01/13/05

LC050113

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

It's a cartoon character with a serious message, but is this the
best way to spread the word?

Karen Mall>> You can have a really serious campaign or you can
have a really silly campaign or you can have a moderate
campaign, but if it doesn't get at your target population, who
cares?

Val>> And then, will you be in good company this weekend at
your local theatre? We'll hear a chorus of opinions from our
FilmWeek critics.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> It's a controversial ad about an important subject:
venereal disease. But some TV stations say it's inappropriate
for broadcast. Are they blocking an important health message or
using good taste? Toni Guinyard takes a look at this
advertisement that features an animated syphilis sore. A word
of warning: some people may find it offensive.

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> It's a commercial that may never be seen by its
intended audience. The star of the thirty-second spot is a
bright fire engine red colored comic-like character named Phil.
At first glance, Phil may appear downright funny, but the
subject this character represents is nothing to laugh at. Phil
is part of a public awareness campaign. He is the latest weapon
in the war against the sexually-transmitted disease: syphilis.

[Film Clip]

Dr. Jonathan Fielding>> We have to find new approaches. We
have to try different ways to reach people in ways that they're
willing to accept it. If you simply say this is scary, don't
have sex, for example, we know that that line of communication
is unlikely to be effective.

Toni Guinyard>> Phil is the centerpiece of a new approach being
tried by county health officials. He is the brainchild of the
San Francisco-based Better World Advertising Group developed
with input from a coalition of community healthcare advocates.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding>> The message of the ads are what are the
key symptoms of syphilis? What are some of the consequences?
The fact that this is a curable disease, that you need to be
tested, that is easily treatable and that you may not know if
you have it. To me, those are really important messages.

Toni Guinyard>> The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is the lead
organization for the campaign. Karen Mall is Director of
Prevention and Testing.

Karen Mall>> The campaign came about really to address a
serious syphilis problem among gay and bisexual men in Los
Angeles.

Toni Guinyard>> Health officials say the numbers tell the
story. Dr. Jonathan Fielding is the Director of Public Health
for Los Angeles County where the number of syphilis cases among
gay men jumped dramatically just a few years ago.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding>> There has been, since the year 2000, a
very large increase in the frequency of syphilis infections
particularly among gay men. This increased three to four-fold
starting in early 2000 and peaking in 2003.

Toni Guinyard>> One evaluation showed men exposed to the ads
were three times more likely to be tested for syphilis. The
Stop the Sores campaign featuring Phil is being credited in part
with the decline.

Karen Mall>> The big thing is that we've seen a thirty-one
percent drop in the syphilis rates among this population here in
Los Angeles County and that's huge.

Toni Guinyard>> A campaign complete with comic books, t-shirts,
foam rubber figures and even a person wearing a Phil costume for
public appearances. It's a far cry from the anti-syphilis
campaigns of decades ago in which a gas mask-clad person
declared syphilis the enemy and the public was warned that
seventy percent were doomed if treatment was delayed.

Karen Mall>> We took a more lighthearted approach with this
campaign because this is a community that's bombarded with some
very serious issues: HIV. So how could we compete with that?

Toni Guinyard>> The character was first introduced to the
public in 2002 in a print ad campaign. His image appeared on
billboards everywhere forcing us to confront an issue most
people would rather not talk about. Well, they're talking now.
When the coalition of healthcare groups tried to buy airtime on
Los Angeles television stations to run the commercial --

Karen Mall>> Two of the stations said no and gave no
alternative, basically that we needed a more conservative spot
to get on the air. The other stations basically gave us spots
that would be at times where we did not feel like that would
reach the target audience we needed to reach.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding>> My hope is that this is not a fallout
of the FCC's greater attention to these issues after this Janet
Jackson fiasco because it's critical that we get public health
messages to those who really need to get them, and the mass
media television is a very effective way to reach this audience.

Toni Guinyard>> Francisco Baquedano is part of that target
audience. He is also an HIV counselor who believes the use of
humor works.

Francisco Baquedano>> The cartoons are very important for the
community because the information is clear, it's specific.

Melissa Havard>> For people with higher education, for people
who may not necessarily be at risk, it's funny. It's just a
reaction that you can remember, and if it is that one component
that works, great. But I would recommend also that they would
use different approaches to reach the at-risk population.

Toni Guinyard>> Concerns about how information on sexually-
transmitted diseases is presented to the public by way of the
media is not limited to the message being sent to the gay
community. Melissa Havard is most concerned about the message
being delivered to young people by way of TV. As Director of
the Media Project, she has a unique perspective on the
challenges of presenting accurate and appropriate information to
youth on sex-related health issues.

Melissa Havard>> The Media Project's role is to provide the
entertainment industry with accurate information about
adolescent sexual health and trends. Most of what we find with
the writers we work with is that they truly care. They want a
good quality show and, when they're dealing with sensitive
issues around youth, many of them are parents or big brothers or
big sisters and they care.

Toni Guinyard>> The Media Project's office is lined with
shelves of videotape recordings of television shows that weave
sex-related issues into story lines, a subject Havard admits
that some parents don't want their children exposed to.

Melissa Havard>> For the parents who say my child is not doing
it and that these shows should not be talking about sex, they
have the opportunity to change the channel. But the reality is
that kids are doing it, that kids are sexually active, that one
in five kids knows somebody with a sexually-transmitted disease
and, of kids who are sexually active, one in three has a
sexually-transmitted disease.

Toni Guinyard>> No matter your age or sexual orientation, the
messages about sexually-transmitted diseases are being presented
in a variety of ways and places. Money made from the sale of
donated items at the Out of the Closet chain of thrift shops
operated by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation helps fund some of
the advocacy work.

Tanya Patterson>> We use the donations we get here and all of
the monies that come in from that to fund what we do with our
healthcare and our prevention plan.

Toni Guinyard>> A plan that includes free HIV testing at the
thrift store seven days a week and, on this day at the center of
it all, Phil.

Tanya Patterson>> (Laughter) You either love him or hate him.

Toni Guinyard>> Reminding the public of a somewhat comical yet
extremely serious public awareness campaign. I'm Toni Guinyard
for Life and Times.

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Val>> This next story is about a computer program that could
make a major impact on a big social challenge. The challenge is
illiteracy and, as you know, Southern California is home to a
huge number of immigrants, many of whom can't read or write in
their own language, much less English. So how do you make them
literate? Get ready to be impressed.

It's a street-front community center in the heavily Latino
neighborhood of Pico Union just west of downtown and every
evening, Monday through Friday, something remarkable happens
here. These adults from Mexico and Central America have never
been to school, but they're determined to read and write and
they'll do it in record time.

[Film Clip]

Val>> The key? A computer program developed by the Centro
Latino de Educacion Popular, or Latino Education Center. The
computer program is called LEAMOS, or Let's Read, and in forty-
three lessons, a student can be reading at fourth grade level
and it can be done in as little as one hundred hours. Melanie
Stephens is Executive Director of the center. She says, for
many of the students, even Spanish is their second language and
English classes are way too difficult.

Melanie Stephens>> Especially for them from Guatemala, even
from some of the rural areas in Mexico whose first language is
an indigenous language.

Val>> Santos Cua is a perfect example. He grew up speaking his
native Guatemalan tongue, Guiche. His parents couldn't afford
books for school. Today he works in a jewelry store warehouse
downtown.

Santos Cua>> The truth is, if you can't read or write, you can't
find work. People who have studied take advantage of us. They
pay us very little.

Val>> But how does a student who doesn't read or write in
Spanish or English learn to use a computer? The answer? Very
quickly.

Marcos Cajina>> In a matter of fifteen minutes, they were able
to get on the computer, type in their user name and begin the
program. Because the program is designed for them not to be
involved with the keyboard and only learn to use the mouse, the
time that they take to learn this is very short, they are able
to achieve their goals which is to learn to read and write.

Val>> Marcos Cajina is the principal developer of the program.
It was based on the center's fourteen years of teaching
experience.

Marcos Cajina>> The very first lesson begins with educacion,
which is education, and education happens to have the five
vowels in it. Gradually they begin to build up from lesson to
the next the entire alphabet and learn to read and write at a
fourth grade reading level.

Val>> Rosa Gomez is from Mexico. She came from a family of ten
where the father drank and didn't earn much. She recently
applied for a job caring for the elderly, but was rejected.

Rosa Gomez>> They needed me to be able to read the labels in
order to dispense drugs or give messages, that kind of thing,
and that's what motivated me to come and study because this is
the only way to find a job.

Santos Cua>> I work downtown at a jewelry store and warehouse.
I'm not able to read and write, but thank God, He's given me
intelligence. I'm able to speak. I can work in warehouses, any
type of place, clothing and jewelry stores, appliance stores,
anything.

Melanie Stephens>> And the students are incredibly frustrated
because they get lost constantly in Los Angeles. They can't
read the street signs. If they miss their bus stop, which they
recognize by cues, you know, visual cues, what's on that street
corner and what's on that street corner, if they miss it, that's
it. They are completely and utterly lost.

Val>> With illiteracy, one of Los Angeles's biggest challenges,
this computer program could make a huge difference. It's much
less expensive than hiring a teacher and students progress at
their own pace. Some of them finish in a matter of weeks.

Marcos Cajina>> They are able to come in the mornings, in the
afternoons, in the evenings, on Saturdays. They could actually
go to the library on Sundays. They could do it during the day
or in the afternoon. It's really flexible.

Val>> The center has made LEAMOS available to other schools and
organizations and has gotten interest from some unlikely places.

Marcos Cajina>> For example, Nantucket. The East Coast called
us to bring this program to the Salvadoran immigrants living on
the island.

Val>> Once basic reading and writing is mastered, the students
move on to more advanced classes in Spanish, English, financial
and health literacy and computers.

Rosa Gomez>> I was scared because what if I touched the wrong
key and messed up? I didn't know how to use the mouse, so I was
very nervous when I first used it, but not anymore.

Val>> And although these dedicated students have never had a
formal education, life has taught them one vital lesson: being
literate will change their future.

Rosa Gomez>> It makes me very happy to know something. Now I
go out with my daughter and I'm able to read the signs and my
daughter is also very happy that I'm learning more.

Val>> As for Santos, he wants to learn to read and write so he
can get a better job and read the bible.

Santos Cua>> I'll learn to read and write so, in the future,
one of these days it will help me tremendously and thank God for
the help from the teachers and the school for teaching us. God
bless them. I don't have money to pay them to teach us, but God
will repay them.

Val>> So far, about seventy immigrants have completed the
computer program. If you'd like more information, you can go to
their website at centrolatinoliteracy.org.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm
Larry Mantle of 889.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is based
on the true-life story of a Fremont, California high school
basketball team whose coach said the players had fallen off in
class, therefore they wouldn't be taking to the court. The name
of the film is "Coach Carter" and it stars Samuel L. Jackson in
the title role.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Jean Oppenheimer
of New Times and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. Jean, what
did you think of "Coach Carter"?

Jean Oppenheimer>> I thought it was okay. It's sort of a
familiar story, a cross between "Blackboard Jungle" and "Stand
and Deliver" and then, because it has a sports background, the
recent "Miracle" and "Friday Night Lights". It's about these
inner city kids, some of whom are troubled, some of whom are
delinquent, and the difference that their basketball coach makes
in their lives. The film is based on a true story and I really
think that's where it gets its power from.

There's a little bit too much, I thought, of scratch the surface
and, you know, tough on the outside kids that are really sweet
and understanding on the inside. A little bit much of that, but
the kids are really easy to identify with. They're very good
and they're easier to identify with, actually, than Samuel L.
Jackson because the coach is so hard-nosed that he really shows
very little compassion. It doesn't mean he hasn't, but that's
how it comes across, so you almost feel like the kids do. So I
think it's a good film.

Larry Mantle>> All right. Henry, what did you think?

Henry Sheehan>> Well, this is another heroic teacher movie with
the kind of genre I object to in principle because it suggests
that there's nothing systemic wrong with our schools. It's just
that we don't have enough heroic teachers and, if we had enough
of them and we got out of their way, everything would be fine.
More importantly, I think this is just a badly made movie.

It's not really about Coach Carter. It's played by Samuel L.
Jackson who's just "Super Teach". You know, he keeps on coming
across a problem and overcoming it. He comes across the routine
problems of teaching in a poor urban school and the movie comes
to a climax as he overcomes it. I kept thinking every half hour
that the movie could end and you would think, well, that would
be fine, we've just seen the movie. But no, another problem
comes along and it ends and the effect of this is that it
becomes a very tiring experience to watch this movie, which is
over two hours long.

Larry Mantle>> Second up this week is "In Good Company"
starring Dennis Quaid, Scarlett Johansson and Topher Grace in a
challenging role as a young man who becomes the boss of Quaid's
character.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> Henry Sheehan, what did you think of "In Good
Company"?

Henry Sheehan>> This is a great film that questions our
assumptions about who's old enough to do what or too old to do
what? Dennis Quaid plays a fifty-one year old advertising
executive at a successful sports magazine who suddenly finds
himself demoted and working for a twenty-six year old whiz kid
played by Topher Grace who in turn falls in love with Quaid's
nineteen year old daughter played by Scarlett Johansson who
becomes the sexual aggressor in their relationship which puts
Grace back on his heels just as he's put Quaid back on his
heels. But again, the complications further put everybody on
the defensive again as the relationships change.

It's a wonderful comedy with a great screenplay by the director,
Paul Weitz. When you say great screenplay, you're seeing great
dialog and funny lines and the movie has that. But it's also a
wonderfully structured screenplay that takes our public and
private lives, the lives of these characters, as our lives are
and mixes them all up which is exactly what real life is like.
We can't separate our private lives from our public lives. I
really recommend this movie. This is the real special surprise
of this time of year.

Larry Mantle>> Jean, do you agree?

Jean Oppenheimer>> Yeah, I thought it was really good. I think
there are two main reasons to see this film. There are
certainly two main reasons why I liked it. The first one is
Dennis Quaid who I think gives arguably his best performance
ever. He really shines in it. He gets everything down
perfectly. The second reason is, as Henry mentioned, Paul
Weitz, who co-wrote it and directed it. It's a great film for
any number of reasons, but as I said, Dennis Quaid is really the
big draw in this one.

Larry Mantle>> We close out with France's official Academy
Award submission in the foreign language category, "The Chorus
(Les Choristes)".

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> Jean, what did you think "The Chorus"?

Jean Oppenheimer>> I thought it was fine. This is our second
film today actually that's about a group of unruly and
delinquent kids and the teacher who goes in and, you know, makes
a difference in their lives. It was wildly popular in France.
It's a sort of familiar story, somewhat sentimental. It's a
very easy film to like actually and a lot of that is because of
the lead performance which is by a man named Gerard Jugnot, the
actor. He just really brings something special to the character
of the teacher who goes in. You know, this isn't hard-hitting
in the way "Coach Carter" was in terms of how the kids are. I
really felt these kids could have come out of the musical
"Oliver" in a way and not just because they sing in it. But I
think it's an enjoyable film.

Larry Mantle>> Henry, do you agree?

Henry Sheehan>> Well, very sentimental and I thought in kind of
an easy and cheap way, to be honest with you. Jugnot is not
well-known to American audiences, but he's a very big star in
France. He started off as part of an ensemble comedy troupe
called Le Bronze, which the director, Patrice Leconte, came out
of and Michel Blanc and several other actors. This is kind of a
movie that Robin Williams would star in in the United States and
he would be the, you know, meek little music teacher who
dedicates his life to helping little kids and doesn't get the
girl himself, but he's actually very meek and helpful. You
know, it's all that kind of thing. Very predictable. You know
where it's going. The kids seem rough, but you know they're not
that rough. I mean, I just found the whole thing very
mechanical and not very touching at all.

Larry Mantle>> Well, thanks for joining us for another edition
of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC
thanking you for joining me and our critics, Henry Sheehan of
henrysheehan.com and Jean Oppenheimer of New Times. Please join
us again next week for another edition of FilmWeek on Life and
Times.

Val>> KPCC airs a full hour of FilmWeek every Friday morning at
11:00 a.m. on 89.3 FM. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala.
For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see
you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

He's changing thousands of lives one wheelchair at a time.

>> You really don't understand. This is their graduation. It
would be like your daughter or your son graduating from college.
They're graduating from their immobility, from living on the
ground.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.