Page 8 The Skanner March 30, 2016
Arts & Entertainment
Justin Hires:
The “Rush Hour” Interview
Kam
Wil-
liams: Hi Justin,
thanks for the
interview.
Justin Hires:
Thanks for hav-
ing me, Kam.
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
J
ustin Hires is a very talented ac-
tor, comedian, storyteller, dancer,
video jockey and writer who will
next be seen playing Detective
Carter in the CBS-TV action-comedy
series “Rush Hour,” based on the bud-
dy films co-starring Chris Tucker and
Jackie Chan. The versatile entertainer
has been an ensemble cast member
on the sketch comedy series “Key &
Peele,” and he’s also appeared in the
box-office hit 21 Jump Street alongside
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum,
Justin was born in St. Petersburg,
Florida where he was raised by a cou-
ple of very supportive parents. Even
as a young child, he exhibited a knack
for making others laugh.
While attending Clark Atlanta Uni-
versity, Justin was cast in two feature
films: Stomp the Yard and The Gospel.
He was subsequently hired by MTV as
a VJ on their college network, mtvU.
Justin moved to Hollywood after
receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree
in Mass Media- Radio, TV, and Film.
In L.A., he started doing stand-up in
comedy clubs, and began landing a
variety of television and film roles,
while accumulating over 13 million
views of his personal sketches online.
Here, the rising young star talks
about “Rush Hour” which is set to pre-
miere on CBS at 10 p.m. ET/PT Thursday.
KW: I told my
readers I’d be
interviewing
you, so I’ll be
Justin Hires
mixing their ques-
tions in with mine.
JH: Sounds exciting…
KW: Congratulations on landing the
lead in “Rush Hour.” Were you a fan of
the film franchise?
JH: Absolutely! I grew up watching
and studying those films. I’ve always
been a huge fan of martial arts and
comedy, so “Rush Hour” was the per-
fect combination for me.
KW: The trailer looks a lot like the
first movie. How will the show be sim-
ilar and how will it be different?
JH: The pilot episode is a reboot of
the original “Rush Hour.” So, there are
some similarities there. However, all
the episodes after that, 13 episodes in
total, tell completely new and exciting
stories that are not connected with
the “Rush Hour” films, at all.
See HIRES on page 11
“The wake of vanport”
The Vanport multi-media project
Digital narratives and storytelling from flood survivors and residents of Vanport
g
screenin 16
r
e
h
t
o
n
A
Fall 20
coming
UT
O
D
L
Sunday April 3, 2016
O
S
1:30pm - 4pm
Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97205
Free to the public. Limited seating. Reservations required.
Register online at Eventbrite:
http://thewakeofvanport-2016.eventbrite.com
“The Wake of Vanport” is so named
to honor the death of a city and the
viewing of its history through the
collection of Vanport stories told
by the voices of those who lived
there. It is also a celebration of life
after loss. Vanport is a lost city of
Oregon with a rich history for all
Oregonians.
Join us for this screening of
multimedia
works
produced
during the Vanport Multimedia
Project dedicated to collecting
and preserving Vanport survivors’
stories. Community members,
local historians, artists, media
makers and educators collaborated
to turn oral history interviews into
short and powerful pieces of digital
audio and visual narrative.
SPONSORED BY:
FILM REVIEW:
‘The Wake of Vanport’ Revisits 1948
Flood That Wiped Out a City
Heartfelt documentary lets survivors of the
Northwest disaster tell their stories
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
V
anport, Ore., was established
in 1942 on lowlands located
between Portland and the Co-
lumbia River. At its height, the
hastily-constructed public housing
project had about 40,000 inhabitants,
most of whom were hired by the mil-
itary to work in shipyards in nearby
Portland and Vancouver.
“
disaster, as well as the wistful remem-
brances of a number of survivors.
Belva Jean Griffin, who was 21 at the
time, recounts how her parents had
received unreliable assurances that
the dams would hold. Consequently,
she lost everything she owned except
an album of family photos.
Regina Flowers, reminisces about
how there was no racial strife among
the kids in Vanport when she was
growing up, although there was some
among
the
adults.
Paula
Hartman
re-
calls that only
whites received
advance
no-
tice about the impending deluge in a
handbill that read:
“Remember: Dikes are safe at present.
You will be warned, if necessary.
You will have time to leave.
Don’t get excited.”
Lily Raxter recollects watching a
Black lady with a couple of huge suit-
cases being swept away by the all-con-
suming current. And Marge White
talks about immediately falling in
love with Vanport upon arriving
from Tallulah, Louisiana in the fall
of ‘44. Together, this touching collec-
tion of truly heartfelt remembrances
paint a poignant portrait of a short-
lived, idyllic oasis.
Excellent HHHH
Unrated
Running time: 53 minutes
Distributor: The Skanner Foundation
To watch “The Wake of Vanport,” go
to TheSkanner.com.
Regina Flowers reminisces
about how there was no racial
strife among the kids in Vanport
After the war ended, it proved to
be an attractive destination for Afri-
can-Americans families who appreci-
ated that the town was integrated and
that it offered a higher quality of life
than what they’d experienced in plac-
es like Arkansas, Oklahoma and Lou-
isiana. A big negative, however, was
the series of sluices slicing through
the city serving as an ever-present re-
minder of the precarious nature of its
existence
For, there was always the possibil-
ity that a dike might give out, a fear
that turned into a frightening reality
at 4:05 pm on Sunday, May 30, 1948.
Heavy snows followed by an unusual-
ly warm spring combined to flood the
town by nightfall, claiming 15 lives
while leaving the rest of its citizens
homeless.
“The Wake of Vanport” is a very
moving documentary featuring archi-
val photographs of the Memorial Day