Documentary Selected for Rhode Island Festival

“No. 4 Street of Our Lady,” the award-winning, faculty produced documentary that tells the remarkable, yet little-known, story of a Polish-Catholic woman who rescued 15 Jews during the Holocaust, has been selected for the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

The festival, scheduled Aug. 4-9, is one of the "top 10 international film festivals in the United States," according to Chris Gore, author of "The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide."

The film was produced by Barbara Bird, an associate professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies, Judy Maltz, a senior lecturer in the Department of Journalism, and Richie Sherman, an assistant professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies.

“No. 4 Street of Our Lady” opened to a sold-out audience in March at the State Theatre in State College. The film has since been playing in festivals around the United States, and special screenings of the film are being held at universities and community centers.

The film earned a prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award and won second prize for best feature-length documentary at the Athens International Film Festival in Ohio. Plans are under way to broadcast “No. 4 Street of Our Lady” on WPSU-TV this fall.

'Expert Opinion' Series Set for Debut

A series of three programs addressing sports-specific issues in intercollegiate athletics kicks off this week on the Big Ten Network.

Penn State President Graham Spanier hosts the "Expert Opinion" shows, which address "The Arms Race in College Sports," "The Selling of College Sports" and "The College Student as Athlete."

The first program, "The Arms Race in College Sports," airs at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 9.

The subsequent hour-long programs--which bring together university presidents, athletic directors, athletic conference commissioners and prominent sports journalists to discuss the topics--air at 7 p.m. July 16 and July 23, respectively.

Malcolm Moran, the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism in the College of Communications, helped coordinate the shows and serves as a guest on the program about selling college sports that airs July 16.

Also, Avani Patel, a member of the advisory board for the Curley Center, which is housed in the College of Communications, serves as a guest on this week's initial program about the arms race in college sports.

Photo Essay on Display Through July

“A Portrait of the Allegheny River,” an exhibit by John Beale, a senior lecturer in the College of Communications and former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photographer, will be on display though July at the Sen. John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.

The show consists of 25 framed color images taken over 13 months along the 352-mile long Allegheny River.

First featured as a photo essay in the winter 2008 issue of Pittsburgh Quarterly Magazine, the photos won the 2008 Edward Romano Award (best of show) for photography in the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania’s Golden Quill Awards.

Beale’s photos help track the river from a trickle at its wooded Pennsylvania headwaters in Potter County to the swelling river that provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people, 72 miles of navigable waterway for barges and industry and a playground for boating, fishing and swimming. Along its route, the Allegheny River gets fed by the the Clarion and Kiskiminetas rivers and numerous creeks and streams until it eventually unites with the Monongahela in downtown Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River.

Beale, who grew up along the Allegheny River in Freeport, teaches photojournalism, advanced photojournalism and documentary photojournalism at Penn State. Prior to his arrival at the University, he spent 21 years as staff photographer and chief photographer for the Post-Gazette.

An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the History Center is the largest history museum in Pennsylvania. The 275,000-square-foot museum features six floors of long-term and changing exhibition space, including the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, a dynamic museum-within-a-museum, and the Library & Archives, an extensive scholarly resource documenting 250 years of life in Western Pennsylvania.

The History Center and the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum are located at 1212 Smallman Street in Pittsburgh’s historic Strip District, known for its retail food markets, unique shops, ethnic restaurants and lively nightclubs. The History Center’s exhibits and museum shop are open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The center is closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Documentary Earns Coveted CINE Award

A documentary film produced by three College of Communications faculty members has won a prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award.

“No. 4 Street of Our Lady,” which tells the remarkable, yet little-known, story of a Polish-Catholic woman who rescued 15 Jews during the Holocaust, received the award in the documentary feature category.

The film was produced by Barbara Bird, an associate professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies, Judy Maltz, a senior lecturer in the Department of Journalism, and Richie Sherman, an assistant professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies.

The CINE Golden Eagle awards, which honor excellence in professional and independent works, are recognized internationally as symbols of the highest production standards in film and television production. Since its founding in 1957, CINE has been dedicated to discovering, rewarding, educating and supporting established and emerging talent in film and video.

Among great talents whose first major awards included the CINE Golden Eagle are Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, and such great documentarians as Ken Burns, Charles Guggenheim, Albert Maysles, Stanley Nelson and Frederick Wiseman.

More than 300 judges viewed and evaluated hundreds of entries for the recently completed competition. They judged the entries using standards of overall excellence, evaluating such criteria as storytelling, production value, artistry, the extent to which the film meets its stated goals and communicates with its intended audience, and overall excellence.

“No. 4 Street of Our Lady” opened to a sold-out audience in March at the State Theatre in State College. The film has since been playing in festivals around the United States, and special screenings of the film are being held at universities and community centers.

In April, the film won second prize for best feature-length documentary at the Athens International Film Festival in Ohio. Plans are under way to broadcast “No. 4 Street of Our Lady” on WPSU this fall.

Photojournalist Set for Another USO Tour

Award-winning photojournalist Steve Manuel retired as a major in the Marines 13 years ago, but he continues to make regular tours to combat areas in the Middle East as a photojournalist for USO/Armed Forces Entertainment tours.

In the past three months, Manuel--a faculty member in the College of Communications and a Penn Stater with two degrees from the University--has spent nearly two weeks overseas, first chronicling an April trip to Afghanistan that included actors from the CBS-TV drama “The Unit” as well as legendary Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and NBA star David Robinson.

He returned overseas June 5-11 and followed actor/comedian Stephen Colbert for a week. Colbert taped his popular Comedy Central television program, “The Colbert Report,” from Baghdad.

On June 30, Manuel will leave for the Persian Gulf again, accompanying five current and former NFL coaches participating in the inaugural NFL-USO Coaches Tour. Active coaches making the trip include Tom Coughlin of the New York Giants, Jeff Fisher of the Tennesee Titans and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens.

The retired coaches making the trip both have a Super Bowl victory to their credit: Bill Cowher, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Jon Gruden, formerly of the Tampa Bay Bucaneers. Both now work as television analysts, Cowher for CBS and Grurden for ESPN.

Manuel, a senior lecturer, teaches photojournalism and public relations.

Faculty Member Adresses 'Jon & Kate' Filing

An Associated Press story that appeared Thursday in USA Today included insights from Distinguished Professor Robert Richards, founding co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment, about the divorce filing of celebrity couple Jon and Kate Gosselin.

The stars of "Jon & Kate Plus 8," a reality TV show about the couple and their eight children, announced earlier this week that they were separating.

Paperwork for the Pennsylvania couple's divorce was filed in Montgomery County, though, not in Berks County, where the couple and their children reside. In Montgomery County, such filings are sealed an unavailable to the public.

According to Richards, "divorce is a public act," especially when handled through the court system.

Intern in Beijing Enjoys Chinese Cuisine

Caitlin Holtzman is one of six Penn Staters completing a summer internship at China Daily, the largest English-language newspaper in China. She and some of her fellow interns will provide updates about their experiences during the next six weeks.

Many Americans do not know what real Chinese food is like. Yes, we love our General Tso’s and sweet-and-sour chicken, but those dishes are not common here in Beijing, if they even exist at all.

First of all, the sauces are all very different. They use more pepper in the place of the sugar used in America. Therefore, everything is very spicy. It has become commonplace for my eyes to water and my nose to run at every meal. Another notable difference is the way food is ordered.

In America, when we go out to eat, we order the dish we want for ourselves and split the bill for our one serving. Here, everyone eats together. There is one host who orders all of the food for the table. When it is brought out, the food is placed on a revolving disk in the center of the table.

Each person has their own small plate. So when you want something you simply spin the food to yourself and take a little onto your plate to eat. This continues throughout the meal, so everyone shares everything.

I really like this way of ordering because it kind of brings everyone together, and you get to try a little of everything. However, it can also confuse a Westerner when they first arrive here because you only get one menu for your table and the waiter stands there until you order, which can make you nervous as you all frantically pass the menu around.

Also, because they don’t split the bill, this can be another panic-stricken part of the meal where you all quickly try to decide who owes what.

Finally, a Westerner must get used to seeing things on the menu that they may not have realized anyone ate. There is a saying in China that they eat “anything with four legs but the table and everything with two legs but people.” This is true.

I have seen about anything you can think of on a Chinese menu from chicken feet to brains. Although I cannot speak for either of these dishes, but it is good to be adventurous when traveling and try something you never have before.

This is the attitude I had when I first encountered squid on a stick. They eat a lot of food on sticks in China, including meats and vegetables. I will admit that it is fun to just walk around with your meal on a stick as you stroll through the hutongs (alleyways). Squid on a stick has now become my new favorite. They cook it right on the street on a grill and cover it with spices. It is delicious, and for 5 yuan, I definitely recommend trying it on your next visit to Beijing.