A packed house in the Queen
Elizabeth Playhouse rose to its
feet Sunday night to join with
singers, musicians and actors in
singing the powerful
**Venceremos,’’ as Canadians
saluted the struggles of. the
Chilean people on the anniversary
of the fascist coup in Chile.

For the members of the Media
Vita Theatre Group, and for the
local singers and musicians mak-
ing up the ensemble, it was a fit-
ting tribute to the four months
they had labored in putting
together their original production,
“Stories and Songs of Chile.’’ For
the audience of 600, it was a
triumph.

Intertwining dramatic sketches
with popular Chilean songs, the
eleven actors and eleven musicians
traced some of the events leading
up to the election of the Unidad
Popular, and following its over-
throw.

Each dramatic vignete set these
momentous events in human
terms, alternately focusing on the
individual dramas of a poor work-
ing class couple (played by Helen
Dixon and Warren Ham), a
politically-committed father and
his son (played by Pedro Con-
treras and Kelly O’Hagan,) a maid
and her politically-active friend
(played by Patti Powell and Jane
Kalmakoff) and a young man and

{ihe woman he falls in love with

‘Chile solidarity —
show ‘a triumph’

(played by John Brazier and Sarah
Dixon.)

The music, by contrast, served

to be the sum of the whole, the
magnificent collective voice of the
Chilean people. Six songs, most of
them written by the artists of the
New Chilean Song Movement,
were woven into the two-hour
production. The musicians and
singers formed a_ tightly-knit
ensemble, capturing the spirit of
the music. Particularly exciting
were the solos and duets of Raul
Figueroa (a Chilean political
refugee living in Vancouver since
1976) and Charlotte Diamond (a
member of Bargain at Half the
Price.)

The first dramatic scenes,
although sometimes confusing,
served to show the uneven

~ political awareness among many

Chileans before the formation of
the Unidad Popular. John Brazier
as Mickey gave a spirited perfor-
mance of a young, rebellious con
artist who initially had only a
superficial analysis of what was
wrong in Chile. By the end of the
production, Mickey (now Juan) is
forced to seek political asylum in
Canada.

Each successive sketch
developed the theme of the
sharpening struggle ‘between the
wealthy owners and the working
poor. As a result of this struggle,
workers and their alliés begin to

Actors, singers and musicians join in singing Venceremos in the finale to Songs and Stories of Chile.

organize their efforts. In one
scene, Sylvia (played by Jane
Kalmakoff) invites her friend
Rosa the maid (played by Pattie
Powell) to a meeting of the newly-
formed UP. Rosa courageously
defies her employer’s (Michael
McGarry) threats, and goes.

By the middle of the first act,
the UP is in power. Success impels
the revolutionary movement for-
ward: there are more nationalized
factories and industries, more
social services and more control
over work places. The fight-back
by the reactionary forces steps up
and the first act concludes with
the horror of the coup, effectively
incorporating actual film footage —

of the last days of the Allende
goverment, the tape of Allende’s
last speech, slides -shown
simultaneously on two screens,
and the actors caught in a highly
dramatic tableau.

The audience was _ receptive
throughout the production, and

_ during the second act, responded:

to the message relayed from tne
stage in story and song: we have a
responsibility-to help the Chilean
working. people restore their
democratic rights. And it came
through loud and strong: boycott
Chilean goods, place pressure on
the Canadian government to
withdraw Canadian investments

- from Chile, fight for the informa-

—Fred Wilson photo

tion to the whereabouts of missing
Chilean political prisoners and do
everything possible to hasten the
downfall of the Pinochet dictator-
ship. ~.

John Brazier, Heather
Blakemore and Helen Dixon are
to be congratulated ‘in their scrip-
ting of the stories of each
character, and Maureen Peacock
for her direction.

Musical directors Neil Bryson
(who produced the show), Steve —
Gidora and arranger Paul
Figueroa must be complimented
for bringing together the talents of
a yariety of singers and musicians

so effectively.
—Janice Harris }

a =

Photographed outside Lomonosov University, Canadian delegation head Helen Webster joins some of
the other participants at the 11th Festival of International Films in Moscow. Left to r, they are: Juan An-
tonio Bardem, Spanish director; Kola Ogunbanvo, official of Nigeria's state cinema; Mohammed Sharif
Ali, Sudanese director; Webster; Afolainen Adeyemy, Nigeria; Mikhail Isakov, Kirghizia.

—Tass photo

Film review

Wit and imagination

in ‘Breaking Away

The social and economic
significance of a college education
has been slowly changing in this
country. More and more people
have spent some time in college. But
college is no longer a guarantee of
wealth or success.

The movie Breaking Away ig-

nores these recent developments,
and uses the traditional conflict bet-
ween ‘‘town and gown’”’ as its basis.
Rivalry between college students
and local youth was common place
years ago and probably still exists
where large elite universities
dominate a community.

Near the University of Indiana at
Bloomington live four friends,
David, Cyril, Mooch and Mike.
They are just out of high school,

Canadian film honored at Moscow Festival —

The recent llth International
Film Festival in Moscow. was
notable for the record number of
films submitted from all parts of the
globe, and.the high quality of the
pictures. It is a source of pride for
‘Canadians that of the four films
submitted, the full-length feature
Fish Hawk was awarded the Peace
Committee’s. prize and the short
documentary Michel Pellus took se-
cond prize in its group. Also shown
were Skip Tracer, about a credit
collector, and the humorous Track
Stars. :

The festival opened with the
showing of Viva Mexico! filmed by
Sergei Eisenstein and several other
Soviet theatrical and film directors
who had been invited to Hollywood
nearly four decades ago. ‘‘Where
do they make films here?”’ they had
asked Charlie Chaplin who met

them on arrival, and Chaplin had
replied, ‘‘Here they make money,
not films.”’

It turned out that the film moguls
of Hollywood could not (would
not) use what their Soviet guests
had to offer, so Eisenstein, along
with two colleagues went to Mexico
and filmed life and struggle in that
country. Those shots remained on
the other side of the Atlantic until
recently and then only sections were
delivered. Grigory Alexandrov, the
surviving member of the trio,
undertook to put the film together
the way Eisenstein would have done
it, and Viva Mexico! had its
premiere in Moscow after all. A
copy of the film was delivered to the
Mexican embassy as a gift to the
country it describes and glorifies.

Since film makers from 104 coun-
tries and four international bodies

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 21, 1979—Page 10

presented their films and hundreds
of cinema people, critics and jour-
nalists participated in daily discus-

sion sessions, it would be impossi- -

ble to fully report the festival, as it
was to take in all the events.

This great world movie show liv-
ed up to its slogan, ‘‘For humanism
in cinema, for peace and friendship
among nations.’’ It was heartwarm-
ing to see the developing countries
come up with fine, in some cases ex-
cellent productions.

To mention but one, not because
it was the best but because it was
typical of the social content and ar-
tistry, there was Nigeria’s Fight for
Freedom. it told of the local chiefs
who were for all the world like
feudal barons, and how the people
resisted their tyrannies. This was
the first time a product of the young
Nigerian film industry was shown
beyond the borders of the country,
and the applause it received showed

it was appreciated.

. Canadian entry Fish Hawk was
good medicine for this Canadian
who has too often complained
about our country’s curious hesita-
tion to exhibit our works abroad.
Fish Hawk is an Indian, the only
one of his people left in that part of

Canada (judging by the beautiful

shots of the scenery the place is nor-
thern Ontario) — ‘‘Tom Thomson
country,’’ a fellow-Canadian beside
me whispered. Fish Hawk makes
friends with a young lad, bears with
dignity the indignities to which he is
subjected by some, finally says
good-bye to his friends and the
graves of his family and walks away
into the woods.

Fish Hawk does not fight direct-
ly, but he upholds the beauty and
justice of the Native people. He
stands out as a real man.

— John Weir

BREAKING AWAY. Starring Dent
Christopher, Jackie Earle Haley, Denn
Quaid and Daniel Stern. Produced a
directed by Peter Yates. At 108
“theatres.

-and for different, mostly vast’
reasons, aren’t going on to colleg®
They are likeable, even endearifé
characters. Each is rebelling in
own individual way against th
future of boredom and wasted ©
fort he sees- before him. Mit
responds. with anger, Cyril a
scathing wit, but David’s rev)
assumes the most flamboyant fom
the hilarious fantasy that he 1S
Italian bicycle racer.

The villains in the film are
college students. They are Lie
trayed as rich and snotty. as
name for the ‘‘townies  ¥
“cutters.”? The chief industry —
southern Indiana used to be qua
ing. The use of ‘‘cutters,”’ short 0
stonecutters, as a term of contem™
is a good example of ruling © :
scorn for working people. ual
tunately, false and viclo”
“theories”? of working class af
feriority are an important pat it
academic teachings, and it
adopted by many students oF ¥
ing backgrounds. a
Although the social situation;
portrays are somewhat daté
- Breaking Away jis a first 1"
comedy. The final climatic conftt \
tation between the privilege iad
legians and the underdog locals id
bicycle race is exciting “of
suspenseful. Sometimes passage ith
slapstick clash uncomfortably "ie
the film’s realistic style. But f% 9
most part this is a movie of Ci
and intelligence, graced by W
and imaginative whimsy. itt
— Marian Ir :