MOVIES - March 26, 1996

Stone Picks Zapatistas Over Oscars: Despite four nominations for his movie “Nixon,” director Oliver Stone skipped Monday’s Oscar ceremony to meet with leftist Zapatista guerrillas in southern Mexico. After arriving in the colonial mountain city of San Cristobal de las Casas on Sunday, Stone said he wanted to see the conditions that prompted an Indian uprising in which 145 people died two years ago. The rebels, many wearing straw hats and black wool ponchos, greeted Stone with a five-piece mariachi band. “I’m here because I believe in their struggle,” Stone said after meeting with 23 Zapatista leaders. “We are coming on a fact-finding mission as a human rights organization to see with our own eyes the situation.” Stone, who was traveling with members of the U.S.-based ministers’ group Pastors for Peace and accompanied by members of Los Angeles’ Humanitarian Law Project, as well as two script writers, denied that he was working on a film project in connection with the rebels. Stone’s 1986 film “Salvador” centered on El Salvador’s bloody civil war.

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Independent Slate: The Los Angeles Independent Film Festival kicks off April 18 at the Directors Guild of America with the U.S. premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s “Dead Man,” starring Johnny Depp, Gabriel Byrne and Robert Mitchum. The festival, which includes 16 feature films, three feature-length documentaries and three short-film programs over five days, continues through April 22, closing with the American premiere of Isabel Coixet’s “Things I Never Told You,” also at the Directors Guild. The festival slate includes eight world premieres, three American premieres and six West Coast debuts, with additional programs at Paramount and Raleigh studios.