REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : Oxnard Resident to Star in Low-Budget Movie : ‘Four Day Shoot’ is about a minister who goes into a rage after finding out that his wife was cheating on him. Terry Ann Mitchell says her role as a reporter is a positive portrayal of a black woman.

This one must have been hard to take seriously.

A production company called Generic Movie made a semi-autobiographical story of a love triangle written, produced and directed by a Methodist minister from a town called Latexo.

The film depicts a minister who, shortly after discovering that his wife was having an affair, went into a rage during which he pointed guns and video cameras at people.

Much of the picture was shot in Fillmore and Terry Ann Mitchell of Oxnard had a starring role.

Mitchell was working as location scout for the below low-budget film, titled “Four Day Shoot,” when the producer came into the office and asked her to audition.

She got cast as a newspaper reporter from Los Angeles.

“I was excited about the part because it was a positive portrayal of a black woman, not a prostitute or a drug addict.”

Mitchell is sensitive about the representation of African Americans in film. She is on the staff of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards Show.

“Four Day Shoot,” said Mitchell, is a film within a film. The minister (producer Larry Howard) vented his anger over the betrayal in part by making a film about the events.

Confused?

Perhaps you can straighten things out at the premiere Nov. 30 at the Wadsworth Theater at UCLA.

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Hailed as the film that reawakened Italian cinema, “Il Ladro di Bambini” was voted best European film at the Cannes Film Festival and starts Nov. 21 at the Ojai Playhouse.

In the picture, an inexperienced police officer takes two abused children cross-country by train to an orphanage. The hardened children are initially wary of their official escort, but his growing concern and affection for them penetrates their distrust.

The documentary-style photography and non-professional actors represent a return to the simplicity of Italian neo-realism.

New York Times critic Janet Maslin called it “a small, flawless gem of a film, one whose ideas could not be more simply expressed or deeply felt.”

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Oxnard Civic Auditorium’s Travel Film Series will take yet another lap around the world, this time with filmmaker Willis Butler.

Butler has gathered excerpts of his travel films from more than 40 years, including 20 trips across the Pacific, to illustrate how travel films are made. Butler will narrate the presentation, titled “Adventure Filming the World.”

The movie starts at 2:30 p.m. The auditorium is at 800 Hobson Way.

Admission is $6.50.