Arts/Review New Canadian film probes role of Salvadoran women EVA: Guerrillera. Directed by Jacqueline Levitin. With Angela Roa and Carmen Fer- land. At the Vancouver East Cinema, March 10-12. We all know that women are leaders of, and fighters in, national liberation move- ments around the world. But how does an anti-imperialist struggle benefit women spe- cifically? And what happens to women after the revolutionary war is won? A new film by Montreal based director Jacqueline Levitin doesn’t provide all the answers, but it does a good job exploring the questions. Eva: Guerrillera is a low-budget, some- what amateurish dramatization of a wom- an’s contribution to the effort waged by the Faribundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) to end U.S. backed rule in EI Salvador. Its cinematic shortcomings are more than compensated for by an intelli- gent script that supports the liberation fight while not shirking from: addressing the problems of how macho attitudes must be countered even among revolutionaries. Eva (Angela Roa, a Chile-born Montreal singer) is a young but already battle scarred veteran of the fight who takes the FMLN’s message to Canadian audiences. There she meets Louise (Carmen Ferland), a maga- zine reporter who through a series of inter- views begins to lose that’ much-vaunted journalistic objectivity to identify strongly with Eva’s cause. Part of the reason probably has to do with North Americans’ amazement and respect for the sacrifices of Third World activists. Through ‘a series of flashbacks (shot-in Nicaragua, which may be a cine- matic first for Canada), Eva’s life is por- trayed. We learn that she left a comfortable middle class life to join the FMLN at age 18, lost two lovers (one to alienation because he could not accept Eva’s decision to have an abortion, the other in a fight with govern- — ment troops), was captured ‘and tortured, and finally had to shoot a soldier during a clandestine raid on an army facility.. ‘The other part is more personal. Both Louise and Eva are childless as a result of their work, although in vastly different cir- cumstances: Louise because of the difficul- ties of balancing a career with a family; Eva because the responsibility of raising a child would hinder her political work. The impli- cation here is that both women would be forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden of child rearing. Louise in fact is risking a break-up with her lover because of her devotion to her job, which intensifies after she meets Eva. Eva has faced her own pressures: a lover, Ramon, who blames her when she -gets pregnant; a rejected suitor who accuses her of being “‘a bourgeois” because he is a pea- sant. Eva also receives food for thought from Louise, who relates the story of a woman Bulgaria may conjure up several images in people’s minds — including a blank, since relatively little is known of this Balkan socialist republic. But lately the haunting music of Bulgarian choirs 1s becoming renowned, and now, to add to that list, we have animation. Animation? Yes, Bulgarian cartoon- ists. have been producing innovative moving images for several decades. On Thursday, March 9, Vancouver’s Pacific Cinematheque presents the result of 25 years of that effort in Bulgarian Anima- tion, a 90-minute feature running at 7:30 p-m. and 9:30 p.m. Pacific Cinematheque, a membership organization (a higher admission is usu- ally charged non-members) is located at 1131 Howe St. in Vancouver. * * * This 1987 film was nominated for act- ing awards and received accolades, including from the left-wing press, for its sensitive portrayal of a real-life teacher’s successful attempts to instill a desire for education at the impoverished Garfield high school in Los Angeles. Actor James Olmos plays Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver, the story of how disadvan- tage Hispanic teenagers (Lou Diamond Phillips of La Bamba fame also stars) triumphed at state math exams, in a presentation on-KCTS (Channel 9 in most regions of B.C.) March 15, 8 p.m. The movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes.and is closed-captioned for the hearing impaired. a ee B.C.’s Knowledge Network (Channel 5) features the four-part series, Apartheid, which examines the origins of South Africa’s system of legislated racism. The first part, “Origins”, airs Thursday, March 16, 9 p.m. and again on Monday, March 20, 10 p.m. The second part of the series, “A New Order”, runs Thursday, Bulgarian animation shown March 23, 9 p.m. and Monday, March 27, 10 p.m. Knowledge Network also presents Climate Change: The Greenhouse Effect on Thursday, March 23, 7 p.m. and Sat- . urday, March 25, 8 p.m. South Africa is also the focus of a couple of upcoming films at the Van- couver East Cinema. One, Saturday Night at the Palace, shows a black waiter facing two white tormentors, and runs March 17-19, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. Next is A World Apart, a drama based on the activ- ities of real-life anti-apartheid activist and Communist Ruth First, written and directed by her daughter, Shawn Slovo. It runs March 22-23, 9:15 p.m. a oes Fie Venerated and innovative folk per- former Dave Van Ronk will perform at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre on ‘Wednesday, March 22, 8 p.m. The con- cert, sponsored by the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, charges $10 admission. Phone 254-9578. 10 « Pacific Tribune, March 6, 1989 Eva (Angela Roa) undergoes interrogation at the hands of the military in Eva: Guerrillera. 2 she had interviewed while covering the .Zimbabwe liberation war. That woman found only partial satisfaction in the vic- tory, Louise notes in asking Eva: “Have you thought about what happens to women after the revolution?” Yet it appears that Eva, coming from a culture where machismo supposedly reigns, is making more headway. The relations between the sexes are depicted as serious business with the FMLN, through a discus- sion among liberation fighters and some peasant supporters. The peasants are asked to comment-on a dispute between’ sub- commander Sylvia and her lover Manuel, over which one should devote the most time to raising their new child when both are so busy. (Surprisingly, a number of men agree that the responsibility should be shared equally.) ee In another scene, Eva convinces several peasant men to bring their wives to the next meeting. One later confesses that during a period when his wife had to be away from the household, he washed clothes and “even prepared tortillas.” ; While it’s the central theme, Eva: Guerril- lera doesn’t limit itself to addressing women’s specific struggle. The film also touches, perhaps too briefly, on the earlier problems of unity among El Salvador’s.five liberation groups. Eva says she vowed to work for that unity after several friends per- ished in the prison from which she was released due to a high-profile campaign by her organization. The film also examines the frustrations of activists working abroad. Eva finds that _ after a while she is mouthing cliches to Montreal audiences, and requests and is granted permission. to return to active struggle, and an uncertain fate, in El Salva- dor. : Eva: Guerrillera suffers the problems associated with’ low-budget productions, including scenes that fall short of their dra- matic potential and amateur acting. On the other hand, it has a documentary feel that is in keeping with the realistic nature of the story. Director Levitin (who will be present during at least the first screening for ques- tions) interviewed,several women who were veterans of Nicaragua’s liberation battles before creating the character of Eva. That makes watching her film a rewarding expe- rience, particularly with the emotional payoff in the later scenes. ake kee ok Running with Eva: Guerrillera (7 p.m., March 10-12) is Argentinean film maker Alejandro Agresti’s acclaimed Love is a Fat Woman (9:30 p.m.). This film deals with a journalist whose lover has disappeared after he has attempted to expose the dealings of a Hollywood film project in Argentina during the days of military rule: Separate admis- sion is-required for each film. — Dan Keeton Hoofers’ tale entertaining but culture unmentioned TAP. Starring Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis, Jr. Suzzanne Douglas. Written and directed by Nick Castle. At local theatres. If Tap did nothing more than reunite some of the world’s greatest tap dancers ina feature-length movie it would be a laudable venture. But it’s also a good story. We are treated to the superb dancing of Gregory Hines as an ex-con/ex-hoofer faced with the heavy decision of which way to go — not so much a moral decision as a life-saving one. With nice understatement, the movie opens with Hines, as Max, in a prison cell, working off. his rage and frustration in dancing — ona small, makeshift board. He’s a cat burglar who has the option to go back to that line of work for his old gang. But there is another gang — seasoned tap- dancers who hang out at “Sonny’s Side of the Street,” who urge young Max to carry on the art of “Sonny,” his late father. Sonny’s is an ancient building housing dance classes taught by the stunning Suz- zanne Douglas, anda sort of club for retired tap-dancers. Her young son (Savion Glover) minds the phone and is no mean dancer himself. Sammy Davis, Jr., is hardly recognizable, so un-hammy is he as Max’s aged mentor. He convinces Max that the coming thing is augmented sound on taps, a device pushed by an audio engineer who works at a Times Square rock/jazz club. Times Square is where it’s at all though the film. Despite the clubby presence of the tap-dancing masters — Nicholas, Sims,. Slyde, Briggs, Condo and Duncan — there is no feel for the African-American com- munity, no mention of place. Is Sonny’s in Harlem, or what? I don’t know why Sandman Sims had to be cast as an old grump, and why it was necessary to stage an Astaire-Rogers number with Hines and Douglas, when there’s so much to say through old- fashioned tap. Fortunately, we get a few shorts of fabulous dancing, including those great splits by Harold Nicholas. One does get a feeling of what tap- dancing is all about, why it’s tied to jazzand is a uniquely African-American art form that will survive. — Pele Delappe People’s Daily World