Free theater is one of the many perks of a being a Columbia student. Camino Real is an opportunity to see the work of young professionals that should not be missed. The final two performances are today at 2pm and 8pm at the Riverside Theater on Claremont and 120th St.

As Janis Joplin puts it:"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose." And without a doubt there's a bit of "Me and Bobby McGee" in Tennessee William's Camino Real, now being performed at the Riverside Theater Columbia. But instead of wailing out the blues of a broken heart, Williams casts the Camino Real's wayward denizens in a shroud of obscurity. Tony Speciale's direction, however, gives Williams' elliptical script an innovative, new spirit.

The performance capitalizes on the surreal setting of the original script — a ghost town somewhere south of the border, haunted by the bygone dreams and achievements of its residents. Even though the Camino fosters its inhabitants illicit cravings, a desire to escape binds them all. The stage, imaginatively designed by Russell M. Schram, divides between the Siete Mares, a seedy resort, and the Ritz Men Only, a flophouse that seems more appropriate for Amsterdam's Red Light district than the work of a Southern Gothic.

Esteemed School of the Arts professor James Schamus received the Venice Film Festival top award, the Golden Lion, for Lust, Caution. The duo saw previous accolades with Brokeback Mountain, which also won the Golden Lion. Directed by Ang Lee and produced and co-written by Schamus, Lust, Caution piggybacks on Brokeback Mountain's sexual frankness, garnering the film a NC-17 rating.

It sees the U.S. release on September 28th, 2007, just two more weeks to go!

Herein dumpeth Bwog various unrelated chunks of news, information, and gossip...

SoA Films Score Big

Three films produced by School of the Arts alums have received major accolades. At the Sundance Film Festival, Padre Nuestro, written and directed by Christopher Zalla and produced by Ben Odell (both SoA '04) took the Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic film, while Grace is Gone, written and directed by current MFA writing candidate James C. Strouse (who also won the Walter Salt Award for best screenplay) and co-produced by Jessica Levin (SoA '02), won an Audience Award for favorite dramatic film. In Hollywood, meanwhile, Little Miss Sunshine, produced by Albert Berger (SoA '83) has received four Oscar nominations, incuding one for best picture.

SoA isn't the only Columbia school celebrating filmic success, however. The Audience Award for favorite documentary at Sundance went to Hear and Now, directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky (J-School '97), and (update!) Rosie Bsheer, a PhD student in the History Department, worked as an assistant producer for My Country, My Country, nominated for an Oscar for best documentary.

The university homepage is only too happy to gloat, not to mention provide a teleological narrative of the SoA film division's rise to greatness. Bask in vicarious afterglow here.

Opine!

Spec's editorial page wants to get the word out - it's looking for 200-300 word reactions to Saifedean Ammous' Jan. 26 piece "Recognizing Palestine's Struggle". The short articles should not be point by point refutations but address generally some of the issues with which Ammous' piece is concerned, e.g. the direction of the anti-war movement or Israel's human rights record. The articles will run on Monday as part the first of many "Spec Symposia," a series of 4-7 short takes on a single issue. Submissions are due to specopinion [at] columbia.edu by Friday at 6PM; anyone remotely connected to Columbia or Middle East studies is ecouraged to contribute.

More minutiae after the jump...