MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER

Quinceanera, Sketches of Frank Gehry Show at the Ross

UNL's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center presents Quinceanera and Sketches of Frank Gehry. Both films will be showing through September 28.

In Qunceanera, Magdalena (Emily Rios) is the daughter of a Mexican-American family who run a storefront church in Echo Park, Los Angeles. With her fifteenth-birthday approaching, all she can think about is her boyfriend, her Quinceanera dress, and the Hummer Limo she hopes to arrive in on her special day. But a few months before the celebration, Magdalena gets pregnant. As the elaborate preparations for her Quinceanera proceed, it is only a matter of time before her religious father finds out and rejects her. Forced out of her home, Magdalena moves in with great-great uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez), a gentle man who makes his living selling champurrado (a Mexican hot drink) in the street. Already living with him is Carlos (Jesse Garcia), Magdalena's cousin, a tough young cholo who was thrown out by his parents for being gay. The back house rental where Tomas has lived happily for many years is on a property that was recently purchased by an affluent white gay couple (David Ross and Jason L. Wood) -- pioneers of gentrification in the neighborhood. Carlos quickly attracts the couple's attention and they soon make him their plaything in an ongoing three-way. As Magdalena's pregnancy grows more visible, she, Carlos and Tomas pull together as a family of outsiders. But the economics of the neighborhood are turning against them. Ultimately, this precipitates a crisis that threatens their way of life.

Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack takes a sharp sideways turn with Sketches of Frank Gehry, a documentary about the noted architect. Although the two men have been friends for years, Pollock thankfully bypasses the opportunity to pay a fawning tribute to Gehry, instead presenting a well-balanced portrait that offers both positive and negative commentators the chance to etch their thoughts into celluloid. But it quickly becomes clear that the biggest naysayer of all is Gehry himself, who is painted as a highly self-critical man, clearly ill-at-ease with fame and his own achievements. Pollock offers some screen time to Gehry's magnificent creations, but not as much as a less experienced director might have done, instead choosing to focus on the man himself. People such as Gehry's therapist, Milton Wexler, and garrulous artist/director Julian Schnabel (Basquait) offer their thoughts, but the real magic occurs when Pollock and Gehry are on screen together. The series of interviews between the two men have the kind of relaxed atmosphere that could only exist after years of friendship, and Gehry comes across as an astonishingly normal and likeable fellow who keeps his ego firmly in check. Shooting mostly with hand-held digital-video cameras also brings a nice intimacy to the proceedings, creating a warm testimony to a great artist who has somehow managed to keep his integrity intact despite the ruthless nature of the industry in which he works.

More information is available at the Ross website.

MRRMAC | QUINCEANERA | SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY