Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Monday 13 noveMber 2017
Director Charles Burnett turns

hobby ambitions into an Oscar

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY ing him asking to attend It was a writing professor
AP Entertainment Writer the event, and he’ll feel a at a community college
LOS ANGELES (AP) — sense of relief once he’s de- Burnett that attended — in
Charles Burnett expected livered his speech. “I’m the large part to avoid being
filmmaking to be a hobby, worst speaker in the world, drafted into military service
a way for him to tell the sto- and that’s my biggest con- in Vietnam — who Burnett
ries of the people he knew cern,” he said. “I’m stage said showed him the value
growing up in south central struck, shell-shocked and of reading and writing and
Los Angeles. everything else.” set him on his course to be-
In this Sept. 10, 2008, file photo, director Charles Burnett arrives They weren’t stories Hol- Burnett’s first film, “Killer of coming a filmmaker. Other
for the screening of the movie “Miracle At St. Anna “ at the 34th lywood told, Burnett said Sheep,” starred his neigh- professors introduced him
American Film Festival in Deauville, Normandy, France. in a recent interview, and bors and friends from Watts to cinema and gave him
Associated Press for most of his four decade and showed the realities of the equipment, and the
filmmaking career, they’ve the lives of its residents and knowhow, to make deeply
been stories that have the impact poverty had on personal films.
eluded Academy Awards many of them. “I never intended to make
recognition. That changed “It was just a practical so- money off of it, just to be
on Saturday, when Bur- lution, to use non-actors,” real,” he said.
nett received an honorary he said. “I couldn’t afford He has since written and
Oscar that will recognize any named people at the directed films in multiple
his honest portrayals of time.” It was finished in 1978 genres, from shorts to fea-
African-American lives in and earned praise and rec- tures and documentaries.
his feature films and docu- ognition, but didn’t receive He is currently working on
mentaries. a commercial release until a documentary called
It’s a surprising, but wel- nearly three decades later. “The Power to Heal” about
come, honor for Burnett, By that point Burnett had segregation’s impact on
an independent filmmaker wrote and directed several health care. Burnett, who
whose work has drawn other films focusing on the was born in Mississippi,
praise for decades, but has black experience, includ- called segregated health
never been nominated for ing “My Brother’s Wedding” care “one of the worst
an Academy Award. “It’s and “To Sleep with Anger.” manifestations” of racism,
totally unexpected,” he Burnett said since his days and a story that not many
said during a recent inter- in film school at the Univer- people know about or un-
view. “It came out of the sity of California, Los Ange- derstand.
blue.’ les, he sought to tell stories It’s a story that could be
Burnett, 73, received his Hollywood wasn’t showing told in a multi-part series, he
Oscar at Saturday’s ninth filmgoers. In films about Los said, but he’s been tasked
annual Governors Awards, Angeles, Burnett said, “you to do it in 56 minutes.
a gala dinner attended by never saw people of color As for earning an Oscar for
major stars and academy with dignity, as real people. his achievements, Burnett
leaders. Fellow honorees “Most of us that got into said the experience so far
included actor Donald film school wanted to treat is so surreal, like he’s in a
Sutherland, director Agnes people fairly and wanted dream. “You can’t wait to
Varda and cinematogra- to show what reality was have this thing over with to
pher Owen Roizman. and wanted to show peo- be sure that it’s is real, that
Burnett joked that family ple of color in a true fash- you aren’t still dreaming,”
and friends had been call- ion,” he said. he said.q

Breakfast at Tiffany’s comes

to life at New York store

NEW YORK (AP) — Having tions include avocado
breakfast at Tiffany’s isn’t toast and a buttermilk waf-
just a big screen fantasy fle. Lunch meals are avail-
anymore. able for $39, and shoppers
The New York-based Tiffa- can sit down for tea and
ny & Co. jewelry chain has finger sandwiches for $49.
opened a restaurant at its The cafe’s chairs and dish-
flagship Fifth Avenue loca- es feature the company’s
tion in Manhattan, and the signature blue.q
This undated handout photo menu does include break-
provided by Tiffany & Co. fast. The store is the setting
shows the Blue Box Cafe for Audrey Hepburn’s clas-
restaurant, which opened to sic 1961 film “Breakfast at
the public on Nov. 10, 2017,
at the jewelry retail chain’s Tiffany’s.”
flagship Fifth Avenue store in Tiffany’s Blue Box Cafe
New York. opened its doors Friday.
Associated Press The $29 breakfast selec-