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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1993)
»'•w « «•< t > » V t w V • » ' ». «.A <*• * * * * < ’ M S S S ÏV < rw *w 1 P age B3 T he P ortland O bserver • S eptember 29, 1993 rsm iA isM isr BY DAN BELLE Last Thursday, September 2 5 , 1 had an opportunity to interview two o f the principal actors who were in Disney’s new release Cool Runnings. W hat follows is a combination of their comments and a synopsis of their view regarding the movie and Rawle D. Lewis as Junior Bevil the film industry in general: Leon plays Deryle Bannock the central character who despite misfor tune in pre-Olympic trial fails to qualify in track decides to pursue an Olympic berth in bobsledding for Jamaica. Leon lar to the Five Hearts where the char acters arc fully realized. The story line of “Cool R unning” deals with the aspirations of a group of athletes who wish to participate in a sport both foreign and alien to their relative environment it is a tale of pcrservance and in the and the tri umph of the human spirit. Along with their own tenacity and the help of their coach Irv (John Canady) they attain their goal, and in doing so entertain the audience with a lot of humor and wit. P o rtland O b serv er: The char acters in the movie being primarily African Caribbean, how do you view these parts as a step in the progression of Black movies. Leon: 1 view it as an experiment in diversity. In a lot of ways it is a branching out. Because some Black ftlmmakes making films depicting ourselves on screen more regularly than we have before. So now the problem is that we arc depicted in the Leon as Deryle Bannock sam e type of m o v ie ...in n e r city struggle, violence and drug use. portrayed J.T. in the 60’s soul group drama The Five Heartbeats Most re Things like that. This does not en cently he may be seen in Sylvester S ta llo n e ’s sum m er release C liff Hanger. Rawle D. Lewis plays Junior Bevil. Lewis was born in Claxton Bay Trinidad He works primarily in the- Trinidad. He works primarily in the ater, however his other acting film credit was in the movie The Attitude. The central character is Deryle Bannock whose personality attracts and glorifies the other three bobsled members. The cast is ultimately the process of ensemble acting, verysim i- compass the behavior of our entire people. So when a film like this which is extrem ely positive in every way. Maybe as positive a film that has been made in the last 10 years. We get a chance to see Blacks in a very positive role, portrayed in very different ways. It has absolutely hardly any vio lence, no illegal drug use, and no scenes in jail. My character who is the central character has a wife,and is boat ski teacher and even though my dad is dead my dad is everything to m e . I try to fulfill a dream he had. We d o n ’t get to see things like that. We don’t get the roles like our white counter parts. P ortland O bserver: W hat do you think about Disney picking up after it was dropped by Columbia when Sony bought it? Rawle D. Lewis: 1 think not only Disney but other film companies are exploring new frontiers. They realize w hen people of color see themselves on the screen they realize that it is a big market. As far as this film is concerned it has a universal appeal. There are four Black male leads in it who get a chance to play heroes. If I can just comment a little bit about this, not to take away from any of the films that are out now There seldom are any films where we are heroes. To have four in one movie is a great feat. ..it’s sort of being a part of film history. And me being from the island Caribbean myself, in a sense parallels what people of African descent must do. Because we as a people tend to separate ourselves from one another and from one anothers country. Like...say come from the Carib bean—you’re not black, or African against African American. In a sense the movie is about four characters and how they come to gether. It's what we have to do as a people. P o rtlan d O b server: In other words it se n e s as a metaphor. Raw le D.Lewis: Exactly . FM' ö 9 i KMHD Night Schedule Sept. 9 Andrei Kitaev 7:30 PM Tall Jazz Trio *:30 PM (Two Sets) Sept 16 Kelly Broadway/Dan Faehnle Duo Mary Kadderly Quartet Sept 23 Nancy Cady Quartet Dick Berk Jazz Adoption Agency Sept 30 Tony M ason Roy Rogers Oct 7 Andrei Kitaev Tom G rant’s Weird Willie Band OCT 14 Kelly Broadway/Dan Faenhle Duo Dennis Springer Band Oct 21 Scroggins/Depriest Ron Steen Trio OCT 28 Nancy Cady Quartet Samba De Torres Nov 4 Andrei Kitaev Shirley Nanette Quartet Nov 11 Scroggins/Depriest Randy Cannon Quartet Nov 25 Andrei Kitaev Gordon Lee Quartet K B O O -F M 90.7 FM P O R T L A N D 1968 25 Y EA RS OF COMMUNITY RADIO 1993 CHECK OUT THE MOST ECLECTIC PROGRAMS ON YOUR DIAL: Folk’ Blues’ Jazz’ Bluegrass’ Soul’ Reggae’ Latin’ Public Affairs’ Women's Programming’ Local Music’ Classical’ Worid Music’ AllernaliveRock’ Spiritual’ Afncan’ Spoken Arts’ Live Event Coverage’ Live Music’ New Music’ Interviews’ And much, much more--Tune Ini For a FREE Program Guide o f listin g s and In form ation Call: (503) 2 3 1 -8 0 3 2 WINNER -Porfland Music Association Crystal Award OUTSTANDING RADIO STATION 1992- "IT’S ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST FAMILY FILMS; IN S P IR IN G , H E A R T W A R M IN G , A N D VERY, VERY F U N N Y . - J im S v q d a . K N X R A D IO New & used books .on Business, Music, & African-American Studies P a ^CTION-PACKJED GOLD -MEDAL WINNER FOR FAMILY FUN. | AHAVIIWI-. CRN4AME(UCAN movi E CLASSICS JAMAICAN BOBSLEDDERS? A Comedy Inspired by the True Story of the First Jamaican Olympic Bobsled I earn. POWELL’S CITY OF BOOKS 9 AM- 11 pm M o n d ay th o u g h Saturday 9 am - 9 pm S undays U sed books b o u g h t every day till 8:30 pm O n th e # 2 0 Bus line • O n e h o u r free parking 1005 W est B urn sid e S treet 228-4651 T h e S c h o o l O f O re g o n B a lle t T h e a tr e A c c e p t s 2 7 0 S t u d e n t s F o r F a ll T e rm Oregon Ballet Theatre Artistic D irector James Canfield announced that 270 students, out o f 325 candi dates have been accepted for the School o f Oregon Ballet Theatre’s 1993.94 session. Students have been placed in classes ranging from C re ative Movement to Ballet levels I through V for both boys and girls. For the first time, auditions were offered for admittance to the school in an exciting change in the mission of the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre. Mr. Canfield stated that “ the purpose of the School is to offer the pursuit o f excellence in dance training to pro duce pre-professional dancers of the highest calibre and to increase the com m unity’s awareness of dance. In other School news, Oregon Ballet Theatre w elcom es Haydec Gutierrez, who has served as a guest instructor for the School of O B T ’s Summer W orkshop the last three years, as the new School Director. Ms. G utierrez brings a wealth of ex perience as a performer, instructor and administrator to the position. Most recently she served as owner and di rector of the Classical Ballet Center of Tampa, developing many of her students into professional dancers, teachers and choreographers for ma jor dance companies throughout the world. Joining Ms. G utierrez are re luming instructors Frederic Locke, Meg Potter, Elena Carter, Manya Wubbold and Kembe Staley. In addition to classes given » A * .*■ / * * * f ,* 7” * ‘ r r through die S chool o f O regon B al let T heatre, die C om pany offers ed u c a tio n pro g ram s specifically designed to enable socio-econom i- c a lly d isa d v a n ta g e d ch ildren to pursue the study o f dance. T he C reative M ovem ent O utreach Pro g ram , initiated in 1989 at one Head Start center, now reaches nearly 700econom ically disadvantage and physically challenged children in 22 facilities th roughout die m etro politan area. S u sta in e d through co n trib u tio n s and grants, die pro g ram helps d ev elo p m o to r skills, self-esteem and confidence in young children w h o face form idable so cial, eco nom ic, physical, and em o tional challenges. P roject FIN D (Find and Inspire New D ancers) is targeted tow ard elem entary schools w ith a high percentage o f “C h apter I “ students, principally inner-city sc h o o ls in n o rth , no rth east and southeast P ortland. U tilizing O B T in stru cto rs and o th er local dance artists, die p ro g ra m provides c h il dren w ith instruction in dance styles ranging fro m ballet to co ntem po rary . A frican , flam enco, im p ro v i satio n al, h ip -h o p , traditional Ja p a nese, and ja z z , dirough in-school residencies. For inform ation on the S chool o f O re g o n B a lle t T h e a tre , ca ll (5 0 3 )2 2 7 -6 8 9 0 . For m ore in fo r m ation on O regon B allet T h e a tre ’s e d u c a tio n a l o u tre a c h p ro g ra m s c o n t a c t S a n d r a B a ld w in a t (5 0 3 )2 2 7 -0 9 7 7 . WALT DISNEY PICEI RES COOL R ID IN G S '. DAW\ STEEL’ . , . JO S TlR TE LTO ’. LEOS• DOIG E D O IG • RAWLED LEWIS • MALIK YOBA„ JOHNCASDY HASSZIMMER .^^-CHRISTOPHER MELEDASDRI SI SAS B L ASOAL ^LYSSSIEFERT.MIOiAELRITCHIE ^.LYSSSIEFER T J O M M Y S O L O ^ f f lA E L M R G • « S ï S S S s - 5. 11« « ® ’ ^„D A*SS TEE L ^JO N R R T E LT A LB R “ '-* g M«kit\»iShKnK¡wiiri»ix ©mHWMMíWRv 3RD LEVEL f OOO COURT LLOYD MALL CINEMAS WASHINGTON SQUARE I VI 111 I S ta r ts F r id a y , O c t o b e r 1
