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Gay film festival grows in popularity
BY ALEXANDRIA SHEALY
STAFF WRITER
The Carolina Theatre, located
at 309 W. Morgan St. in down
town Durham, is traditionally
more famous for its live events
but it’s quickly making a national
name for itself when it comes to
film festivals.
The North Carolina Gay and
Lesbian Film Festival will take
place at the theater from Aug. 10
to Aug. 13.
The festival is the second largest
of its kind in the Southeast and will
feature 60 short and feature-length
films from around the world.
When the festival first took place
at the theater in 1996, it sold around
800 tickets. Now, 10 years later,
the festival has become so popular
attracting 10,000 patrons last
COLUMN
FROM PAGE 1
or “Doom.”
Granted, as eerie and sloppy as
it is, Venable has generally treated
its inhabitants well even as it plays
the occasional mind game. But it
is decaying, and in a few short
weeks there will be a mass exodus
of scientists from the building,
like ants deploying from an old
hill.
As we bid farewell, let’s look
back at a few of the things that
make Venable the building we all
know we love and love to hate.
There’s an ancient elevator near
my lab for cart loads and gas-tank
exchanges. You must close —and
sometimes hold closed the
porous gate that is the door. In the
elevator, you can see the stratified
guts of the building as you descend
into the basement.
That basement is by far the
creepiest part of the building, con
taining a large, open area of fenced
in spaces called “the cage.” It har
bors old instruments, equipment,
RAT
FROM PAGE 1
ing came as a pleasant surprise,
adding that his wife exclaimed “hot
dog!” when she heard the news.
Henry, who purchased the res
taurant in 2000 along with three
business partners eventually
buying them out said he hopes
other Chapel Hill residents share
Riddle’s sentiments.
He also said he expects a
“wonderful football schedule”
to contribute to a successful fall
season for the restaurant.
Still, he said, he will be looking in
the near future for a younger man
ager to take over the business for
him, as he has other projects”that
he has held back since he pur
chased the restaurant.
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year that it has snagged famous
bisexual comedian Margaret Cho
as its opening act.
Gay actor and singer Tab Hunter
will also appear to host a screening
of his movie “Lust in the Dust.”
“The idea of Margaret Cho com
ing to the festival was unheard of
five years ago,” said Jim Carl, senior
director of the theater. “But as the
festival grows locally and nation
ally, we found out that Margaret
had actually heard of the festival
before and that Tab was actually
planning to attend on his own
he contacted us and asked what he
could do.”
The festival’s films range any
where from four to 99 minutes
in length, some with strikingly
bizarre titles such as “Lesbian
Grandmothers from Mars,”
samples, maps and computers,
piled and organized like an antique
garage-sale for scientists.
The ceilings are low, you must
wiggle your way around pipes and
vents, and— just as in the rest of
the building the few lights still
working flicker like strobe lights.
And God forbid some loud system
starts up while you’re down there.
When I’m there, I’m always
watching the cage door, always
making sure some crazed scientist
doesn’t dash in, close the door,
lock me in and feed me fish heads
for the rest of my existence.
Despite features such as these,
there was one occasion when I
spent the night in Venable. My
roommate, drunk in Greensboro,
couldn’t get back to Chapel Hill
to let me into our new apartment.
So I figured I’d knock out some
samples through the night and
into the early morning.
The night was like an eight
hour, paranoid drug trip with
out the drugs. I left the cozy con
fines of my lab only when I had
to. Exchanging a gas tank nearly
“I’m ready to move on, but it
has to be the person that has the
same ideological outlook on the
place (as me),” he said. “As every
thing changes on Franklin Street,
I want the Rat to be as close to the
old days as possible.”
He said he plans to rehire all of
the old wait staff and will hire a few
“fun-type” college students to add
to the Rat’s laid-back atmosphere.
Riddle said the Rat holds a spe
cial place in UNC alumni’s hearts.
“It’s just vintage Chapel Hill,” he
said. “There’s just so many genera
tions of students that have used that
to have long conversations over their
great tea. A lot of philosophy went
across those tables. A lot of politics.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
“Fraternity Massacre at Hell
Island” and “The Young, the Gay
and the Restless.”
“We only screen films that do
not yet have a North Carolina
distribution,” said Elisabeth
Branigan, the theater’s market
ing manager.
“The films are quite different
many of them deal with fami
lies, the young and the old, women
and men. There’s something for
everyone.”
This year, in addition to its tradi
tional repertoire of gay and lesbian
issues, the festival will feature films
dealing with families and transgen
dered individuals.
“The festival draws all kinds of
people,” Branigan said. “Not just
gays and lesbians it’s a mixed bag
because the films are so different.”
sent me into cardiac arrest.
When the sun started ris
ing, I finally escaped north to
Breadmen’s, where a couple of
nurses were throwing back beers
after the last shift of the night.
Picking away at my breakfast,
I really felt as though I had just
been in a living building —one
that soon will be no more.
So, Venable, here’s to you.
Something much, much better will
be built in your place —but we will
gather and remember you.
The building of so much charac
ter. The Minotaur’s lair. The build
ing so many people loved or at
the veiy least, loved to hate.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
VENABLE
FROM PAGE 1
all the science equipment to be
moved out of the building and to
properly contain hazardous mate
rials, such as asbestos.
In the meantime, the new
Phillips Hall annex will be open
for lectures and labs in September,
ensuring that science majors will
not be displaced.
While some students and facul
ty might feel a sense of loss at the
destruction of Venable, others are
indifferent to the changes.
“Some people have invested feel
ings about Venable I don’t really
go either way,” said Laura Lapham,
a doctoral student who works in
the building.
Forbis disagreed.
“I believe there is a feeling of
loss of history for UNC and for the
chemistry department,” he said.
“We regret that Venable has to be
demolished, but the need for 21st
century facilities overrides that.”
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
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News
Because of the success of events
like the film festival and the Full
Frame Documentary Festival in
the spring, the Carolina Theatre
has been able to shift some of
its focus away from live-action
events.
“The films playing in the Gay
and Lesbian Festival are both big
and low-budget,” Carl said.
“They’re also really no different
in storyline than what is playing at
the multiplex this summer it just
so happens that the characters are
gays and lesbians,” he said.
“If you enjoy those types of films
and understand that the characters
just happen to be gay, then you’re
absolutely going to have a blast.”
Contact theA&EEditor
at artsdesk@unc.edu.
CRISIS
FROM PAGE 1
buses which tourists are urged not
to use out of concerns for safety.
lan Lye, a 27-year-old Carolina
student from Singapore, is an
intern at The Daily Star newspaper
in Beirut where reporters have
been warned to avoid the southern
parts of the city.
He is also a Singaporean citizen,
making it a bit more difficult for
him to leave the country than it
would be if he were American.
“We hear bombs exploding and
Israeli jets sporadically throughout
the day and night,” Lye wrote in an
e-mail. “At first it was frightening,
but now I’ve gotten used to it.”
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
LEGISLATURE
FROM PAGE 1
of mayor.
Another allows Chapel Hill to
put payments from developers
toward the local transit system
instead of infrastructure, where
they usually go —a surprising
development, Kinnaird said.
“Usually, our local bills have a
hard time getting through,” she
said. “This time this one didn’t,
which is amazing.”
Both bills were co-sponsored
by House Majority Leader Joe
Hackney, D-Orange, and Rep.
Verla Insko, D-Orange.
The relative death of local bills
doesn’t mean county legislators
weren’t busy this summer.
Hackney continues to push
through a series of legislative
reform bills ranging from purify
ing campaign finance to cleansing
lobbying techniques.
“That’s taken up more of my
time than anything else,” he said.
He also is working toward passing
THURSDAY, JULY 20, 200 6
Troupe travels far
to perform the Bard
BY KYLE FRIED
STAFF WRITER
William Shakespeare, who once
wrote that “misery acquaints a
man with strange bedfellows,”
knew a thing or two about unique
friendships.
And 400 years after the Bard put
down his quill, a group of students is
living out such camaraderie —with
Shakespeare’s plays at the center of
their summers.
Single Shot Theatre Company
was founded by producer Jonah
Garson, a UNC sophomore,
and director Lucius Robinson,
a Georgetown sophomore
and National Foundation for
Advancement in the Arts award
winner who has 11 Shakespeare
productions under his belt.
Although Garson and Robinson
went to different high schools, both
grew up with a strong appreciation
for Shakespearean theater.
They met for the first time when
Garson produced and scored a high
school play Robinson was directing.
From there they invited various
friends to form a young, minimalist
theater company Single Shot.
When high school ended, the
company was faced with the prob
lem of college applications. Everyone
went their own way, some going as
far as Oregon and Michigan.
But a dedication to the company
leads to the group reuniting every
summer to further an impressive
tradition.
“I spend my whole year at col
lege dreaming about working with
Single Shot during the summer,”
Robinson said. “I love the people I
changes to DWI enforcement that
would, among other things, regulate
the transportation of kegs.
As chairwoman of the justice
and public safety budget com
mittee, Kinnaird worked to add
funding to court systems across
the state.
“We have had an excellent
budget for the court system, giv
ing them adequate resources and
technology to fill in all of the
severe cuts that have been made,”
Kinnaird said.
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work with and the Shakespearean
works we do.”
“Cymbeline,” which premiered
Wednesday, is the group’s latest
production. One of Shakespeare’s
romantic masterpieces, it is also
one of his most difficult to execute,
requiring diverse scenery and a
large cast.
The Single Shot production has
23 cast and crew members. Eight are
UNC students, including junior Ryan
Millager, who plays the male lead,
Posthumus.
In order to compensate for the
performance’s lofty requirements,
Single Shot rented out Chatham
Mills, an old textile factory in
Pittsboro that is being redeveloped
for commercial retail use.
“We are in a really interesting
place in the way that we are using
community resources,” Garson said.
“Chatham Marketplace is even
donating food for a production
it would never be possible without
the community helping us.”
The company has turned the
space into five separate rooms,
each one set up as a stage for the
performance.
“We physically move the audi
ence from room to room with us,”
Robinson said. “Some places they’ll
be sitting, some places they’ll be
standing.”
“Cymbeline” will run through
Saturday. Performances of “Julius
Caesar” the company’s other
summer production will pre
miere at Forest Theatre on Aug. 3.
Contact the A&E Editor
at artsdesk@unc.edu.
“We greatly increased the num
ber of judges, assistant district
attorneys, clerks and magistrates.”
Seventeen district court judges
and 90 new assistant district attor
neys were added to the state, as
they were included in the pages of
the final budget.
All in all, Hackney said, he was
proud of what had been accom
plished during the short session.
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
5