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Life & Times Transcript
04/20/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- It's home to one of the most spectacular views in southern California, but is Dana Point falling behind the times? Lara Anderson>> Change is happening all around us and we feel that, if we don't make a plan, a plan will be made for us and it's in our best interest to manage a plan for growth because it's going to happen whether we like it or not. Val Zavala>> And then, she's coming of age, he's looking for a mole, their ship is sinking, and he's hosting a talent show. Which one will get the thumbs up from our critics? It's all coming up next on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> 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 Zavala>> Dana Point is at a turning point. Should the beachside community follow the lead of its neighbor to the north, Laguna Beach, and redo its village to attract those upscale tourist dollars? Some say no, that that will mean the end of its down home charm. Orange County reporter, Roger Cooper, reports on the future of Dana Point. Roger Cooper>> Some things about Dana Point never change. The waves that crash along its shore, the massive rock that is the point, the comings and goings of ships in its harbor. Richard Henry Dana would find much that is the same, the same as it was in the 1830s when he came here by ship, the same as when he wrote "Two Years Before the Mast" and described the point that would later bear his name. But on several other fronts, change is coming to Dana Point all at once. On the headlands, in the harbor and downtown, three major revitalization projects are on the way. Lara Anderson is mayor of this community of thirty-five thousand which is trying to find its way into its future without losing its small seaport charm. Lara Anderson>> It is actually kind of serendipitous how things all come together. The harbor is being done by the County of Orange, the headlands is a private development. You know, of course, Town Center, the city is trying to do that. So you really have three agencies all kind of coming together. Roger Cooper>> Dana Point's beautiful harbor seen on countless picture postcards has an appointment for a one hundred twenty million dollar makeover. George Caravelho>> Well, it was built in the late 1960s and 1970 and it's just tired in some areas and needs a facelift. Roger Cooper>> George Caravelho, the Director of Dana Point Harbor, which is owned and run by Orange County. George Caravelho>> And so we intend to kind of refurbish it and build some new buildings and tear down some old buildings so that it's refreshed. Roger Cooper>> The original proposals for the harbor were larger, but citizens spoke out at meetings saying they didn't want it overdeveloped or turned into Marina del Rey. The plans were scaled back. George Caravelho>> The community made some comments, very good comments, about how they wanted to see the place developed. For example, they didn't want this island that we're standing on to be commercialized. Roger Cooper>> There's a precedent here for proceeding with caution. When Dana Point Harbor was built in the 1970s, it took out one of California's premier surfing spots, something surfers are still sore about. George Caravelho>> They used to call it Killer Dana. Mad people that live here still talk about, "Gee, I remember before the harbor was here what it was like." Roger Cooper>> Once harbor plans get local government and Coastal Commission approval, work will start next year. There will be improved launch ramps and storage buildings for boats. Now scattered restaurants and shops will be concentrated in a commercial core that will include a two-story parking structure and a Festival Plaza. George Caravelho>> The boat docks are old and they need to be upgraded. For example, the marina itself, many of the boats now are a hundred percent wider than they used to be, so you need to have a wider lane for them to park the boats, as an example. A lot of the rocks that were placed as bulkheads have deteriorated and we need to put new ones in place. Roger Cooper>> Some of this makeover will be complete in five to seven years, but the full project will extend over twenty years. Dana Point's second major project will create a Town Center that will be able to compete with nearby Laguna Beach and luxury resorts. Lara Anderson>> We have a little bit of a problem because we have major resorts here. We have five-star hotels and, when the guests at the hotels ask the concierge, "Well, what should I do? What's there to do here?" "Oh, well, go to Laguna Beach." (Laughter) You know, we like to think we're just as pretty as Laguna Beach and we certainly have some great restaurants and stores as well and we'd like them to send their people here. Roger Cooper>> Dana Point has hired the same group who designed the Promenade in Santa Monica. They want to be sure the Town Center is pedestrian-friendly, but there's a bump in the road. Lara Anderson>> Because Caltrans decided to make Pacific Coast Highway, you know, three lanes in each direction right through the middle of our town, which isn't exactly conducive to having a nice small pedestrian kind of town feel. So it's really been a challenge not only to slow down the traffic, because when people hit our Town Center, it opens up and it's like a speedway. Roger Cooper>> But last year, the city got control of its main thoroughfare from Caltrans. Lara Anderson>> So it is now a city of Dana Point road and, hopefully, we can do what we want with it (laughter). Roger Cooper>> You have to climb to the top of the headlands to see Dana Point's third major project in progress. For twenty-five years, residents fought over the future of this premier spot. Should this land overlooking the Pacific be developed or preserved? In the end, the compromise. A little of each is going on. Earthmovers are now clearing the way for about a hundred eighteen ocean-view home sites above Strand Beach. Edward Stanton of the Center for Natural Lands Management is overseeing the restoration of almost seventy acres of natural habitat, some for endangered species like the Gnatcatcher and Pacific Pocket Mouse. Edward Stanton>> What happened was the Harry and Grace Steele Foundation had a long-term commitment to conserving the headlands itself. Harry and Grace Steele were very prominent yacht members around the area and they really liked seeing the open space from the ocean view as well as from up top. So the Foundation actually contributed the funds for the Center's acquisition of this land. Roger Cooper>> Public trails and an interpretive nature center will be built, and a first for Orange County: a funicular A tram car something like Los Angeles's Angels Flight will carry people from the headlands down to the beach and back. Which bring us to the Hollywood sign. What, you ask, does the Hollywood sign have to do with Dana Point Harbor? Sidney Woodruff, the developer who gave us Hollywoodland, had also planned to develop Dana Point, plans that included a lighthouse. But the Depression hit and the lighthouse was never built. Now some eighty years later, John Gile of the Dana Point Lighthouse Society wants to build the long-lost lighthouse right here. John Gile>> Lighthouses in themselves are very majestic buildings or towers and they provide a viewpoint of strength and security and they provide a warm welcome to people that come and a friendly goodbye when they leave. Roger Cooper>> John Gile envisions a two-story lighthouse that will include a nautical museum and an operating beacon. Mayor Anderson believes all this revitalization comes not a minute too soon because South Orange County's population is exploding. Lara Anderson>> Change is happening all around us and we feel that, if we don't make a plan, a plan will be made for us and it's in our best interest to manage a plan for growth because it's going to happen whether we like it or not. George Caravelho>> We want to enhance the charm and make it a nice place for people to come and gather and walk and run and ride their bikes and picnic, all those kinds of things. Roger Cooper>> In fact, the public trails and the headlands will be ready in seven to eight months. Edward Stanton>> I think this is a great thing for the city of Dana Point, people of Dana Point and Orange County and California as a whole. This will now always be available for the public to see one of the most beautiful promontories looking out over the ocean in southern California. It will now be here forever in perpetuity. Roger Cooper>> Would Richard Henry Dana approve of all this? At this point, it's moot, but it's probably safe to say that he would still enjoy the stunning view and people today can still enjoy what Richard Henry Dana saw. In Dana Point, I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> She's gone from a Los Angeles sweat shop to the anchor chair of a national newscast, but chances are you've never heard of her unless you watch Spanish-language news. Her name is Maria Salinas and, as Hena Cuevas tells us, her journey has taken her from poverty to prominence. Hena Cuevas>> She has one of the most recognizable faces in Spanish-language television. Her name is Maria Elena Salinas and she's been co-anchor of the Univision network evening news for the past twenty years. Her new book is called "I Am My Father's Daughter: Living a Life Without Secrets". The book, she says, was a way for her to understand her Mexican-born parents. Maria Elena Salinas>> I'm hoping that this book will appeal to a broad range of people. First of all, it talks about how I grew up in a bilingual and bicultural environment from a low-income family. Many people think that, when you reach a position such as mine, sometimes things are given to you on a silver platter. I think it will appeal to those young students who have goals and who want to be successful in their careers and think that they have barriers, maybe financial barriers, to see that, you know, it can be done if you are dedicated and hardworking. I think it's a celebration of the hard work ethics of immigrants from all over the world, not only from Mexico, because I do talk about my parents in this book. Hena Cuevas>> One of the main themes in the book is about your time as a journalist here in Los Angeles and you were dealing with some of the same issues that are very relevant right now, which is immigration reform. How is it similar or different from what's going on right now? Maria Elena Salinas>> It's a cycle, isn't it? I mean, when I started working at Channel 34 in 1981, one thing that I do remember vividly is that we were twenty-five percent of the population of Los Angeles, yet we had no political representation at all. Not in City Hall, not in the Board of Education, not on the Board of Supervisors. One of the things I realized at the time is that Hispanic voters felt very disenfranchised. I noticed that many were either -- they were not citizens. Obviously, they couldn't vote, but a lot of them were citizens and they just weren't registered to vote or not going out and voting. I realized that one of our responsibilities of Spanish-language media was going to have to be the political empowerment of these people. What I've noticed throughout the years is that the image of the Hispanic and the attitude toward immigrants has gone in waves. There are times when they are very much accepted in this society and then there are times when they are blamed for the ills of the country. When there's economic turmoil in the country, obviously the first people that are affected and the first people that are accused are immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants. But what we've seen right now, I think, is unprecedented. First of all, the level of -- or the tone, we could say -- of the language used to criticize and to attack undocumented immigrants is unprecedented and the reaction by immigrants in this country, by Hispanics and other immigrants, is also unprecedented. Hena Cuevas>> The book is also an attempt to understand one of her father's biggest secrets, a bombshell, one she didn't find out about until after his death. He was a Roman Catholic priest and hadn't told anyone. He had also entered this country illegally. Maria Elena Salinas>> I also discovered why he had lived most of his life in this country as an undocumented immigrant. I realized in looking back and doing this journalist investigation on my own path that there is so much that I could have learned from him and I would have been able to have a better communication with him if it had not been for this invisible barrier that sometimes you build when you don't have that communication. So I'm hoping that anyone who has ever had a secret in their past and they want to keep it from their children or from their grandchildren will realize that you don't have to carry that burden by yourself, that sometimes you can share the information with your children and your grandchildren. They will support you and understand you and, at the same time, it will help you to have a better family life. Of course, those who are interested in the growth of the Spanish-language media and the growth of the Hispanic community in this country might also be interested in the book. Hena Cuevas>> That growth of the Spanish-language media, she says, has allowed her to interview some of the biggest newsmakers around the world. You made a career in Spanish-language news and, in your book, you mentioned that at one point somebody offered you to do a crossover. How come you decided not to? Maria Elena Salinas>> I did give it a shot. I put together a tape and interviewed a news director, a local station here in Los Angeles. The news director was excited about the idea, about the prospect. He wanted me to cover the Hispanic community. There are a lot of Hispanic journalists who don't like to cover the so-called taco beat. But the reason why I liked the idea so much is because I thought finally English-language stations will be covering the Hispanic community, so I thought it was great. However, the way that it turned out is that, according to my attorney at the time, the general manager of the station thought that I did not look ethnic enough for the position that he wanted and that I had an accent that would be insulting to his audience, which I thought was disappointing only because that's when I began to realize that there really isn't that much room for Hispanics in television, unfortunately. There was an anchor at the time who had a British accent, a beautiful British accent, but yet a slightly Spanish accent was considered insulting to a community where I'm sure there's a lot more Hispanics than Brits. Hena Cuevas>> Do you have any kind of regrets that the English-language counterpart in this country doesn't know who you are? There's this big hoopla about now Katie Couric being the first woman to be given a network newscast when you've been doing it for the past twenty-some years. Maria Elena Salinas>> I know, I know, twenty-five years. Out of those twenty-five years, almost twenty I've been anchoring the network newscast. I don't think there's any kind of resentment. I think it's great for Univision because they're visionaries there. They believe in a male-female team and they believe that women are capable of covering international news and national news just the same as any man. So I think you have to give a lot of credit to Univision for believing in me. Hena Cuevas>> Do you think that the time is right for somebody like you now to be able to make that transition into English-language media? Maria Elena Salinas>> Well, you know, I've been with Univision twenty-five years and I've had a wonderful, wonderful career. I mean, you don't really see people that hold a position that I hold in English-language media. I'm glad that I'm able to communicate in this language, even if my accent might be too heavy for some (laughter), my Hispanic-American accent. I'm glad that I've been having this opportunity to communicate also in two languages through the written word, through my column, through radio and through television. Someone like me? Yes, I think it's time. Me? I don't know that it would be me, but someone like me, definitely. Hena Cuevas>> Maria Elena Salinas, the book is called "I Am My Father's Daughter: Living a Life Without Secrets". Thank you very much for all your information. Maria Elena Salinas>> It's my pleasure. Thank you. Announcer>> 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. Ted Chen>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Ted Chen in for Larry Mantle. Our first film this week is "The Sentinel". It stars Michael Douglas as a Secret Service agent who finds himself under investigation. It also stars Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria. [Film Clip] Ted Chen>> Joining me this week are critics Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor and Scott Foundas, film editor of the L.A. Weekly. Peter, we'll start with you first. What did you think of "The Sentinel"? Peter Rainer>> Well, "The Sentinel" is a very pulpy action picture with a somewhat intriguing premise. Michael Douglas is generally good in these kinds of movies where he has to kind of, you know, set his jaw for the entire film. I can't say that he's really giving a performance here, but he shows a certain amount of angst that I think is a little bit out of the ordinary for what's essentially a standard potboiler. Kiefer Sutherland is doing his growler act from "24" and the two of them are, you know, pretty good as nemesis. Kim Basinger as the First Lady is a bit much. She seems pretty zonked throughout. I'm not sure whether that's a performance choice or (laughter) whether it's a satire, but overall I think the notion of a mole in the Secret Service who's out to assassinate the president is an intriguing premise that's done fairly adequately in this film. Ted Chen>> Scott, what did you think of "The Sentinel"? Scott Foundas>> I thought it was pretty terrible, actually. You know, the director, Clark Johnson, made "S.W.A.T." two summers ago and he seems permanently rooted in a kind of television style of directing. This movie feels like the unsold pilot for a "24" knock-off series that just somehow happened to get Kiefer Sutherland to do a cameo. It's incredibly dull for most of the first hour and picks up a little bit towards the end, but all the actors look kind of unhappy to be there. The filmmaking is really kind of flat and there's no energy. As I said in my print review, there's nothing wrong with the movie that a few commercial breaks and the ability to do your dishes at the same time wouldn't improve. Ted Chen>> Our next film is a satire of American politics and culture. It stars Dennis Quaid as the president and Hugh Grant as a host of a television talent show. The show and the movie are called "American Dreamz". [Film Clip] Ted Chen>> Scott, how did you like "American Dreamz"? Scott Foundas>> Well, with "The Sentinel", you have a movie that's like a television show and, with "American Dreamz", you have a movie that's about a television show, a sort of "American Idol"-like show that becomes the intersection for a whole bunch of disparate characters including a recently re-elected president of the United States who's sunk into a deep depression when he reads a newspaper for the first time in four years. There are a lot of interesting comic ideas at work here, not the least of which is that more people might pay attention to the election of a pop star on television than to the election of the president of the United States. But I think that the writer-director of the film, Paul Weitz, doesn't really go very far with any of his satirical targets. It's sort of a movie in which all of the poison-tipped arrows are really coated in sugar. He seems to want to like all of the characters too much and makes for a sort of dull package overall. Ted Chen>> Peter, what do you think? Did Paul Weitz pull his punches? Peter Rainer>> Yeah, I think this is a pretty terrible movie. It's an attempt to create a black comedy, but all he has is a joke book. He has no gift for black comedy or even for satire. You have a character of Dennis Quaid, president, who is set up to be sort of a Bush surrogate. He even apologizes for Iraq at one point while he's on television. But there's nothing here. You can make a great political satire and mix, you know, blood and comedy. You know, "Dr. Strangelove" did it. "The Manchurian Candidate", in a sense, did it. But this movie is so fangless that there's just nothing really to recommend it, except for the fact that it has this over-weaning ambition to say something about the state of the union, but in fact it's really not saying anything more than "American Idol". You know, "American Idol" is its own parody. To make a parody of the parody is also a mistake. Ted Chen>> Our third film comes from Australia and swept the Australian Film Institute award. "Somersault" follows the emotional journey of a teenage girl who runs away from home. It's directed by Cate Shortland and stars Abbie Cornish. [Film Clip] Ted Chen>> Scott, what was your take on "Somersault"? Scott Foundas>> I think this is a real discovery. This is a first film from Australia by the writer-director, Cate Shortland. It's about a sixteen year old girl who runs away from home after she gets caught kissing, and maybe a little bit more than that, her barmaid mother's boyfriend. The odyssey that she goes on is sort of like one of those expansive meandering journeys that characters who kind of dropped out of society went on in 1970s road movies. She eventually lands in an Australian ski town, which is kind of interesting in and of itself because you rarely see snow in an Australian movie. She takes up a relationship there and just keeps drifting and drifting and drifting until she finally kind of gets her moorings again. It's a remarkable showcase of the young actress, Abbie Cornish, and I think a very, very promising film for Shortland. You want to see what she does next. Ted Chen>> And our final film this week comes from Iran. "Iron Island" is the story of a group of squatters on an abandoned oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and the captain who runs the ship with an iron fist. [Film Clip] Ted Chen>> Peter, how did you like "Iron Island"? Peter Rainer>> This is a terrific movie. The director, Mohammad Rasoulof, is really good at large groups of people and showing all the human interactions between them and making everything, you know, credible and lucid and interesting. This community that lives in this abandoned oil tanker is, I'm sure, meant to be a microcosm of Iranian society and probably, the more you know about that society, the more pointed and relevant this film is politically. But even on another level of this interaction, it has so many things going on in this. There's a Captain Nemat played by Ali Nassirian who's a wonderful sort of fifty-something actor who -- the name is meant to remind you of Captain Nemo, I think. He sort of takes it upon himself to be the commander-in-chief of everyone on this tanker and the interactions that he has with everybody, including this young kid who defies him and then he practically drowns the kid until he learns his lesson is one of the most harrowing scenes of any movie I've seen all year. It's a terrific film. Ted Chen>> And that's it for another edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Ted Chen with critics Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor and Scott Foundas of the L.A. Weekly. Larry Mantle will be back next week for another edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> And KPCC public radio broadcasts a full hour of FilmWeek Friday mornings at eleven. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> 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. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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