President's Report
By Carol Fuller
Do You Suffer From Trump Fatigue?????
If you need a break from the Trump show you are not alone. By the time of our November 19th program, we will leave electoral politics far behind and learn about women in early Hollywood.
Some of you may have gone to the recent showing of Mothers of Men, an early silent picture, at the Del Mar Theatre. Introduced by Sally Stamp, UCSC Professor of Film and Digital Media, it played to a sold out house. Filmed almost entirely in Santa Cruz in 1917, the audience was entertained by looking for local landmarks. The film was set in the future (1922), and told the story of the first woman governor of California (sadly, something we have yet to achieve). It was accompanied by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. There were many feminist themes in early silent pictures, such as Mothers of Men.
I was fortunate to house the leader of the Mont Alto chamber ensemble, and over a glass of wine the evening prior to the showing of the film, he told me that women not only frequently provided musical accompaniment in the silent film houses, but also composed many scores for various pictures. It’s not too late if you missed the October 13th showing, because Mothers of Men will be reprised at First Friday on November 4th, 5:00 PM, at the Museum of Art and History. The movie will be preceded by a talk on the history of film in Santa Cruz.
At our Saturday, November 19th brunch program, Professor Stamp will tell us more of this fascinating history. We will meet for brunch at the El Palomar Café, 1336 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Doors open at 10 AM, and the program begins at 11 AM. Paid reservations are required (https://dwcnov2016brunch.eventbrite.com). Or you may send a check with the form included here. Please be sure to include your menu choice. See below for the description of Professor Stamp’s talk.
(WE NEED A QUORUM AT OUR NOVEMBER 19 MEETING IN ORDER TO APPOINT AN AUDIT COMMITTEE SO I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!)
Happy November, everyone!
Carol
831-423-2356
fulkins@cruzio.com
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Saturday, November 19
Women in Early Hollywood
Shelly Stamp, UCSC professor who teaches the history of women in film will speak about the music for early silent films and women's involvement.
10 am Social - 10:30 am Brunch
- 11 am Program -
El Palomar Cafe
Paid Reservations are required. Please RSVP here:
https://dwcnov2016brunch.eventbrite.com
If you would like to pay by check please follow this link!
Menu choices:
- Huevos Rancheros: Vegetarian
- Huevos Rancheros: Chile Verde
- Machaca, with scrambled eggs, shredded beef, onions, tomatoes, Jalapenos, cheese etc.
- Breakfast Burrito: Vegetarian, eggs, avocado, potatoes, cheese
- Breakfast Burrito: Bacon, eggs, avocado, potatoes, cheese
Other Community Events
For other local Democratic events please go the the Central committee website at: http://www.cruzdemocrats.org/
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Women in Early Hollywood: The Untold Story
Many people are familiar with the work of D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, the so-called “fathers” of American cinema. But what about Lois Weber, Alice Guy Blaché and June Mathis, women once prominent in early Hollywood but now largely forgotten? This talk will chart the extraordinary role that women played in the first decades of moviemaking – directing and producing films, writing screenplays, shaping fan culture and early film criticism, running theaters and showing films in their classrooms, libraries, and community centers. As audiences, filmmakers, critics and educators, women were central to the evolution of American movie culture.
Shelley Stamp is the author of two award-winning books on women and early cinema, and founding editor of the journal Feminist Media Histories. She is currently curating a new DVD box set on early women filmmakers and co-writing a book on Women and the Silent Screen in America.
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Shelley Stamp
Professor of Film & Digital Media
Pavel Machotka Chair in Creative Studies
Film & Digital Media Department
University of California, Santa Cruz
On sabbatical leave until January, 2017
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Board Report
By Elena Cohen
DWC Board welcomed a new member. President Carol Fuller appointed Julia Schwartz to replace Nicolette Lee as Bellringer editor and co-chair of the Communications/Publicity Committee. We thank Nicolette for her service.
The General Meeting on October 15 included a presentation regarding Monterey Bay Community Power. Lacking a quorum at the meeting, the DWC membership was unable to elect an audit committee. The election is rescheduled to the November 19 General Meeting, provided that there is a quorum.
During October, DWC began contributing to the Santa Cruz Community Calendar. The calendar, http://santacruzcommunitycalendar.org, is a relatively new initiative, designed to be a centralized source of information about community events in Santa Cruz. Elena Cohen, DWC Recording Secretary, completed the staff training and will be responsible for posting upcoming DWC events.
At the Board meeting on October 24, Treasurer Joyce Nordquist reported a current balance of approximately $6,262.
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Legislative Update
By Maureen McCarty
You may recall a series of opinion pieces in the Sentinel related to Proposition 57, the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016. Both the Sentinel Editorial and the Op-Ed by our Sheriff, Jim Hart, provided readers with an informative, thoughtful, and thought-provoking surmise that the measure is fraught with too many uncertainties, the outcomes of which might pose a risk to public safety, and increase the burdens of our already overburdened local law enforcement agencies. Recently, the Sentinel printed a rebuttal by Senator Bill Monning and Assembly Member Mark Stone in which they argued that Prop 57 provided a “safe and logical” course for complying with the federal court orders to reduce California’s state prison population.
Uncertainties can be unsettling, particularly when dealing with how to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe from harm, and the opinions of our outstanding Sheriff, our Paper of Record, and our state legislators should be held in highest regard. What is certain, however, is that California’s decades long “tough on crime” sentencing laws have created an unsustainable, inequitable, and very expensive prison system that the United States Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional and has ordered us to fix now, not in the unforeseeable future. Bill and Mark assert that the question Proposition 57 is asking the voters is not if we should release a certain class of inmates; that decision is already made. Prop 57 is also not asking who we should we release; this does nothing to change sentencing, and the decision is still left up to the parole board. According to our legislators, Prop 57 allows a careful program for early release only if qualified inmates have participated in the kinds of programs that will help ensure that they will not return to crime. Will it? You decide.
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