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Life & Times Transcript
05/26/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- When it comes to office buildings, why are more and more companies saying paint us green? Dan Heinfeld>> I'm dealing with my clients about energy use, the indoor environment that their employees and users are going to have and just how they sort of, you know, work within this space, and I think those are much more tangible things to be talking about in creating great architecture on than sort of decorating the box. Val>> And then, an Indy, a remake and a big-budget animation compete for moviegoers over the holiday weekend. Our FilmWeek critics tell us if there are any must-see in the lot. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val>> If you've ever been shocked by your gas or your water bill, imagine the tens of thousands of dollars worth of energy that an office tower or a big store consumes. Well, that's why forward-looking architects are beginning to design Green Buildings. In fact, one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the country is in Santa Monica. As NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Kaye tells us, these buildings could impact our energy future if builders embrace them. Jeffrey Kaye>> Think about what harms the environment and the culprits that most likely come to mind are factories, power plants and cars, all belching pollutants. What probably isn't thought of as an environmental menace are America's more than eighty million commercial and residential buildings. Rob Watson>> Well, I believe that buildings are the worst thing that people do to the environment. Jeffrey Kaye>> Rob Watson is a senior scientist with the environmental group, NRDC, the National Resources Defense Council. Rob Watson>> Buildings use twice as much energy as cars and trucks. Seventy percent of the electricity in the United States is consumed by our homes and our office buildings. Jeffrey Kaye>> Architects and builders, activists and government agencies are increasingly championing an alternative method of design and construction. It's an approach called Green Building. The essence of Green Building is creating structures that are far more efficient in their consumption of energy and water and less wasteful in their use of materials than conventional buildings. This place, the NRDC's west coast office in Santa Monica, California, is considered the greenest building in America. Anjali Jaiswal>> There are no sacrifices with it. You know, I think that our approach with the building which I agree with -- and I wasn't part of that -- but it kind of has, you know, like all this high technology with it, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like a really welcoming kind of approach to it. Jeffrey Kaye>> Opened in the fall of 2003, the fifteen thousand square foot structure consumes seventy percent less energy than a non-Green Building of equivalent size and function. Solar panels on the roof generate twenty percent of the building's electricity. Toilets use a gallon less water per flush than conventional ones. The floors are made of easily replenished woods like bamboo and poplar. Ample skylights direct sunshine deep into the building and reduce reliance on electrical lighting. Rob Watson>> And all these combine to make a more comfortable, more effective way to operate and yet highly cost effective space. Jeffrey Kaye>> Watson is especially fond of showing off the building's state of the art water recycling plant in the basement. Rob Watson>> The biology is killed with ozone here. Jeffrey Kaye>> It cleans the building's gray water. That's the water that comes from the sinks in the bathroom and kitchen as well as from captured rain water. Rob Watson>> It's purified a number of times and disinfected a number of times, reverse osmosis. It's better than bottled water. It's better than tap water. I drink it all the time. Jeffrey Kaye>> And despite the signs warning against drinking the recycled water because of municipal codes, Watson backs up his words with a swig. Rob Watson>> It may not be legal, but it sure is good. Jeffrey Kaye>> Environmental groups are not the only ones embracing Green design. Dan Heinfeld>> We think it's a fabulous design tool, that Green architecture really leads itself to some very interesting architectural practices. Jeffrey Kaye>> Dan Heinfeld is president of LPA, an architectural firm in Irvine, California which specializes in Green Building design. [Film Clip] Dan Heinfeld>> I'm dealing with my clients about energy use, the indoor environment that their employees and users are going to have and just how they sort of, you know, work within this space. I think those are much more tangible things to be talking about than creating great architecture on than sort of decorating the box. Jeffrey Kaye>> Heinfeld's firm designed a Green Building for a company better known for its fuel-efficient cars. Toyota's 624,000 square foot sales office in Torrance, California is a Green giant. In fact, it's the largest Green Building complex in America. Its roof carpeted in solar panels generates enough electricity to power five hundred homes. The building uses reclaimed water for landscaping and for cooling and the material used to make the office complex comes largely from recycled automobiles. That includes steel in the building itself and lobby furniture made from old seatbelts. Heinfeld says the Toyota building demonstrates that Green Building principles are no longer experimental or avant-garde. Dan Heinfeld>> We think those are the really powerful examples because it shows that it really can be done mainstream and can be done on any kind of project. Jeffrey Kaye>> Green Building can often cost more than conventional construction. Solar panels and water purification systems, for instance, will increase builders' budgets, but proponents say that higher upfront costs will pay for themselves in the long run. A recent state of California study reported that two percent additional cost in a Green Building's design translates to savings of up to twenty percent in energy costs over the lifespan of the building. In Santa Monica, Green Buildings range from the police headquarters to a low-income housing project which generates much of its power from solar energy. The city, in cooperation with the environmental group, Global Green, has also opened up a Green Building Resource Center. In it, homeowners can get information about a smorgasbord of Green Building products. >> "These layers here? A glue binds them together and, if that glue contains a lot of formaldehyde, then you get an off-gassing from the floor." Jeffrey Kaye>> Despite its growth, Green Building still meets resistance often from designers and contractors who are uncomfortable with changing their ways and are unfamiliar with Green Building practices and material such as those on display here. >> "This one right here is a sorghum-based product." Jeffrey Kaye>> That's been a frustration for Daniel McGee and Kathryn Lara who have been coming to the center for nearly a year as they remodel their house. Daniel McGee>> I was probably struck by how in general the people we've talked to, particularly architects and contractors, know so little about this and what's available and the things that we can do. So part of the process has been trying to educate our architect and contractors to open up their eyes a little bit that a lot of the traditional materials they use, there are alternatives to them. Jeffrey Kaye>> Looking ahead, the highest profile Green Building project in America promises to be Freedom Tower which is to be built on the former World Trade Center site in New York City. When finished, the more than seventeen hundred foot tall structure will include massive solar panels and its own wind farm on the upper floor. I'm Jeffrey Kaye for Life and Times. Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times". Toni Guinyard>> After more than thirty years in front of the camera, documentary host and producer, rancher, journalist and author, Bill Kurtis, still has additional projects on the drawing board. From his fight to end capital punishment to his support of small-town businesses, he has an awful lot to say and he shared his thoughts with Life and Times. Bill Kurtis>> I was in Illinois when they discovered thirteen innocent men on death row. I was a lawyer and it goes back more than three decades. I realized, wait a minute, I thought the guilty are punished and the innocent go free. These were innocent men. Could our criminal justice system not be working? Governor George Ryan at the time asked one question. He was a pharmacist, not a lawyer. He said, how could this happen? And so did I. So I decided to use my investigative reporting. Why not apply it here? The more I learned, why, the more disturbed I was. One report out of the Columbia University School of Law said that sixty-eight percent of the cases, six thousand capital cases since 1976, have reversible error. California has sixty-six percent reversible error in its capital cases. I was stunned. It was a moment -- in my book, I call it parapatea, which is a Greek word, when all you have believed turns out to be wrong, so I went further. Toni Guinyard>> So at one point, you supported -- and that's an odd way to put it -- but you supported the death penalty, the concept of it, punish those who have hurt others. But there are several cases that changed your mind as you looked into this. Bill Kurtis>> I believed in it. You're trained to support the law and the system in law school. I covered the Charles Manson case for ten months, Angela Davis, Juan Corona, Richard Speck. I mean, I was a mass murderer expert. I supported it clearly, but I believed in the system then and the institution of the criminal justice as we apply it. Then I started looking closely at the cases, specifically Ray Krone. He was the one hundredth exonerated person from death row. He spent ten years in prison. He was totally innocent. Toni Guinyard>> The state of California and the Senate in 2004 essentially established a commission to look into what some consider to be flawed cases, wrongful convictions, wrongful executions. Your thought on that? Bill Kurtis>> I wish every state would do that. Essentially, they're responding to Illinois' experience. We're ground zero back then. It's where I live. California is going to find, as some lawyers have already found, all those mistakes are present in California. No system in any state can say it can't happen here. It's the same system. So you're going to be facing very soon whether or not you should apply a moratorium. You don't execute anybody in California anyway. Why do you want to spend millions of dollars to try and get capital punishment, a death sentence? It's money that is thrown away when life without parole essentially accomplishes the same thing, with one exception: satisfying our need for revenge. Toni Guinyard>> That said, I can hear the families of victims right now listening to you saying nothing more than another liberal journalist speaking his mind. Why should we listen to you? Bill Kurtis>> Because I have the information. I'm not an advocate of this. I sound passionate. I have the information that is available to anybody who wants to go on the internet and really look at the issue. I don't think anything is going to satisfy the families of victims. On the other hand, I think that they will come to the conclusion that closure will not come from taking another life. It just doesn't happen. Toni Guinyard>> You have a lot of information and, over the years, we have watched you in a number of different venues on television. Why make that transition from newsman to documentarian, to man about town talking about a bunch of different issues? Bill Kurtis>> To documentarian because it's a longer time to tell the story. We're all storytellers and that hour format is simply satisfying. It's kind of a mini movie. I was lucky to start at PBS and then at A&E when basic cable was just beginning its exploration of documentaries. In the last fifteen years, I've narrated a thousand, produced five hundred, which is wearisome (laughter) as I look back on it, but it was a grand time. I had retired from CBS after thirty years and you say to yourself, what do you want to do? Do you want to continue doing headline treatments of stories or do you want to spend enough time so that you can impart understanding to a story in addition to the facts? That's what led me to the documentary. Toni Guinyard>> As I read information about you, I was surprised to learn a lot of things. I think one of the most interesting things to me is that you have gone back to essentially your roots to where your broadcasting career began and you have interest in a radio station. Tell me about that place. Bill Kurtis>> I bought it (laughter). Toni Guinyard>> (Laughter) That's putting it bluntly. Bill Kurtis>> It was my first job not only in radio, but my first job. It was an emotional impulse buy and it's cost me a lot of money that I haven't made back, but I have bought a couple others since then. I like radio. I just like radio. I like the feeling of going home and doing something for your hometown. It's a small town in Kansas and it becomes a larger issue of trying to save small-town America. So you renovate a building, you try and bring in a business. I now own twenty-three buildings and maybe I'm more of a developer than a broadcaster. I don't know. [Film Clip] Toni Guinyard>> Your viewers who have followed you from PBS to CBS to A&E, what would you like them to know about you that we don't know right now? We see this image on the screen, but who is Bill Kurtis in the grand scheme of things? Bill Kurtis>> Well, I'd like them to know I'm funny. Toni Guinyard>> You're funny. Okay. Bill Kurtis>> Funny. I did "Anchorman", the narration of "Anchorman". It's this kind of demon inside me that's trying to get out. I enjoy telling a joke, but in reality I think those of us who live in the public eye, you know, there aren't any secrets. It's out there and the sooner you learn to live with that and relax, the better (laughter). Toni Guinyard>> You go along with the change then. What's on the horizon for you, your next project? Bill Kurtis>> I've started a grass-fed beef company. Grass-fed beef is meat for vegetarians. It's a remarkable -- Toni Guinyard>> -- wait a minute. Meat for vegetarians. Bill Kurtis>> Well, hear me out. Toni Guinyard>> Okay, I will. Bill Kurtis>> It's a remarkable discovery. It's the way we used to raise cattle before industrialized agriculture started pumping them with hormones and antibiotics and corn. Corn is an unnatural feed and creates bacteria that promotes e-coli and reduces the nutrition in our beef cattle. Put them back on grass, free-range, pasture-fed, and suddenly the Omega 3 goes up to as high as seven. Toni Guinyard>> Bill Kurtis, from newsman, serious journalist, to rancher and global warming, we've got it all covered. Thank you so much for spending a little time with Life and Times. Bill Kurtis>> Pleasure to be with you. To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is the remake of the 1974 prison football flick, "The Longest Yard". Burt Reynolds returns, albeit in a much smaller role than the original. The stars of this one are Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com and Peter Rainer, former president of the National Society of Film Critics. Henry, what did you think of "The Longest Yard"? Henry Sheehan>> Well, it's really a terrible movie. I mean, they clearly didn't know what they wanted to do when they sat down to direct this or write this script, which is odd because it's almost a scene by scene remake exactly of Robert Aldrich's film from the 1970's which starred Burt Reynolds who plays a small part here. It shows you that there is something ineffable about direction. At times, this is a movie that wants to be a broad comedy. Adam Sandler is a disgraced NFL quarterback who ends up doing time in a federal prison in Texas and he organizes a team of convicts to play a team of the guards. Now obviously, there's going to be a lot of brutality involved and there is here and Sandler comes across as a conventional hero at some point. On the other hand, you have Chris Rock doing Chris Rock shtick, so it's not funny at all. None of these parts are funny and, in any case, they jar horribly. Larry Mantle>> Peter? Peter Rainer>> I didn't much like the first movie in a way because I thought it was sort of a combination of slapstick vaudeville and stuff that was very over the top violently with sort of incendiary sequences. But it certainly worked as an audience pleaser. This film, I think, doesn't really have the oomph that the Aldrich picture had. I can't really believe Adam Sandler as a former NFL pro all-star quarterback either. He just doesn't have the body language or the heft or anything to really convince you about that. Chris Rock is a wonderful standup comic who is yet to make it as an actor in the movies and this once again proves it. Larry Mantle>> Richard Pryor curse. Peter Rainer>> Yeah, and it just seems to not work on almost every level that it sets out to achieve. Larry Mantle>> Well, Chris Rock is also featured in our second film this week, although this time it's just his voice. It's the animated feature, "Madagascar", from DreamWorks Pictures. It stars the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett Smith. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Peter Rainer, was DreamWorks able to follow up on the success of "Shrek 2" with "Madagascar"? Peter Rainer>> Well, commercially, I don't think they're going to have probably as big a success as "Shrek 2". It's hard to imagine any film that would, frankly, in the animated field. I don't think it's a terribly exciting movie, although in terms of the animation, I think it works quite well. It's about these animals, a lion and zebra and others, that sort of feel trapped in the New York Central Park Zoo who, in a variety of circumstances, end up in Madagascar where they try to make a go of it in the wild. The script isn't really all that scintillating and I found that to be disappointing, given the fact that most animated features these days are surprisingly good in the script department. The dialog is often really funny and sharp and there's a lot of invention in terms of the plot and characters, but this is pretty straightforward stuff. So except for the look of the movie, I didn't think it was anything terribly wonderful. Larry Mantle>> What do you think, Henry Sheehan? Closer to "Shark Tale" in its quality or "Shrek"? Henry Sheehan>> Closer to "Shark Tale". I think this is really a failure in character animation because the principal animals don't really come across that vividly either visually or vocally. Ben Stiller doesn't really have the kind of voice that lends itself to humorous over-statements when his face isn't there to back it up. The character he plays is somewhat wan. Also, the filmmakers keep going back to the same jokes over and over again and it tends to reduce character rather than enlarge it, which is what you would need for a feature-length film. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, we have a film from controversial Canadian filmmaker, Gregg Araki. The movie is "Mysterious Skin". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "Mysterious Skin", Henry Sheehan? Henry Sheehan>> This is about two kids and it follows them from ages eight to their late teens who have each been molested by the same baseball coach when they were eight, but who don't really know each other, and the different reactions they have. One is played by the former child actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and he plays a character who becomes a male hustler. The other one is played very well by a young actor named Brady Corbet and his character kind of never leaves childhood. He remains kind of an isolated figure in his old bedroom. He's very well cast. I mean, he even has a pudgy face like a kid might have. This film is often very explicit in terms of its sexuality. It's directed by Gregg Araki and you might expect from the director of the "Doom Generation" something very sensationalized, but this movie is very gentle, I thought. That was its prime quality. And he's very patient with kind of rolling out what happened to these kids, what their personalities are like and what hope they have. I thought it was a surprisingly tender film and mostly a very successful one. Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Peter? Peter Rainer>> I think it has definitely a gentle quality to it, given the potentially sensational aspect to it. I don't think that, given the kind of psychological and dire circumstances that are portrayed in the film, that the actors really have enough to work with. Somehow it seems like a gloss on what their psychological state would be. It's almost at times as if you're watching a documentary rather than a fully fleshed-out performance that has no real depth and power to it. It's more of a distancing effect for me in a lot of the film. But having said that, I think it has an intriguing aspect to it that draws you in. It's not like any other movie out there. Larry Mantle>> Well, thanks so much for joining us for another edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined by critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com and Peter Rainer, former president of the National Society of Film Critics. Please join us again next week at this same time for the next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val>> And you can hear a full hour of FilmWeek every Friday morning at 11:00 a.m. on KPCC public radio 89.3. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val>> Next time on Life and Times -- By law, any young woman can have an abortion, but should she have to tell her parents? >> A minor girl can have an abortion without her parents' knowledge. Someone as young as twelve years old. >> Are they going to tell her that, I'm sorry, you either have to tell your parents or, you know, you're out of luck? Val>> That's next time on Life and Times. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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