‘Putting a Film Protest in Focus’
In the continuing flap over George Cunningham’s “Animal Attraction,” Del Olmo criticizes the lack of minority, and particularly Latino, students and faculty in prestigious film schools. He suggests that had there been a minority adviser guiding Cunningham, that the film might be more sensitive to Latinos.
As a Latino and a film student at UCLA, I support “Animal Attraction” because it has something to say not only about American perception and exploitation of countries such as Mexico, but also about minority hypersensitivity. At a preliminary screening last year, a Latina protester demanded that the film be burned. Censorship is a dangerous business, whether it be the destruction of a work or the prevention of its creation.
Minority faculty won’t necessarily make for more “sensitive” student films because at UCLA students have final say as to the content of their work. As a Latino film maker, I would have it no other way.
NINO RODRIGUEZ
Los Angeles
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