OLLI SFSU Newsletter
October 2005

Welcome

Welcome to OLLI's brand new newsletter! We will keep you up to date on upcoming events as well as introduce you to our talented faculty and members. We hope this will become your primary source of information about the Who and the What of OLLI. We invite you to share your suggestions and especially your creative work. E-mail us at robertm@sfsu.edu. This newsletter is for you—we will never share your information with anyone! And we won't send the newsletter to you again, if you use the UNSUBSCRIBE link at the end of this issue.
Enjoy!

In this Issue...

• News from OLLI
• Faculty Spotlight
• Member Spotlight
• OLLI Community
• Overheard at OLLI
• Upcoming Events
• Spring Course Line-Up
• Editors
• Acknowledgements

News from OLLI

The fall session began with 26 courses over two sessions. The second fall session begins on October 24. There is still room in many of the courses such as Writing & Blogging, Memoir Writing II, Radical Theater Workshop, Nation Building in Africa & Asia, and historical International Documentaries, Healing Strategies, and Building Resilience.

There will also be a Saturday, Writer's Retreat with Laura Deutsch on October 22.

Contact us if you need another brochure robertm@sfsu.edu or 415.817.4270. Everything is also on the website.

We have extended the deadline for Annual Memberships. Call us ASAP if you would still like to join.

We are redesigning the OLLI website which will be up in mid-October.

Faculty Spotlight

Michael Fox presents a course at OLLI dedicated to the viewing and analytical discussion of interesting documentary films. Your editor, Charles Francis, button-holed him at the recent open-house at SFSU's downtown campus.

Editor: How did you become interested in film?

Michael Fox: Like every child, I fell in love with movies at a young age. The spectacle, the imagination, the costumes—it transfixed me.

When I got to college and discovered foreign films, I realized for the first time that movies could have an intellectual dimension and a political context. Films like "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" and "Lacombe, Lucien" lent themselves to analysis and discussion. To this day, a lot of the pleasure I get out of the movies involves talking about them.

Editor: What films have most influenced your attitudes?

MF: Early on, "Citizen Kane," "Chinatown," "The Godfather," "The 400 Blows," "Last Tango in Paris," "Kaspar Hauser (Every Man For Himself and God Against All)" and "2001: A Space Odyssey." In my mid-20s, I rediscovered vintage American films like "Rio Bravo," "The Searchers," "The Lady From Shanghai," "The Big Sleep," and "The Shop Around the Corner," and got over my snobbishness. At least for a little while.

Editor: Why are you a critic, rather than a filmmaker?

MF: It's one thing to create a work of art and another to analyze and dissect one. I like to joke that I'm not a filmmaker because I have nothing to say. (Of course, that doesn't stop 90 percent of Hollywood directors.) It's more than having something to say, though, it's also having the technique and talent to say it. All too often we forget that great filmmaking is deft, artful and multileveled communication that is more evocative than literal, and which invites our active, engaged participation. It's not plot development.

Editor: What was your training? In film, in criticism?

MF: Essentially, I'm self-taught. I learned an enormous amount about criticism from reading Andrew Sarris' reviews in the Village Voice in the '70s. He always put a movie in historical context, so I learned about different genres and how they evolved and were reinvented. My biggest revelation was that someone could write so entertainingly and provocatively about a movie I had no interest in seeing that I would read the whole review anyway. I learned to read—and write—movie criticism as something other than consumer guidance.

Editor: How do you obtain access to filmmakers?

MF: It's easy: Every filmmaker wants press. Mostly, though, they want it when they have a new movie heading into theaters. Documentary filmmakers are easier to reach, because they pick subjects and issues that they feel strongly about. They are all about getting the word out. Two or even five years after the film is finished, they still feel strongly about the injustice or trend that they spent a couple years of their life probing. Doc filmmakers are also extremely responsive to critics and audiences that are receptive to what they're doing and ask smart questions.

Editor: How do you discover new films to present?

MF: I'm always talking to filmmakers and other members of the Bay Area film community to find out what projects people are working on, and how close they are to completion. I pay attention to announcements by various foundations and public TV entities listing projects that have been funded. And, of course, I peruse the programs of the numerous local film festivals and make a point of checking out the local documentaries. There's a steady flow of new films, and I make a point of knowing about them before they land a national TV broadcast, or a theatrical distributor, or an Oscar nomination.

Member Spotlight

Jean Amabile is a public defender in San Francisco and her husband, Patrick Mattimore, is a former prosecutor—a marriage/career combo that could generate some interesting dinner table conversation! They are among the couples who participate together in OLLI classes. They were interviewed by OLLI member and editor Polly Babcock, who met Patrick and Jean in Betty Burr's "How to be a Working Retiree" class. Patrick is developing a strategy for becoming a columnist and Jean is exploring what she might like to do after she retires.

Editor: When you took that class, did you consider creating a plan that would involve both of you in a joint effort?

Patrick Mattimore: Not really. I think our contrary paths out of law school sum up a lot about our own senses of independence, except with regard to child-rearing, which we've always kept as a top and joint priority.

Editor: How are your plans for your futures unfolding? What do you hope will happen?

PM: Well, Jean will work for a couple of more years and then travel to visit our kids. I have recently taken a part-time job teaching psychology at a private school after teaching for ten years at a public school. This was a great opportunity since I frequently write about educational issues. I'm still hoping to get a weekly column in a local newspaper.

Editor: Are you the warring married lawyers in the Hepburn/Tracy movie "Adam's Rib?"

PM: No we aren't the warring couple. I only practiced law for a little over three years and left for a variety of reasons not having to do with Jean and I being married. Besides, she's a much better lawyer than I ever was and for her, being a public defender, is a perfect fit.

Editor: What is the worst disagreement you've had over your legal philosophies?

PM: I don't think our philosophies have ever been a source of major disagreements and I've definitely moved to a more pro-defense side of the law over the years. That happens when the defense attorney is paying most of the bills.

Editor: Do you read legal thrillers? Who's you favorite whodunit writer?

PM: Funny thing is, I read the novels frequently and Jean never does. For Jean, the law is a primarily utilitarian means to an end. For me, the law was always more academic (not that I did any better in law school where we met). That's probably why Jean has stuck with the law for so long and I left it after a short time. I like some of Grisham, Scott Turow, and John Lescroart, a San Francisco guy who writes about local stuff.

Editor: Is it rude to ask about your win/lose ratio in court?

PM: I was probably 50/50 and Jean is about the same—good for a defense attorney, not so hot for a DA. Though trials for Jean are not really what it's about—she is always working to get her clients the best deals.

Editor: Does working in the criminal justice system make you more judgmental or more empathetic?

PM: Probably makes DA's more judgmental and good defense attorneys more empathetic.

Editor: Have you ever committed a crime?

PM: I was arrested three times for drunk driving in the 1970's. I've been sober for over 25 years. Jean has never committed a crime.

Editor: What do you think is the easiest crime to get away with?

A: Tax evasion. But please don't read anything into that answer.

Editor: What is your idea of a perfect day?

PM: For Pat, driving on a long road trip somewhere in Canada with the kids with a minor league baseball game on the horizon and a motel that has a treadmill. For Jean, staying at home, gardening and reading a good book.

OLLI Community

OLLI is much more than a unique educational and enrichment resource for people age 50 and over—it's a community. Members discover like-minded people in their classes with whom they forge lasting friendships that thrive far beyond the scope of the class.

In the past year, OLLI has formed (for lack of a better term) interest groups in writing, theater, international affairs, and career exploration which have emerged from courses. The OLLI website will contain current information on these groups.

OLLI has a strategic planning committee that has been meeting since June to develop a shared governance structure whereby members can pitch in and help determine OLLI's direction. Expect to hear more about this committee's work in January.

There are four standing committees in OLLI: Communications (responsible for this newsletter and website); Outreach (instituting the Neighborhood Liaisons and other community outreach efforts); Budgeting and Finance (how do we grow our endowment beyond our Osher Foundation support); and Curriculum (reviews new course proposals and evaluates the curriculum).

If you would like to know more about how to set up a new interest group or volunteer for OLLI, contact Susan Hoffman, hoffman@sfsu.edu.

Overheard at the OLLI Open House
Submitted by Judy Goddess

"Well, I thought I might try that class on ‘maintaining mobility', but I'm not sure I can do the exercises. Do you know anyone who took it? " "Oh yes, I did, and it was great. You'll love it. I'm taking it again," responded Ann Pedern, one of the OLLI greeters at the September 8th Open House. Two hours later, after hearing instructor Penny Sablove describe the program, the new student was asking Ann for directions to Penny's studio.

"What's happening with the Geezer Theater?" "We're slowly reading through the scenes. We've really got the characters, although I'm not so sure about the lady with Alzheimers. Once we complete the read through and make sure it all hangs together, we'll turn over the script to Joan Holden for her edit. We've done a lot of work, and we're feeling really good about it."

"I'd like to take some classes, but my house needs so much work, I don't know that I have the time. But those classes on Nation Building sound interesting. Maybe just one or two classes."

"I keep taking Memoir Writing. I want my family to know who I am. I think it's the most important thing I've ever done."

"It's like Alvaro (Fernandez) said, ‘use it or lose it'. For sure I'm taking that course on Exercising Our Brains."

"I was afraid of retirement and of having nothing to do and no one to do it with. Now I think I don't have the time to do everything I want to do."

Upcoming Events

October 19, Wednesday
Info Session on OLLI
4:00pm-5:00pm

Meet people in the program and learn more about upcoming courses. Free

October 25, Tuesday
Lunchtime Forum
12:00pm-1:30pm

Lunchtime Forum with Joan Holden, playwright and OLLI artist-in-residence in conversation with OLLI Director, Susan Hoffman.

Spring Course Line-Up

We have an amazing group of faculty who will be teaching in the spring. There will be three 4-week sessions; courses will be $75 for each 4 weeks. We hope that you take at least two courses each session!

There are 18 new courses to choose from, in addition to your old favorites.

Tamim Ansary is returning to teach a course on a topic that he has been researching—the history of conspiracy theories, from the Knight Templar's to the war on terror. The course sounds like "corrective lens" for all of us to better understand how we are comprehending the world, and international events.

Writer and Performer, Anne Galjour, performed recently for Bay Area audiences in "Hurricane" her riveting performance piece on the bayou for a Katrina Benefit sponsored by the Z Space Theater. She will be teaching writing and performing monologues in the spring.

And many of you have seen Lynne Kaufman's work at the Magic theater. She is one of SF's most prolific playwrights; she will be teaching The Well-Made Story.

Artmaking & Storytelling

• Creating an Anthology Chapbook
• Radical Theater Workshop
• The Well-Made Story
• Writing & Performing Monologues
• The Writers Circle
• Photographing Your Best Friend

International & Current Events

• The Politics of the Supreme Court
• The History of Conspiracy Theories
• International Documentary Films
• International Human Rights Law: US Government Policy & Practice
• Investing Like a Pro

Urban Curriculum

• Behind the Scenes in the Arts
• Conversations with Philanthropists: How they do what they do?
• Re-imagining the 1906 Earthquake
• Earthquake History Walks

Redefining Aging

• Good & Loving Sex
• Retirement Options Exploration Group
• Creating One-Page Plans for Your Retirement Lifestyle
• Turning Points: Navigating Transitions

Wellness & Lifestyle

• Maintaining Mobility
• Exercising Your Brain
• Eating with the Seasons
• Shamanic Journeys: The Key to Building Relationships with Your Spirit Allies
• Winetasting: Taking the Pain out of Wine

Technology & the Future

• Introduction to the Internet & E-mail
• Adobe Photoshop Elements
• Basic Digital Photography

Editors

The editors and writers for this newsletter were Polly Babcock, Charles Francis and Susan Hoffman as a part of OLLI's Communication Committee (which includes these three and Al Crowell and Nancy Freeman).

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all of the Teaching Assistants in our courses. They are keeping the flow of information and materials on track for all of us.