COVER STORY : AT THE CENTER OF THE DOLE FIRESTORM

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) got plenty of attention when he scolded Hollywood about sex and violence in movies, TV and pop music. But, as The Times reports today (see Page A1), Dole’s comments aren’t changing the face of show business. Yet. The creative and business powerbrokers will tell you they’ve always been thoughful about what they produce. Here, then, are some snapshots of life on the front lines:

MARIO VAN PEEBLES

Actor-director

Though the R-rated “New Jack City” and “Posse” had their share of violence, it wasn’t until this spring’s politically volatile “Panther”--about the Black Panther movement--that the Establishment took aim, says director Mario Van Peebles.

“Politics is war without bloodshed, and, in a way, it’s more threatening,” Van Peebles says. “If blacks shoot each other in the ‘hood, they’ll put a rap soundtrack on it. Suggest that the FBI is in cahoots with the drug dealers and the conservative right takes out a two-page ad calling your movie a ‘two-hour lie.’ ”

Van Peebles, 38, thinks films fall into two categories: those that chase an audience and those that lead.

“Some films make money, and some films make a difference,” he says. “You have to have some moneymakers to continue to work--acting in ‘Highlander’ enabled me to make ‘Panther.’ But, as a director, I want to have a point of view that’s not digestible in the larger soup we’re constantly fed. All of my movies cost under $10 million, so I had some artistic autonomy.”

Technological change could bring more “Draconian restrictions”--or could open things up, Van Peebles says. “Using computers to digitally reproduce a crowd, for starters, reduces costs, and that might enable us to take more chances,” he notes. “So could giving people--or phone companies or whatever--the means of production. Just as gunpowder brought down the feudal system, putting a killer weapon in the common man’s hands could reduce the studios to banks.”

Although filmmaking isn’t “brain surgery,” Van Peebles concedes, images are important:

“I was in the Amazon and met a man who bought a TV and a VCR instead of sending his son to school. He was so proud to show us his ‘Die Hard’ cassette. Dole or not, at some point we have to ask ourselves some questions: What have we exported? What does this say about us?”