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Thu, Nov 25, 2004

NOVEMBER 25-28, 2004

Campus Takes a Holiday

UNL's Thanksgiving Break starts Wednesday, November 24 for students (UNL offices are open). All offices will then be closed November 25-28 for the holiday. Regular classes and office hours are set to resume November 29.

ACADEMIC CALENDAR

MUELLER PLANETARIUM, SAT, SUN 2PM
Nebraska State Museum Presents Hubblevision 2

Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has provided incredible images in unprecedented detail to astronomers, and made an astonishing array of discoveries from nearby objects in the solar system to the most distant galaxies at limits of the observable universe.

The best and most exciting Hubble images have been woven into an engaging story of cosmic exploration, bringing the wonders of the universe to audiences everywhere. HUBBLE Vision 2 is a fascinating tour of the cosmos from Earth orbit.

In this all-new production, major themes in current astronomy and cosmology are presented: new views of the planets; peeks into starbirth nurseries; visions of stardeath in its many forms; explorations of star clusters and galaxies; and views of the universe when the earliest galaxies were first coming into being.

MUELLER PLANETARIUM

MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER
Opening this week at the Ross: Nicotina, Woman Thou Art Loosed

UNL's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center presents Mexico's highest grossing film in 2003, Nicotina and the film Woman Thou Art Loosed, a screen adaption of the play by legendary revivalist pastor T. D Jake of South L.A.'s West Angeles Cathedral.

From the producers of Amores Perros comes Nicotina, a highly stylized crime caper set in Mexico City about a simple exchange that goes awry, causing the lives of nine unsuspecting characters to explode in one tumultuous night over a fortune in diamonds.

Diego Luna stars as computer hacker Lolo, who is infatuated with his neighbor Andrea (Marta Belaustegui) and catalogs her every move via high-tech peeping devices. Lolo teams with amateur criminals Tomson (Jesus Ochoa) and his younger counterpart Nene (Lucas Crespi) in a deal with a Russian mobster (Norman Sotolongo) that involves the exchange of diamonds for computer access to Swiss bank accounts. But the deal goes terribly wrong after Lolo's attempts to spoil Andrea's romantic trysts spiral out of control.

Down the street, the irritable pharmacist Beto (Daniel Gimez Cacho) and his fed-up wife Clara (Carmen Madrid) inadvertently become entangled in the exchange, along with the humble barber Goyo (Rafael Inclan) and his domineering other half Carmen (Rosa Maria Bianchi).

Infected with diamond lust, these characters become obsessed with the intoxicating possibility of an easy life and their greed quickly transforms into fiery desperation. When the haze finally clears, computers have been hacked, people have been whacked and lives have gone up in a cloud of smoke.

This R-rated Christian film about child abuse, drug addiction and murder is startlingly raw and honest, playing at times like one of those blistering Donald Goines blaxploitation pulp novels, only with Jesus. Directed with seamless competence by Hollywood veteran Michael Schultz (Car Wash), Woman, Thou Art Loosed is based on the fact-based novel and stage presentation of the same name by the legendary revivalist pastor T. D Jake of South L.A.'s West Angeles Cathedral. Jake, a preacher of improvisational genius, plays himself in the film as he counsels a death-row inmate whose story unfolds in smoothly integrated flashbacks. Michelle (Kimberly Elise) was fighting back valiantly from the effects of child sexual abuse and incarceration when she backslid with a vengeance.

More information is available at the Ross website.

MRRMAC | NICOTINA

REAL NEBRASKA WEB SITE
Voting on First Round of Real Nebraska Videos Begins

Voting on the Fall 2004 Real Nebraska video contest starts this week on the Real Nebraska website. Using the theme "There is No Place Like Nebraska," entries were taken from full time UNL students and/or teams of full time UNL students.

In addition to three monetary prizes, winners of the contest will be screened at a film festival that will take place in March at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center. All entries will be shown and the "Viewer's Choice" winners, as well as the Grand Prize winner, will be announced at this event. The festival will be open to the public and the campus.

REAL NEBRASKA