. She knows where to go and how to do things," Brown said. "If Roarke or I don't know how to do something, Meggie knows how to do it or who to talk to." In each publication, awards are given for the best prose, poetry and Essais, a new academic literary publication, will be released Thursday, Continued on B5 April 14. Image courtesy of Essais |