The Miracles on Honey Bee Hill

     There have recently been allegations against an MTSU professor, Dr. Bob Pondillo, that the children in his short film, The Miracles on Honey Bee Hill, may have been "mentally" harmed in the making. The film was about a Christian girl who was looking for love and happened to find it with another girl. At the beginning of the film she is loved by everyone in her church, but when she brings her new partner to a service they all turn on her telling her that it’s a sin. 

     The controversial aspect of this movie was that Dr. Pondillo had children playing adult roles. The children never did anything sexual. There was a “wedding ceremony”, conducted by God, and at the end of it they pinky swore instead of kissed. The reason for Dr. Pondillo’s choice to use children instead of adults was to take the sex element out of a gay relationship and view it purely on the basis of love. Since he used children he told the story with an innocence of a fairy tale. 

     The controversy started from someone attending a special screening of the film during MTLambda’s SpringOut. This person didn’t agree with the short film and wrote a letter to Senator Bill Ketron. Senator Ketron didn’t see the film but didn’t hesitate to write another letter to the University stating his concerns. While Dr. Pondillo is still under investigation with the state, President McPhee and Dean Babbili fully support Dr. Pondillo and have called off all investigations done by the University. 

     As a member of the LGBT community and someone who saw the movie, I fully support Dr. Pondillo and think that it was an amazing film. Anyone who views the movie with an open mind will completely understand and love it. I encourage everyone to go to the official opening night of the film on May 8 at 7:30PM at The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville.

Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock has been my favorite actress since I was 5 years old. Her first big hit, Speed, was the first non-Disney movie I ever saw. After I saw that, I was hooked. I’ve watched almost every single one of her movies and I own about 25 out of her 43 films. She’s had some really terrible movies, such as, The Net and Speed 2: Cruise Control; but she has also had some amazing films like; The Blind Side and Miss Congeniality. 

When she won her very first Oscar for The Blind Side, I cried. I may have cried more than she did. I was so excited. I’ve been watching her movies for years, and to see that it finally paid off was amazing. I was nervous that year because she was up against the very amazing actress, Meryl Streep. Thank God Julie & Julia was a terrible movie. She was also up against Gabourey Sidibe, a new face to the big screen, who had a wonderful performance in Precious. 

Thankfully the Academy finally realized what I had known for years; that she is not only an amazing actress but also an amazing person who deserved that award. She had been making wonderful films for years. It was about time for her to get recognized for it.

Unfortunately her  husband, Jesse James, was found to be cheating on her. She had such an amazing night followed by horrible months. Thankfully this didn’t mess with her acting. She didn’t come out with any new movies in 2010, but in 2011 she starred in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close with Tom Hanks. 

2010 didn’t seem like it would be much of a year for her, but she and her ex husband, James, had been trying to adopt a baby for four years. Even after she filed for divorce she continued with the adoption of Louis Bardo Bullock, as a single parent. Her acting has grown so much over the years as well as changing as a person. I look forward to seeing what she will do next.

Titanic

How much is true and how much did    James Cameron make up?

 ______________________________________________________________________________________

Jack and Rose weren’t real people, however; Cameron did base Rose off of real life actress, Dorothy Gibson. Gibson boarded the ship with her mother on first class but was often found mingling with the third-class passengers; dancing on tables, because she thought the first-class passengers were too uptight for her tastes.

Mr. and Mrs. Straus were the wealthiest couple on the Titanic. They weren’t really in the movie at all, but Cameron did pay tribute to them by making them the old couple that was lying together in their bed as the water came in. That may have happened for another couple as well, but the actual Straus’s were last seen holding hands together on the deck. There is a scene in the movie when Rose is being lowered down on a lifeboat and she jumps off and says to Jack “ You jump I jump, remember?” That was also a little recognition for the Straus’s. Mrs. Straus was put on to a lifeboat, but got off and told her husband. “We have lived together many years. Where you go, I go.” 

One of my favorite real life characters was Margaret Brown, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” She was a first-class female so you would think she would be one of the first on a lifeboat, but she wasn’t. She spent most of her time trying to help others on to the boats until she was finally convinced that she needs to get on one as well. She was considered a heroine for her help on the Titanic and for taking an ore herself and protesting that the lifeboats go back and look for survivors. Kathy Bates did an excellent job as Molly, but Cameron didn’t give her enough justice in the movie, because she did much more than just shout at them to go back. Cameron had the sinking spot on. He didn’t know he was correct when he made the film in 1997, but with 10 years and more advanced technology he was able to prove that he was right. The sinking of the Titanic was a very real thing. 
   

Cameron told a beautiful story of her. His characters were fake, but the people he depicted were real. Titanic went down in April 1912, and she will always be remembered through the survivors she had and through Cameron’s depiction of the world's worst ship wreck, Titanic.