The Georgetown Voice, September 28 2018 by The Georgetown Voice

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Red, White, and Hoya Blue page 8 D.C. Short Film Festival Celebrates Creativity and Culture page 10

September 28, 2018

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE Volume 51 • Issue 3

staff editor-in-chief Jake Maher Managing editor Margaret Gach news

executive editor Alex Lewontin Features editor Emily Jaster assistant features editor Jack Townsend news editor Noah Telerski assistant news editors Katya Schwenk, Damian Garcia, Rachel Cohen

culture

executive editor Caitlin Mannering Leisure editor Brynn Furey assistant leisure editors Brynne Long, Ryan Mazalatis, Kayla Hewitt Sports editor Beth Cunniff Assistant sports editor Jorge DeNeve, Aaron Wolf

“Kickin’ IT!” by EGAN BARNITT Photos: Georgetown Athletics Communications

contents

opinion

Carrying On: The ‘Flawless’ Femininity of My Editorial Idols Emma Francois

4 5

Georgetown Needs a Buddhist Chaplain Clara Chiu

You're a Hoya, Natalie! Natalie Chaudhuri

Editorials

Red, White, and Hoya Blue: Hoyas Make their Mark in U.S. Youth National Team Camps Jorge DeNeve Long Story Short: D.C. Short Film Festival Celebrates Creativity and Culture Brynn Furey and Kayla Hewitt New Program Director Looks to Engage Students at KI Alex Lewontin

halftime

Leisure editor Dajour Evans assistant leisure editors Inès de Miranda, Juliana Vaccaro de Souza, Rachel Lock Sports editor Santul Nerkar Assistant sports editor Teddy Carey, Jake Gilstrap, Tristan Lee

design

8-9 10-11 12

Finding His Voice: Jason Berry Reflects on College and Career Katya Schwenk and Rachel Cohen

From the Page to the Screen, The Sisters Brothers Challenges the Stereotypical West Brynne Long

Critical Voices Katherine Randolph and Ryan Mazalatis

The opinions expressed in The Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of The Georgetown Voice. The university subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. All materials copyright The Georgeton Voice, unless otherwise indicated.

Executive editor CHRIS DUNN voices editor Lizz Pankova Assistant Voices editors Ava Rosato, Mica Bernhard EditoriaL board Chair Nick Gavio Editorial Board Chris Dunn, Emily Jaster, Alli Kaufman, Alex Lewontin, Jake Maher, Caitlin Mannering, Phillip Steuber, Noah Telerski, Jack Townsend, Sienna Brancato, JONNY Amon

editor@georgetownvoice.com Leavey 424 Box 571066 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

Executive editor Margaux Fontaine Spread editor Jake Glass Photo Editor Rachel Zeide cover Editor Egan Barnitt assistant design editor Delaney Corcoran Staff designers Lindsay Reilly, Jacob Bilich, Camilla Aitbayev

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copy chief Hannah Song assistant Copy editors Cade Shore, Neha Wasil editors Audrey Bischoff, Kate Fin, Madison Scully, Maya Tenzer, Max Fredell, Mya Allen, Nancy Garrett

online

Website Editor Maggie Grubert Podcast editor Parker Houston assistant podcast editor Devon O’Dwyer Social Media Editor Katherine Randolph Content Editor Claire Goldberg MULTIMEDIA editor Amy Guay

business

general manager anna gloor assistant manager of accounts & sales Isabel Lord

support

associate editors Sienna Brancato, Gustav Honl-Stuenkel, Eman Rahman

Staff writers

Haley D’Alessio, Kent Adams, Rebecca Zaritsky, Luis Borrero, Errol French, Will Shanahan, Bradley Galvin, Zach Pulsifer, Umar Asif, Cam Smith, Jayan Hanson, Emma Francois

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

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GEORGETOWNVOICE.COM Halftime Leisure

Podcasts Stripped: Season 3, Episode 3 Hosts Emma Francois and Isabel Lord are joined by guests of varying relationship status, Alli Kaufman and Anna Gloor, to discuss the art of “couples’ dressing,” complete with a live wardrobe malfunction—this is “Stripped,” after all.

BoJack Horseman’s Season Five Proves to be More Man than Horse In her review of the show’s latest season, Nicole Lai asks if BoJack has finally become unlikeable and whether it’s ever possible to change.

Maybe the Bills Aren’t That Bad?

Following a Streak of Successful Rom-Coms, Netflix Gets Cocky and Falls Flat with Sierra Burgess Is a Loser

Nathan Chen offers his takes on the Bills and the rest of the NFL’s tumultuous third week.

Sierra Burgess misses the chance to offer a fresh take on the rom-com genre. Read more in Anna Pogrebivsky’s review.

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EDITORIALS

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Preserve Ballot Access and Vote, Dammit! On Nov. 6, voters will go to the polls for Election Day 2018. While pundits often decry young voters’ poor turnout, being a college student provides extra challenges to voting, namely the process involved in absentee voting. Requesting an absentee ballot often needs to be done by mail, and the ballot then needs to be mailed to the student, filled out, and sent back before Election Day. Three pieces of mail are required for absentee voters to reach the ballot box, which means if they do not start thinking about voting more than a month before the election, their vote will not make it in time. We believe that it should be easy for everyone, including college students like ourselves, to cast a ballot and have a say in who represents us. Voting is habitual, and making it easy for college students to vote will lay the foundation for an engaged electorate and healthy democracy in the future. Even with the high levels of motivation for rank and file voters of each party, because it is a midterm election, this year’s voter turnout is likely to be depressed. The last five midterm elections have had an average turnout of 39 percent of the voting eligible population, compared to 59 percent in the last five presidential elections. Turnout is even worse among young people, and if recent trends continue, only about 20 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 will go to the polls this November. The time required and burden of planning ahead means some students will miss voting because they began the process too late. Even for those students who do remember to request and submit their ballots, many need to buy stamps

before mailing their ballot home. While the financial burden this imposes is small, we object in principle to this because it is a barrier nonetheless for students across the country. This is not to say that a lack of stamps or procrastinating on the process of absentee voting are good excuses for college students to refrain from voting. There is no excuse not to vote, especially at Georgetown, where the university and other student organizations provide ample resources to students. GU Votes conducts a voter registration drive, and GU Politics has free stamped envelopes in their office as well as at RHOs around campus for mailing ballots and registration forms. If you are unsure of your registration status, the Andrew Goodman Foundation provides an online portal that allows you to check. These resources are in place to make sure that it is as simple as possible for Georgetown students to cast their ballots, and we commend the university for making them available to students. While we believe that it is more impactful for students to vote in their home states, where they can impact races from the local level all the way up to federal offices, voting where you go to school is another viable option. The District is friendly to college students who wish to vote in the city. It allows for same day registration at the polls and does not obstruct students from establishing residence within the city while attending school. If a Georgetown student is unable to vote in their home state, or feels that they are more connected to the community in the District, then they absolutely should stay informed on D.C. issues and register and vote here.

Other states do not make it as simple for college students who wish to vote where they attend college. In New Hampshire, new laws have made it harder for students to vote. One, NH HB-1264, changed the definition of “residency” in state law to essentially force out-of-state students to get a New Hampshire driver’s license if they want to vote in the state, beginning next year. This presents a financial burden by requiring students to pay the $50 fee to get a new license. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed the bill into law despite saying last year that he “will never support anything that suppresses the student vote.” Legislation like this is often accompanied by rhetoric that claims it will make elections fair for all residents. In reality, it makes voting harder, not just for college students, but also for people who move often and people experiencing homelessness. It is a tactic of voter suppression akin to photo identification laws, the purging of registration checklists, and inflexible voting hours at polling locations. Limiting access to certain groups of people means their needs are not being represented by the people in office, and they will continue to be marginalized by our political system. Voting is the primary and essential act of citizenship that makes our democracy function, and for that reason alone it is valuable. As students at a university in the heart of our nation, we should take this civic duty seriously and exercise our right to choose who represents us. With the resources available to students at Georgetown, there is no excuse not to vote.

D.C. Council Must Uphold Initiative 77 Vote On Sept. 17, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson held an open forum on whether the council should move forward with a proposed bill to overturn Initiative 77. Initiative 77, which requires employers to pay their tipped workers the same minimum wage as non-tipped workers, passed with 55 percent of the vote in June during the D.C. primaries. However, a majority of council members have since announced their intention to vote to overturn the measure by early October. Doing so would show that the council has little regard for the will of the city’s voters, and we condemn their efforts to undo Initiative 77. Currently, the tipped minimum wage in the District is $3.89, while the wage for non-tipped workers is $13.25. Employers are required to pay the difference in wages if workers are not tipped enough to reach the non-tipped minimum wage, but a study from the D.C. Mayor’s office showed that many employers do not. The merits of Initiative 77 notwithstanding, the D.C. Council should abide by the results of a democratic election and allow the referendum to become law. As one Ward 4 citizen told The Washington Post, “They’re talking about throwing my vote away. That’s honestly how it feels. And everybody, regardless of how they voted, should be upset about that.” Mendelson told the Post that he was opposed to the initiative becoming law because of the many restaurant workers against it. “The reason why so many restaurant workers are

opposed is they see it very much as reducing the quality of their livelihoods,” he said. What he fails to address is that the most vocal are often privileged in their tipped position and work in the more affluent parts of the District. According to organizers with Restaurant Opportunities Center United, who support the initiative, many tipped workers are unable to speak out against their employers because of immigration concerns or because they may have to work to support themselves and their families instead of pursuing activism. Before June’s vote even occurred, several council members discredited Initiative 77 by claiming they would overturn it if passed. Seven out of 13 formally opposed it at the time, as well as D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. As early as the morning after the election, council members met with restaurant industry lobbyists to discuss repeal, showing their contempt for the electorate. Individuals and businesses opposed to Initiative 77 gave over $230,000 to local mayoral and city council campaigns this election cycle, which includes $30,000 contributed directly to Mendelson. For the council members to then listen to what the restaurant lobby wants rather than what most D.C. residents chose is irresponsible. The D.C. Council is familiar with its bills being reversed, only it’s often their actions that are being overturned by Congress—and they hate this practice. After the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted to block D.C.’s Death with Dignity Act in February 2017, which would

have granted citizens the right to voluntary euthanasia, this editorial board opposed the obstruction from Congress. When Congress blocked the District’s bill, Mendelson accused the body of overriding the wishes of D.C. voters. By overturning Initiative 77, Mendelson would be doing just this. We believe that the initiative will reduce wage theft and sexual harassment in the service industry. A study from the Economic Policy Institute found that states with a single minimum wage for all workers report lower poverty rates for restaurant staff. The initiative also aims to remove the leverage that customers have over a tipped worker’s earnings, as restaurant workers have reported rates of sexual harassment much higher than those in the overall workforce. And while most of the discussion around the issue focuses on how Initiative 77 would affect the restaurant industry, a minority of the city’s tipped workers are servers or bartenders. Many are bus persons, hairdressers, or valet attendants, to name a few. We agree with Initiative 77, but this is not the primary concern, as it has already been approved by a majority of District voters. The current issue lies with its impending repeal after its success at the polls. The D.C. Council has a responsibility to its constituents to listen to their vote. We stand with the majority of voters who approved the initiative and found it in their best interest. If the city is going to hold ballot initiatives, it must follow through with the results of those referendums.

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

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I spent the summer living with eight women—in a brothel. Ours was a lake house, 101 years old. She hosted a variety of nightly visitors: spiders, mice, and, when we were lucky, an endangered bat. My colleagues were not sex workers, though we were all neophytes in the same career. We were journalists, reporters, page designers, photographers, and copy editors. In some antiquated American lore, nine women under one roof is considered a “brothel,” a label we embraced proudly. When we talked about our synchronized menstruation cycles, like a harmonic symphony of rouge, we did so ironically. When we went skinny-dipping, streaking down the dock at midnight, we were doing what the law expected us, prostitutes of the written word, to do. On Saturday nights, we played a drinking game involving one bold Sharpie and the word “tits,” the last of George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words.” I experienced the dangers brothels pose to society. When nine 20-something women—all aspiring journalists coming of age in the #MeToo epoch—live, drink, and eat together, the world seems to broaden and widen with each witty, rebellious remark. One develops a fervent, worshipful relationship to the late Nora Ephron, journalist and screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally. And, like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, if you give role-model hungry writers Ephron, they will eventually ask for Tina Brown, the mogul who gave Vanity Fair its flagship edge when crowned editor in 1984. I first encountered Brown through her edited journal, The Vanity Fair Diaries, published last fall. Brown is exactly the woman I aspire to be: smart, strategic, and suave. I recognized expressions of her femininity, often through fashion, in my own life. But on paper, the ideals I had found so attractive clearly fueled a matrix of misogyny. In the face of sexism and hubris from the men of Vanity Fair’s Mount Olympus, Brown proves unrelenting. Like Icarus, she risks the sun. But somehow, astonishingly, she wins the diamond-dusted key to the glossy pages of Vanity Fair. Both Brown and Ephron had excellent male mentors, something I had discounted until recently. I have always understood the need for female mentorship, but I failed to account for the fact that behind some great women, including Ephron and Brown, is a great man. Male mentorship, for better or for worse, was a particular topic of interest among my co-workers over the summer (like a brothel, our house was particularly chatty at night). Even if we don’t all pursue journalistic careers, there was an implicit understanding we will need to navigate sexual misconduct in the workplace.

The ‘Flawless’ Femininity of My Editorial Icons My friends, even the ones whose universities have journalism schools, do not have female mentors that reflect the diversity of their student body. Even their guest speakers are mostly white men. They are attempting to report on their school’s lackluster sexual assault policies with the guidance of men who are themselves just learning about the complexities of systematic sexual misconduct. Ephron, of course, trudged through the murky waters of newsroom sexism with an uncanny grace. “I loved the [New York] Post,” she said in the 2015 documentary, Everything Is Copy. “Of course, it was a zoo. The editor was a sexual predator. The managing editor was a lunatic. Sometimes it seemed that half the staff was drunk.” My love and respect for Ephron was muddied after watching the documentary this summer, which recklessly bathes in Ephron’s glamorous elusivity while portraying her as a professional and domestic goddess: a fabulous cook, friend, mother, stylist, house-hunter, organizer, cheerleader, mailgirl, socialite, filmmaker, screenwriter, director, essayist, memoirist, and, of course, journalist. Like Diaries, the film captures Ephron’s flaws, as well as her effervescence, but in a way reminiscent of Jane Austen’s depiction of Emma: even with her imperfections, she is perfect. Nay, she is perfect because of her imperfections. Ephron and Brown make me want to be great. Perfect, even. To never let anything dim our lights. Our brothel, inexplicably, had two fridges. One was standard white with textured baubles and an ice-maker that, too, seemed prone to hormonal oscillations. The other was like an afterthought. Slightly smaller and willfully wonky, we joked that this little sister was only adopted by the house because of another outdated imaginary law: “If one house shall beholdeth two refrigerators and nine womenfolk, it shall hereby no longer be a ‘brothel,’ but a household of the utmost decency.” (Aside from the rodents.) Even when Ephron fell apart in the public eye after a messy divorce, she wrote a seething novel to reclaim her experiences; she called up her friend, the late gossip columnist Liz Smith, to help her manipulate the news. This unbelievable display of sheer invincibility and unassailable perfection makes me feel like that second refrigerator: Ugly. Useless. Unwomanly. In my experience, advice from writers is often in accordance with my gender. In high school, one Washington Post journalist told us students that she fluctuates between serious and “ditzy,”

VOICES

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because depending on the source, they will either take her seriously and treat her thus or think she is foppish and spill the tea. Another journalist came to Georgetown and said there is no such thing as a woman who is a journalist. There is only the woman journalist. She continued: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a journalistic career and in want of a partner must work very hard to achieve said partner, even if that means putting on heels and strutting around the sports section of the newsroom. She spoke with authority; she was newly engaged. This romanticization of newsroom sexism frustrates me. The pressure of feminine perfection, often marrying professional and domestic expectations, sickens me. I revel in all of Brown and Ephron’s successes. They flicked away shards of glass from the infamous ceiling with every witty cutline. But I worry about the lack of realistic and accessible female role models. Most of the editorial role models I can list off the top of my head are wealthy and white, for starters, and followed a similar, distinct brand of femininity on which they capitalized to achieve their many, crucial successes. Let’s broaden what it looks like to be great. Let’s do more work to analyze how the shadows of time may be idealizing these women’s roles as rule-breakers and casting them in thematic busts of perfection. Let’s make sure our peers feel they can be women and journalists, separately, whatever that looks like. And maybe, the role models you need and deserve are sitting next to you on the couch, grabbing boxed wine from the fridge, dissecting the documentary on TV, finishing up frontpage stories, and cracking jokes about living in a brothel.

Emma Francois is a staff writer and studies English, art, and art history in the College.

VOICES

September 28, 2018

Georgetown Needs a Buddhist Chaplain

Margaux Fontaine

My memories of the Jesuit Values Panel of NSO are strikingly clear. Sitting in McDonough Arena, I heard thoughtful presentations from various spiritual leaders on campus, like Imam Yahya Hendi and Rabbi Rachel Gartner. I heard inspiring words about how Georgetown is a “Community in Diversity” that encourages spiritual growth and exploration. But more and more, what I was told about Georgetown’s inclusivity diverged from what I actually felt: left out. As other students flocked to their own religious leaders, I looked for the Director of Buddhist Life or the Buddhist chaplain to talk to but found neither. It was sadly ironic that after I sat through an hourlong presentation that preached religious diversity, my religion was not represented. Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world, with 488 million people practicing in the world today, yet there is no full-time Buddhist clergy on Georgetown’s campus. It is absolutely necessary for this to change. While the self-identifying Buddhist population on campus may be small, Georgetown has an obligation to establish a full-time Buddhist chaplaincy on campus out of respect for one of the world’s most prevalent religions and in order to act in accordance with our school’s pluralistic values. Of the nine “Spirit of Georgetown” core values, two stand out in particular when it comes to having a Buddhist chaplain: Interreligious Understanding and Community in Diversity. Both values highlight the importance of having dialogue between religions, as it allows students to be both teachers and learners. I personally have greatly benefitted from having a Christian chaplain on my floor, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be exposed to the Christian faith. I’ve started to realize that the core messages in Christianity are similar to my own beliefs. At the end of the day, we both believe in the power of spirituality and being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

I’ve learned about various traditions and practices, including meditation, through a Christian lens. While I still have more to learn, I already feel a deeper connection and respect for my Christian peers. I love learning about other religions, but it is equally important for me to have the opportunity to teach and share experiences of my own faith. As for Community in Diversity, according to the Campus Ministry web page, the Office of Campus Ministry supports Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu chaplaincies and worship services. While Georgetown has been forward-thinking and has made great strides to include more religious diversity, there is still more to be done. To achieve progress, Georgetown should take a proactive approach to the presence of Buddhism on campus. Georgetown has given the explanation that there is no need for a Buddhist chaplain because few students have self-identified as Buddhists. However, this response is missing the point. It’s not only about population; it’s about respect for a large world religion that should be represented on campus. Buddhism is important for more than just its religious aspects. It can shed light on world issues that people may not otherwise be aware of, and it can help us better understand peace activism, such as that of the well-known Dalai Lama. Furthermore, Georgetown has a relatively large Asian student population. Most of them may not self-identify as Buddhists, but they have likely followed Buddhist teachings through their lives since Buddhism has profoundly influenced all Asian cultures. I am heartened that Georgetown has made efforts to create a space for Buddhists, which I learned while attending a Buddhist interest dinner put on by the Georgetown Buddhist Student Association (BuSA) and Campus Ministry. The university deserves credit for making arrangements for occasional visits from a community Buddhist priest to campus and for supporting a stu-

dent-run Buddhist group. This student group provides a community for Buddhist meditation practice, invites guest lecturers, and hosts film screenings. However, these gestures are just a start. The university should have a Buddhist chaplain along with the other religious chaplains to support meaningful efforts for the greater campus community to engage with the religion. Instead of offering limited activities for students who currently identify as Buddhist, Georgetown must provide chaplain who can make Buddhism more visible and accessible to all students. The presence of a Buddhist chaplain on campus would enrich the experience of all Georgetown students, regardless of whether they are Buddhist or even religious. Chaplains should serve as support systems, teachers, mentors, and friends. Buddhist students deserve access to a chaplain as a mentor and a valuable source of support in moments of need, and other students deserve the opportunity to learn and grow in their own spiritual, or even just educational, experiences. Georgetown has talked a good talk about fostering religious diversity and interreligious dialogue and supporting each student on their individual spiritual journeys. If these claims are true, then I look forward to seeing the university’s newest addition to Campus Ministry.

Clara Chiu is a junior in the College majoring in government. She loves crunchy peanut butter and hates creamy peanut butter just as passionately.

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Natalie Chaudhuri is a freshman in the SFS who enjoys getting lost with her friends.

Of course, all of us want to be able to skip to the part of the college experience where the homework is under control, where our careers are set, or where we’ve already met our life-long friends, but the pride in being a Georgetown student does not have to begin after we’ve already climbed that hill. Maybe eventually we’ll learn that the ideals we came in with do not have to define the Georgetown experience, and that the real beauty of college lies more in the passions we’ve yet to discover than in the Hillternship we’ve planned for our whole lives. Sometimes the best way for us to see those alternatives is through the people who came before us, those who can help us brave the storm. The fact that I decided to join a Living Learning Community has meant that I’m interacting with more upperclassmen than ever. They can sniff the freshman in me from a mile away, usually because I’m always getting lost, or heading toward emergency exit staircases that will lock behind me. I don’t know what happens between freshman and sophomore year that makes one an “upperclassman.” All I know is that there is an aura of self-confidence and ease that is tangibly absent from most freshmen. Of course, according to sophomores, only juniors and seniors are truly considered “upperclassmen”—but when you’re a freshman searching for guidance, anyone who’s been here more than a month counts. As easy as it is to take these upperclassmen for granted, I know that I would crumble without them. We all learn from them, both when they act as role models and when they serve as cautionary tales. So if you’re an upperclassmen, I hope you appreciate how much of an impact you’re able to make on us young, impressionable freshmen. Whether you’re the TA who helps to ease the nerves around intimidating professors, the RA who has the cutest cats (no one can beat Fidel Catstro), or the OA who assured us that, even if we somehow made no friends and suffered from loneliness the first couple weeks (or whole first semester), she would be there— your actions have meant more to us than you could imagine. In other words, upperclassmen have shown me what a real Georgetown student looks like. They have an honesty that other mentors typically don’t, and they’re willing to share the best and worst parts of Georgetown. They have been through many of the hurdles we will go through and more, and knowing that there is support out there has helped me feel more like a Hoya than any class I could attend. Even though I don’t understand why they use so many GIFs, or why college students think Facebook is the best form of social media, that one-to-three year divide becomes less insurmountable the more I get to know them. They can’t always make sure that you don’t oversleep in the morning, and

I doubt they’re going to do your laundry for you, but they can be the support system you thought you’d have to live without. Maybe I didn’t feel the magic of Hogwarts, but I do feel the magic of the upperclassmen’s love, and that makes me feel more like the chosen one than any spell they could cast.

Camilla Aitbayev

From the moment I entered the magical world of NSO, I knew this wasn’t going to be Hogwarts, no matter what Healy Hall’s appearance suggested. Moving across the country and starting over is overwhelming for anyone, especially a freshman in college. The forced small talk, the rats, the stress of schoolwork, the rats … But amid the chaos and intense rain on campus (West Texans like me aren’t cut out for this), there is a Golden Snitch amid the clouds: the upperclassmen. Before Georgetown, I had people looking out for me. Whether they were the teachers writing my recommendations, the family members helping me move in all two … three … four … okay, five of my suitcases, or the friends whose relationships I’m now learning to navigate from miles away, support was a given. Then I had to become a college student. No more designated eating times. No more adults telling you not to play capture the flag at one in the morning for NSO. No more parents offering to buy medicine for you because everyone on campus is suffering from the freshman plague. And yet, even though I’ve lost something in the leap from high school to college, I’ve been able to gain something, too: a different kind of family. If you’re a younger child like me, you know how impactful older siblings can be in paving the way. My oldest sister showed me everything that I wanted college to be: being active in social justice, achieving in classes, and thriving in the Northeast at a university with helpful resources for getting a successful, steady job. (No pressure, right?) The only problem was that I wasn’t able to bring either of my sisters with me to college. Instead, I had to find my mentors amid the new faces and the never-ending icebreakers. But how could I do that if I wasn’t even confident enough to speak to them? Luckily, multiple upperclassmen came to my rescue when I least expected it and when I most needed it. Because a sophomore told me to do Rangila even though there were only five minutes until signups and I had quite a bit of Plato to finish reading, I found a creative outlet and gained greater confidence to interact with even more upperclassmen. Because a junior told me, “Explore. You can only use the excuse of getting lost because you’re a freshman for a year,” I evolved from getting lost by myself to getting lost with friends in the lowest levels of the Leavey Center. In other words, the upperclassmen have been the older siblings I couldn’t live without. Realizing this has inspired me to interact with upperclassmen more, asking questions about their lives they probably haven’t even thought about themselves, and making them feel really old about the fact that they entered their first year of college without the prestige of surviving the Tide Pod challenge. But this kind of interaction has to go both ways: Freshmen have to have the courage to bridge that gap as well—because at some point, we’re going to have to take that baton from them.

VOICES

You’re a Hoya, Natalie!

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

jacob bilich photoS: STANFORD ATHLETICS, GEORGETOWN ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS

Hoyas Make their Mark in U.S. Youth National Team Camps On a Thursday night after a hard spring season practice, Georgetown women’s soccer head coach Dave Nolan called the team into the huddle to give junior defender Meaghan Nally incredible news. “Dave is like, ‘I have some news for you guys,’” Nally said. “So then he pulls out his phone and says, ‘Yeah, I got this email during practice.’ So then he starts reading it, and he’s like, ‘Hi Dave, I hope this finds you well. I’m asking for the immediate release of Meaghan Nally to attend the U.S. National Team camp,’ and then I was a little stunned, and then I just started crying because it’s a dream come true.” In May, once practices for the year were over, senior forward Caitlin Farrell found out that she, too, would be headed to a national team camp. Although it wasn’t in front of the whole squad (only senior midfielder Meghan Shaver was with her at the time), the moment was no less special for her. A week after Nally, Farrell was due in Southern California, where the camps were held. The U.S. National Team camps are week-long events that allow the national team staff to acquaint themselves with prospec-

tive international-level players. They’re a chance for the players to show that they can hold their own against other top-level talent in their age group, and the coaches use the camps to make roster decisions for future competitions. On the women’s side, FIFA only holds international youth tournaments for the U-17 and U-20 age groups, but U.S. Soccer looks to evaluate as many players as it possibly can to prepare for the future of their competitive teams. As such, the American federation holds various camps aimed at high school and college-aged players who could potentially make the jump to the full team. The legacy of the United States women’s national soccer team (USWNT) speaks for itself. The U.S. has won three of the seven Women’s World Cups and four of six Olympic tournaments. Over that time frame, the Women’s World Cup has doubled in size from 12 to 24 teams, and the United States boasts a successful professional women’s soccer league five years after its founding. As women’s soccer grows in popularity and the sport’s landscape changes, so too does the composition of the U.S. women’s national team. The national team’s early dominance was spear-

headed by 21-time NCAA champion UNC-Chapel Hill: The 1991 and 1999 World Cup-winning teams had nine of 18 and eight of 20 players from North Carolina, respectively. In 2015, only six of the 23 players went to UNC. “A long time ago, North Carolina made up 18 [spots] of the national team, and two other kids from two other schools,” Nolan said. “But now, over the last couple of years you’re starting to see kids coming in from Georgetown, from Rutgers, from Santa Clara. You’re getting to see kids coming in from smaller soccer schools because it just shows there’s more talent.” At the start of Nolan’s tenure as head coach, Georgetown did not send any players to these illustrious camps. However, after former midfielder Ingrid Wells’ (COL ’11) standout freshman season on the Hilltop in 2007, Nolan successfully pushed for her inclusion in a U-20 women’s national team camp. By the summer of 2008, Wells played alongside USWNT stars Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan at the U-20 World Cup, helping the U.S. win the tournament and putting Nolan and Georgetown on the national team’s selection radar.

ETICS,

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

“I have that little bit of trust with national staff when I call and talk to them about players, they’ll know that I’m not just pushing them for the sake of pushing them,” Nolan said. “I’m grateful that the program is at the stage now where our players are worthy of getting a look, then they go in and do their best and see what comes out of it.” Since Wells’ breakthrough, Nolan has continued to recommend his players to the national team staff. Former defender Emily Menges (COL ’14), former midfielders Daphne (COL ’15) and Rachel Corboz (COL ’18), and senior goalkeeper Arielle Schechtman have all participated in national team camps under Nolan. The consistent presence of Georgetown players at national team camps in the past decade has helped Nolan attract a caliber of player to Georgetown who may have previously looked past the school. “We always say to [recruits] that, ‘Hey, if you have goals to wear a national team shirt or play professional, you can achieve that here, and here’s the proof,’” he said. “We point to Ingrid [Wells] winning a gold medal, and we point to Emily Menges playing for the Portland Thorns, and we point to Daphne [Corboz] playing for Manchester City in England and now Rachel [Corboz] playing for FC Fleury in France, and [Elizabeth Wenger (MSB ’18)] playing in Switzerland, so we’re able to say to kids, ‘Whatever your soccer goals are you can achieve them here.’” This summer, it was Nally and Farrell who got the nod to travel to Southern California. Nally was selected for the U-19 camp, while Farrell headed to the U-23 camp along with graduate student forward and future teammate Kyra Carusa, who transferred to Georgetown for the 2018 season after graduating from Stanford. The camps challenge players with a higher level of play than colleges do because they aim to draw the best in the nation, but Nally first felt the heightened intensity mentally. Despite their jet lag, the U-19s were immediately firing on all cylinders. “The first day was just kind of a recovery session since we had all traveled that day, and we were just doing simple five versus two rondos, which is just keepaway,” she said. “We did it for three minutes, and right as we stopped, everyone there immediately started talking to each other and saying, ‘Here’s what we need to be doing better. What can we do better?’”

Farrell (18) prepares to take a shot on goal. Nally’s camp ran concurrently with the U-18s. On the final day, they were joined by the U-20 team that was preparing for the U-20 Women’s World Cup. The three age groups combined on that last day to play a six versus six small-sided tournament. The U-23 camp was entirely made of current NCAA players, as U.S. Soccer runs two different U-23 camps to minimize players’ time away from their teams and runs the camp for pro-

fessional players during the college season. As with Nally and the U-19s, the team didn’t play any competitive matches, but for the national team coaches, time spent with the players in a practice setting is invaluable. Nolan has made the most of these types of camps to help his players get their feet in the door. “The 19s is usually the first look at kids to prepare them for the next U-20 cycle, and the 23s is usually [because] they want to get to know kids, see what their attitude is like, see what their training is like, see what their skill set is like, so that they know who to evaluate, because they’re constantly evaluating the young players in the league anyway,” Nolan said. “The higher up the ladder you go, the less opportunities there are, but U.S. Soccer does a great job of looking for talent that may have been missed.” The camp also gave Carusa a chance to get acquainted with one of her new teammates. She played her undergraduate career at Stanford and didn’t know anyone on the Georgetown squad aside from Schechtman, her close friend from San Diego. Playing with Farrell, her future strike partner on the Hilltop, was a bonus. “It was cool to be able to talk with Caitlin about the upcoming year and kind of be excited with her about those things and ask her questions about the Georgetown team that I was coming into,” Carusa said. “I liked having this earlier meeting, in a soccer context too, because then I got to see her play.”

While this was Carusa’s second national team camp, it was the first for Farrell, who had a breakout junior season for Georgetown. She started all 21 games and stepped more into the spotlight of the Hoyas’ offense, notching eight goals and three assists for the year. “I knew this was going to be an entirely new experience for me, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t really know anyone there very well, so it was nice going in knowing that this girl is going to be on my team,” Farrell said. The camps are designed for national coaches to get a sense of players’ personalities rather than technical development, but the players have consistently come back and made a greater impact at Georgetown than the year before. “What gets them into national team camp is the skill set they have,” Nolan said. “What it does is it gives them confidence to come back and know that they’ve just played with some of the best players in the country. They can come back here and do well for us.” With one exception, Nally, Farrell, and Carusa have started every game for the undefeated Georgetown team. Carusa and Farrell’s time together at camp has paid off, as the two have combined for 12 goals and four assists, directly contributing to 14 of Georgetown’s 19 goals through the first 10 games. Nally has been a rock at the back, heavily contributing to the Hoyas’ six clean sheets while continuing to bomb forward in attack, and getting the game-winning goal at West Virginia over Labor Day weekend. The three recognize that their work

isn’t finished. Their desire for more opportunities with the national team has shown in their play, both as individuals and for the Georgetown team as a whole. At camp, there were no mental breaks.

Nally (23) dribbles out of pressure. “You train a lot every day of the week, you’re playing games—soccer goes on for 12 months basically—and sometimes you can forget that you can get better every day,” Carusa said. “When you’re at camp it kind of rejuvenates that in you, and it reminds you that you can learn from your teammates, you can learn from your coaches, you can be better that day even though it’s just another day of training.” This is a drive beyond just having a successful season, but also to continue on in their careers and have future chances with the national team, following in the footsteps of Hoya greats from the past decade. “It just gives me a taste of exactly where I want to be and what I want to do,” Nally said. “Okay, that’s where I want to be, that’s what I want to do. Let’s go home, let’s go get better.” Despite not playing any official matches, the prospect of pulling on the same jersey as Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, and Carli Lloyd is magical in its own right. “One of the coolest things was sitting down in the first film session, and they pull up film and it’s film of U.S. Soccer, and you’re like, ‘That could be me, people could be watching film on us at some point,’” Carusa said. “Someone saw something in you and chose you, out of everyone else in the nation, to come to this camp and represent the U.S.” And while the future possibilities are exciting, the moment of walking into the locker room itself was just as special. “When you see your name above your locker and it has the U.S. crest [next] to it,” Farrell said, “it kind of makes you feel like, ‘Wow, I’m really here. I’m representing my country.’”

Carusa (4) takes on a defender.

PHOTOs: ALEX LEWONTIN

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Long Story Short

D.C. Film Festival Celebrates Creativity and Culture

In a city where politics reign supreme and attention spans are limited, a tweet can spark more conversation than a novel, a sound bite can change the course of an election— and a short film can haunt you for a lifetime. But barring viral success, short films lack the public platform available to feature-length movies. Artistic platforms are especially scarce in a city like D.C., where talk of government often drowns out creativity, harming the advancement of short films and those who create them. Enter the DC Shorts Film Festival and Screenplay Competition. When you attend the ten-day-long festival at the Landmark E Street Cinema, you descend into an underground cinematic world unrecognizable from the city outside. Attendees are submerged in the depths of the movie house and traverse its labyrinthine basement hallways to intimate theaters. After the festival’s kickoff weekend—a series of parties and award ceremonies designed to allow filmmakers, screenwriters, and audience members to connect over their mutual love of films— the odyssey through the cinema sets the perfect tone for the film showcases at the heart of the event. Moviegoers isolate themselves from the hubbub and mundane anxieties of D.C. life to plunge into the lives of characters whose stories might not otherwise appear on the screen. The festival included nine special showcases, each a 90-minute exhibition of short films defined by a common theme, from animation to coming-of-age to history. The special showcases tended to hone in on one common thread and presented shorts offering a variety of different angles and perspectives, leaving viewers with an abundance of diverse and

powerful statements. One, “I Am Woman,” revolved around historical and contemporary women’s issues by exploring films about illness, abuse, and intersectionality. Another, “You Are Not From Around Here,” took an international perspective via the eyes of a French gang leader, an Arab doctor, and the president of Mexico. The first film shown during “Ripped From the Headlines,” a special showcase of current events shorts, left the air thick with emotion and silence. Breathing felt too loud. A handful of strangers in an cozy theater were brought together by a common need to turn to each other and say the one thing we were all thinking. Finally, a man in the audience broke the spell. “Oh shit,” he said in disbelief, granting us all the permission to laugh nervously, as we braced ourselves for whatever story of grief was up next. Cue David Serink’s The Avocado. The opening scenes are simple and heartwarming, just like most of the film. The main character, an older Latino man named Raul, fixes his hair in the mirror and practices how he might ask his coworker, Rosa, on a date during their lunch break. As the film unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that Rosa and Raul both have crushes on each other, but neither one of them can work up the courage to tell the other. The audience was giddy when they finally did, watching two sweet people find love. Raul, dressed smartly in a suit, is ready to go so early that he kills time by pacing back and forth in his living room. There is a knock on his door—presumably Rosa. The scene cuts to Rosa beautifully done up in makeup and a dress, standing outside the restaurant and checking her phone. Meanwhile, Raul opens his door to two men and

immediately tries to close it, but is instead bombarded with a series of questions about his identity. As he is being taken away by ICE, he tries to tell them that he has to get to Rosa. The short ends with a glowing shot of Rosa, sitting alone in the restaurant, gazing up at the band, waiting for a man who was never going to come. In the silence after the film, one sound was distinct among the audience: sniffles. They became a constant throughout the showcase, as we confronted a series of difficult topics. The striking Sun Shine, directed by Walker Hare, follows a black girl as she tries to stop a depressed white man from shooting up his office. She is young and vibrant, but a film about gun violence in our current political climate could not end happily. She snatches the gun away from the man, but is dead minutes later, shot and killed by a police officer who only saw a black girl holding a gun. Like The Avocado, Sun Shine is hard to swallow because it echoes so clearly the tragedies of the contemporary world. It’s powerful because it’s true. You can’t forget the film’s image of the teenager being shot, you can’t forget Raul being dragged away by ICE—contrary to the way you can close a newspaper and walk away from it. If you read the headlines every day, they are rarely uplifting. Yet the shorts had the power to make viewers feel a deep despair that a newspaper article never could because, like any good film does, they forced the audience to become attached to characters, to root for them even though, by virtue of the sinister events that make the headlines, they were never going to win.

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Movie frames, left to right: Courtesy The World Is Round So That Nobody Can Hide In The Corners, Fauve, BINI, Sun Shine, and The Avocado.

By Kayla Hewitt and Brynn Furey “Cinema 10%” dove into the difficulties faced by the LGBTQ+ community. The night of the showcase, the theater was packed with a jovial crowd. As the lights went down and the first short began, the mood shifted. The first short, The World Is Round So That Nobody Can Hide In The Corners, opens with the sounds of heavy breathing so loud that they stirred a shiver at the base of each audience member’s spine. Within the first few seconds of the short, the entire atmosphere had shifted from excited to uncomfortable. As the gay couple shared an intimate moment on screen, the audience became viscerally aware of their positions as outsiders. The short continues to tell the story of an African refugee who was kicked out of his home country for falling in love with another man. The film is entirely narrated by the man himself, who forces viewers to confront his reality and the lack of humanity he has been shown. The audience shifted anxiously in their seats as he numbly described his trauma, and it became clear that this account was not dramatic to him, but simply a fact of his life. The audience members, many of whom were members of the LGBTQ+ community and sat beside their partners, seemed to be particularly affected by the narratives presented throughout “Cinema 10%.” At times, the room was filled with stunned silence. At others, nostalgia for first loves perfumed the air. One feeling remained consistent: a sense of pride over queer stories and the filmmakers who were given a platform to tell them. The event is not only a celebration of the films themselves but also of their creators. Garnering a sense of community for artists in the DMV has been central to the mission of the DC

Shorts Film Festival and its sponsors since its founding by local filmmaker Joe Gann in 2003. In an interview with the Voice, Melissa Houghton, executive director of Women in Film and Video, a sponsor of the festival, said, “We work in an emerging narrative film community and one way for filmmakers to test their wings is through short films.” Three years after its founding, the success of the festival inspired its organizers to form the DC Film Alliance. The Alliance is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the film and media arts in D.C.—to both shine a spotlight on filmmaking in the area and perpetuate its existence. Along with the festival, the DC Film Alliance runs programs to support creators and disseminates information on local job listings and mentorship programs to help independent creators develop their skills. Although D.C. may not be recognized as a hub of creativity in the same way as New York City or Los Angeles, the DC Film Alliance argues that the creative work done here can be every bit as prolific and valuable. Most of the festival’s partners are other local festivals and companies who share their mission of fueling creativity in the D.C. area. Otessa Ghadar, the executive director DC Web Fest, one of DC Shorts’ partners, wrote in an email to the Voice, “There is a tremendous amount of talent in the area, as well as internationally, and the creative community here deserves to be uplifted. Rising tides lift all boats as they say.” In an effort to raise the tide, another program within the festival, the Screenplay Competition, offers a chance to win $2,000 toward the production of a screenplay. Each year,

filmmakers are invited to submit screenplays, and a panel of judges including filmmakers, screenwriters, and critics select their top choices. The local film community—filmmakers, actors, and the audience members—are invited to hear the finalist entries read aloud by local actors at the Screenplay Competition. The audience votes on the screenplay that they would most like to see on screen at the following year’s festival. The international culture of the D.C. area weaves itself in with the local culture, something that the creators of the festival strive to reflect. This year, the Best Local DMV Film Award went to recent George Mason University graduate Erblin Nushi for his film BINI. Nushi is a Kosovan filmmaker who became a refugee at the age of six, when he and his family were kidnapped by Serbian soldiers and taken to the Albanian border where they remained until the end of the Kosovo War. His short film BINI, which depicts this harrowing tale, is as anxiety-inducing as it is breathtaking. Foreign perspectives, like Nushi’s, from 30 countries reflected in the festival’s selected films, widening D.C.’s global outlook. The DC Shorts Film Festival and Screenplay Competition helps filmmakers, especially District locals, flourish. Whether through screen-time, awards, or networks, DC Shorts is an essential event for the whole D.C. community, artists and audiences alike. Its emphasis on both local and international works is worth supporting, and the riveting new short films are a strong pull for any District cinephile. Ten days of such a thrilling festival may seem too short for local filmmakers and film-lovers, but sometimes shorter is better.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

New Program Director Looks to Engage Students at Ki by Alex Lewontin

While freshmen moved into their dorms, wrapped up NSO, and started classes, someone else was also settling into campus —Juan Belmán Guerrero, the new program director for the Georgetown University Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. “[The biggest challenge] has been just remembering everyone’s name, all the different departments we work with, and the different organizations here on campus and out in the city,” Belmán said. “My colleagues have been wonderful and very supportive in my transition here.” The Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, or KI for short, is Georgetown’s arm for engaging with issues relating to workers’ rights and labor movements. Since 2009, the center has undertaken political and economic projects from a working class perspective, a position in keeping with the Jesuit, and more broadly Catholic, tradition of engagement with the labor movement. As program manager, Belmán’s primary responsibility is engaging with students and helping them get involved with projects affiliated with the KI and its mission to advocate for workers and economic justice. “[Program manager] is our most student-interactive position,” said Joseph McCartin, director of the KI. “It’s key for the person who does that work to be able to interact well with a wide range of students.” The student-oriented nature of Belmán’s position was reflected in the hiring process. In a first for the KI, students who had participated in its programs consulted the staff, interviewing the finalists for the position and giving their approving the decision to hire Belmán. “They loved our candidates that they met, and it confirmed our good feeling about Juan,” McCartin said. “He underwent an experience at college that we find a lot of students who get involved in our work undergo. He didn’t go to college thinking he wanted to get involved in issues like worker rights, but it was while there that he became exposed to it, and started to think differently about his future. Having gone through that experience himself, he’s really able to reach out to a whole range of students.”

Belmán started work on Aug. 13, replacing former program manager Nick Wertsch (LAW ’18), who departed in May following his graduation from the Georgetown University Law Center. Belmán was a first-generation DACAmented college student at the University of Texas, Austin. After graduating, he stayed in Austin and worked for the Workers Defense Project, where he advised providers of legal services for immigrants, helping them coordinate with each other so they were better able to refer clients and collaborate on cases. “Because of my experience with immigrant rights in Texas, I hope that I can support students and introduce them to that kind of work,” Belmán said. “Here at KI we focus on labor, so I hope I can bring some experience about the intersection of labor and immigrant rights.” McCartin said Belmán’s unique experience will help guide students address this field. “More and more we are trying to engage with the issues of immigration, which are very alive right now in our society and overlap and impinge with the issues of workers’ rights in profound ways,” he said. Projects undertaken by the KI include the Labor Capital Strategies Fellowship, which matches students with internships at progressive investment firms; the Worker Justice D.C. Alternative Break Program, where students spend spring break

working on labor issues in Washington; and the Just Employment Policy Project, which advocates for the adoption of progressive employment policies at Catholic and Jesuit colleges across the country. Belmán is eager to set students up to work on those projects, or any others that might interest them. He hopes that students won’t hesitate to reach out to him if they’re interested in learning about or getting involved with the KI, or labor issues in D.C. in general. “If students want to be connected to any social issues, specifically around labor rights and immigrant rights, please contact me,” Belmán said. “We can get coffee and we can see how we can connect them to the work going on here.” Belmán also has a personal connection to the Georgetown student body: His younger brother, Mizraim Belmán Guerrero (SFS ’20), is a junior. The two have been half a country away from each other for the two years since Mizraim started Georgetown, and his older brother is excited to be close again. “Being able to be here and support him in any way I can has been really helpful for me, and I hope for him as well,” Belmán said. Much of Belmán’s first month has been spent getting up to speed at the university and in a new city. As he gets settled in, Belmán looks forward to working directly with students. “Everyone I’ve met has been so wonderful and passionate about the work they’re doing,” he said. “Whatever I end up working on, that work is led by students, and my job is really to support the students.” PHOTos Courtesy of KI

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Finding His Voice: Jason Berry Reflects on College and Career As the Voice nears our 50th anniversary in March 2019, we are looking back at our history, alumni, and life after the Voice.

Katya Schwenk & Rachel Cohen WASHINGTON, D.C.

Jason Berry (COL ’71) arrived at Georgetown in 1967, during the height of the Vietnam War. Lyndon B. Johnson was president and the university, like the rest of the country, was gripped by fiery anti-war protests. Students were angry and looking for an outlet. The Georgetown Voice was their answer. In 1969, Stephen Pisinski (COL ’71) and a few friends, frustrated by The Hoya’s reluctance to cover the war and other off-campus news, split from the newspaper to create their own. “Our editorial policy will view and analyze issues in a liberal light. We shall not limit our editorial content to campus topics,” they wrote in the Voice’s debut editorial in 1969. “We promise to present and analyze national and local issues of concern to the students, whose concern should spread beyond the campus.” Berry was one of these early members of the Voice, writing film and theater reviews. Since then, he has produced a film on jazz in New Orleans and written a comedic novel. But it was during his career as an investigative reporter in the ’80s when he wrote the story that changed his career: His report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in New Orleans broke the story before it had become the nationwide conversation it is today. Before that, though, when he first arrived on campus 50 years ago, Berry was new to activism and overwhelmed by wartime protests. “I was just a guy from New Orleans,” he said. “I wasn’t used to things like that.” The politics at the time were heated because they were deeply personal. Berry and other male students were eligible for the draft. At any moment, they could be selected and required to enlist. “I remember in my junior year, sitting around a kitchen of a house on Calvert Street, and we listened on the radio as they called out the numbers in the lottery,” Berry said. “If you got a low number you had to register for the draft.” His number—in the 300s—was high enough to spare him. The heightened political tension on campus during those years was unavoidable. Student voices grew louder and more radical. “It was a very politically charged environment. The combination of civil rights and the war created an atmosphere of great intensity,” he said. Although Berry opposed the war, he didn’t consider himself the most radical voice on campus. He laughed as he recalled the irony of poring over Dante and Shakespeare for his English classes and then taking to the streets afterwards to protest the establishment. “I guess you could call me a moderate radical,” he said. Everyone was talking about politics all the time, Berry said. And they wrote about politics, too. He remembers the strength of student journalism then. Vietnam helped create the Voice, and it also strengthened the readership of other outlets.

“I had the impression that a lot of students read those outlets,” Berry said. “You read the student press to learn what was going on in your own world.” Martin Yant (SFS ’71), another early Voice member, recruited Berry to write for the publication. Berry often wrote for the university’s literary magazine, Georgetown Quarterly. In 1970, the administration slashed student media budgets. Several publications merged with the Quarterly—which still “failed to come out quarterly,” according to the 1971 yearbook. Others did not survive at all. The Voice itself hardly made it through.

Berry (front) with members of the Georgetown Quarterly Photo taken from the Georgetown Yearbook 1971

“It felt the lack of financial b acking t o t he p oint t hat i t opted for a cheaper format, so that it does not become a HoyaVoice,” the 1971 yearbook read. Despite rumors of a merger at the time, the Voice has continued independently ever since. Berry continued to pursue journalism after his start at the Voice. After graduating, he went to Mississippi and worked as a press secretary for Charles Evers’ unsuccessful bid for governor. He published a book on that experience in 1973. By the age of 24, he had returned to New Orleans and started a career as a freelance journalist, covering arts

and politics in the city. Since then, he has worked as an independent writer. But his life as a freelance writer in the early ’70s would be impossible now, Berry said. His apartment in New Orleans cost $75 a month—less than $500 today. He could survive on one article a week, and he found comfortable success in his work. It was this independence, he said, that allowed him to write the story that changed his career. In 1984, a friend of his from high school, who worked as a lawyer, granted him access to the trial documents of a priest accused of sex abuse in Lafayette County, Louisiana. The series of articles he wrote spurred by those first documents was the first well-publicized case of sex abuse in the Catholic Church in the U.S. The stories shocked the nation and launched Berry’s career. Berry could never quite escape the story. Priests and nuns approached him with tips on other cases. In 2002, The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team published their famed findings of sexual misconduct and abuse within Catholic churches in their area, and spurred Berry to investigate. “I sort of came out of retirement on that issue. I got a contract very quickly and did a second book,” he said. Berry felt obligated to pursue the story. “My life probably would have been happier if I had just kept writing about politics and culture in New Orleans,” Berry said. “But the story kept deepening and widening, and it became such a media narrative. Almost like a tsunami, which is where we are right now.” Now this wave has reached Georgetown. The university has faced criticism from students for not revoking the honorary degrees of Cardinals Theodore McCarrick and Donald Wuerl— both of whom were involved in high-profile sex abuse scandals in the Church this summer. Berry wrote a piece for the Washington Post on these scandals in August. While it’s an important conversation, Berry explained, it’s not the only subject he cares about. He has dedicated much of his career to writing about New Orleans, covering its rich arts and music scene. Just as the national spotlight falls once again on the Church, his book on the city he loves is being released. “There have been two major stories of my life: the city of my birth and the church at which I was raised,” Berry said. “And right now, they’re colliding.” This collision of stories has always been a vital part of the Voice’s own philosophy. The publication was founded to cover both local and national politics, to investigate art and culture as well as political scandals—a dichotomy Berry has embodied throughout his career. Berry emphasized the importance of the student and local journalism in papers like the Voice. “Journalism is going through a revolution with so many print outlets really being starved for advertising,” he said. “While the web has indeed opened up a seemingly endless array of outlets, it’s so important to have intelligent, critical commentary not just of city life, but life in small towns.” But Berry remains optimistic about the profession he began 50 years ago with the Voice. “I don’t think journalism is going to simply fade,” he said. “The important thing is not to give up.”

LEISURE

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

From the Page to the Screen, The Sisters Brothers Challenges the Stereotypical West By Brynne Long

For Patrick deWitt, author of the novel The Sisters Brothers, the American West is more than a place of cowboys and gunfights. His story is that of Eli and Charlie Sisters, a fictional, infamous duo of brother bounty hunters who live during the Gold Rush, bonding and fighting on a journey across the American West. The adventure reflects the larger story of their lives together and parallels their experiences with those in the American West circa 1850. Director Jacques Audiard’s adaptation of deWitt’s book to the screen masterfully maintains the story’s unique flavors, while also cutting it down to size. The story follows Eli and Charlie Sisters (John C. Riley and Joaquin Phoenix, respectively), on their latest bounty hunt. They’re searching for Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), who has stolen an unnamed item from their boss, “The Commodore.” Warm is already being pursued by detective John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose job is to apprehend Warm until the brothers can catch up and take over. The Sisters travel through small towns and over mountains to find the men and face the harsh realities of the frontier lifestyle, encountering wild animals, sleeping in the woods, and riding for days on end. The Sisters Brothers at its core is the story of two different people who care deeply for one another. Even faced with his undeniable talent for cowboy-ing, it is clear to the viewer that Eli is out of place. Riley masterfully captures Eli’s desire to get out of the West. His deep discomfort with his situation is communicated through the occasional moments of repose when he presses his face into the soft folds of a cherished shawl given to him by a kind school teacher, a symbol of the settled life that he craves. Charlie, on the other hand, addicted to the rush of killing, sex, and drinking, will never leave the Western life behind. Despite their different desires, though, neither one can let the other go.

PHOTo: IMDB

Tight frames showing physical contact between the brothers, such as two scenes during which they cut each other’s hair help to subtly enforce the Sisters’ affections for each other. These small moments convey the unspoken brotherly love between them and remind the viewer how much they rely on one another. Even in his unhappiness, Eli struggles with the thought of leaving Charlie behind, and Charlie, faced with losing Eli, lashes out and drinks to cope. Theirs is a sad story, and these tender moments are all the more impactful following the transformative turning point late in the film. Each endures a massive change in his own way and emerges resembling his brother more than he would have ever wanted. Audiard’s ability to shorten deWitt’s story while preserving and even enhancing its many moods is notable. Forced by the two-hour film format to cut certain moments from the book, he still manages to develop the story beyond the original. Reimagined, gruesome moments from the original story offer a real, micro view of the troped, macro West. During a nightmare only quietly acknowledged in the book, the viewer is put in Eli’s mind’s eye in the film, which shows a figure later explained to be the character’s father chopping up bodies over a pile of bloody limbs. Audiard also exposits a near-fatal illness that Eli inexplicably catches in the novel. A large, creeping spider crawls over Eli’s blanket and into his mouth the night before he wakes up half-paralyzed and throwing up blood. Through these scenes, Audiard manages to bring the Wild West down to the wilderness level, staying mostly away from excessive plane shots of red peaks and deep, green valleys. Certain characters are afforded more time than in the novel, putting faces to the waves of men who followed gold westward in the 1850s. Whereas the novel focuses completely on Eli and Charlie, Audiard develops other original characters in order to tell a more complex story. Namely, Morris and Warm

are given a lot of on-screen development. Charged by Gyllenhaal’s years of experience, Morris goes from a man led by his creature comforts to one inspired and relieved by the brighteyed possibility of Warm’s dream to create a town of people without greed. Warm is completely motivated by this ideal, and Ahmed communicates his character’s assuredness while also managing to keep him both entirely genuine and saved from his pitiable naivete. The Sisters Brothers brings viewers into the real version of a long-mythologized world. Often what comes to mind when one thinks of the Gold Rush of the 1850s are prospectors out for a buck, flanked by lawless cowboys like Charlie Sisters. DeWitt and Audiard challenge these presumptions with their characters. Eli is an emotional man ready to leave the killing and rootless ways of the West behind in favor of opening a store and settling down. Morris and Warm also diversify the stereotype, each bringing to the film representations of masculine vulnerability. Morris, specifically, echoes the true motivation that led many prospectors west. As he writes in his diary while working with Warm, he found his refuge in the land, away from the developed cities of the East Coast. Their characters remind the viewer that humans, not a mob of faceless, greedy prospectors, went west for a better life. The Sisters Brothers is a gorgeous film, one which challenges stereotypes and champions those who champion love above all. Bolstered by an impressive cast and fantastic direction, every moment of this film illuminates a terrifically misunderstood part of American history. Audiard has beautifully managed to maintain the integrity of an important, emotional story in its transition to the screen. It’s an unexpected message for such a harsh place, but that’s part of what makes it soar off of pages and screens alike.

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Critical Voices

By Katherine Randolph In the past 20 years, Atlanta-based rock band Nashville Pussy has built a moderate fan base with their Southern rock melodies and lyrics revolving around the classic themes of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Their latest album, Pleased to Eat You, plays it safe, despite exploring risqué subject matter. Pleased to Eat You sticks closely to the short, loud, and fast melodies of Nashville Pussy’s most popular work, and though these tracks aren’t particularly original, they show that the band excels at chicken-fried rock. “Low Down Dirty Pig” and “Hang Tight” are both driven by irresistible hooks that make them the earworms of the album. On “Testify,” the band returns to their Southern roots with church-inspired rock and a Led Zeppelin-esque organ background. Guitarist Ruyter Suys shines with a killer solo on this track, one of the best on the album. Suys’ guitar solos comprise many of the album’s finest moments. On “Woke Up This Morning,” her opening riff kicks off the song and carries it all the way through. The lyrics and backing music pale in comparison to Suys’ skill. Likewise, her solo on “One Bad Mother” is the saving grace of the album’s weakest song. At four minutes long, “One Bad Mother” takes too long to become interesting. Unfortunately,

this means that some will end up skipping the song entirely before they have the chance to enjoy Suys’ genius. “One Bad Mother” is not the only song on Pleased to Eat You that overstays its welcome. “Tired of Pretending that I Give a Shit” has solid vocals and strong guitar riffs but drags on without going anywhere. “Just Another White Boy” starts out promising yet fails to deliver. Similarly, “Endless Ride” is disappointingly tame for a track with clear hard metal influences. Pleased to Eat You is best when Nashville Pussy takes risks, which is why the lyrically powerful “Drinking My Life Away” and “Cckmp” stand out as the best songs on the album. On “Drinking My Life Away,” lead vocalist Blaine Cartwright takes center stage with flawless delivery of lyrics like, “I guess I’d feel a whole lot worse if I didn’t feel so fucking good.” “Cckmp,” which is short for “cocaine can’t kill my pain,” is the closest thing to a ballad on the album, and conveys heartbreaking loneliness as Cartwright croons, “Don’t come knocking on my door/I don’t wanna see you round no more.” While much of Pleased to Eat You hides raw emotion underneath a devil-maycare attitude, these tracks convey the ugly side of rock-n-roll reality. Pleased to Eat You is an inoffensive listen, but has too many flat moments to stand out. The band sings about sex,

drugs, and rock-n-roll without making music as interesting as the subject of the lyrics. Nashville Pussy’s risks pay off, but they take too few on a record in desperate need of excitement.

Edel Germany GmbH

BROCKHAMPTON, iridescence By Ryan Mazalatis

BROCKHAMPTON, a self-described “boy band” from San Marcos, Texas, has confronted both fame and controversy in their sudden rise to the top. Before founding the band in 2015, the 13 current members (none older than 26) met on an online forum dedicated to Kanye West. In 2016, they released their first mixtape, ALL-AMERICAN TRASH. Since then, the group has released a trilogy of albums dubbed SAT-

J. Cole P&D

Sony Music Entertainment

URATION, all three installments receiving critical acclaim. Critical praise and a cultish internet following has catapulted BROCKHAMPTON into the upper echelons of contemporary rap. However, the group’s successes have been coupled by crisis. In light of the departure of member Ameer Vann due to sexual abuse allegations, the group has taken an entirely new direction. On Sept. 21, they released their new album iridescence, the first in a trilogy entitled The Best Years of Our Lives. The new album has a wide range of tones and little thematic coherence but uses this fact to its advantage, delivering an experience that redefines the group’s personal narrative and music. Perhaps the most surprising and captivating aspect of the album is its refusal to adhere to fan expectations. This album is markedly different than anything BROCKHAMPTON has released to date. Recorded over the course of 10 days in Abbey Road Studio, iridescence grapples with the radical changes that have impacted the group over the past year. Most notably, Vann’s termination from BROCKHAMPTON forced the group to scrap the unreleased album PUPPY, which featured Vann and was slated to be released earlier this year. Through iridescence, the group acknowledges the stresses of fame and the abuse committed by their former member. The fifth track, “WEIGHT,” addresses the challenges the band has faced, comparing them to their individual struggles with their personal identities and mental health. The track serves as a reaffirmation of the band’s commitment to improving themselves as a group and making music that pushes

the edge in modern rap. Rather than hide their problems from listeners, BROCKHAMPTON lays them all bare, exposing themselves, and in doing so, engrossing the listener. Vann’s absence, rather than detracting from the sound of the album, allows other members to shine. Particularly, Joba and Bearface come into their own on iridescence, with impressive verses on several tracks of the album. In an effort to differentiate their sound from past endeavors, BROCKHAMPTON bounces between high-energy tracks with abrasive verses and more laid back songs. “TONYA,” a song with chill, acoustic beats and emotional verses, is juxtaposed with tracks like “NEW ORLEANS,” characterized by loud beats and raw, aggressive verses. BROCKHAMPTON proves that they aren’t scared to experiment with their style, using samples of Beyoncé on “HONEY,” incorporating West Indian and soca influences on “J’OUVERT,” and including a chorus featuring Jaden Smith on “NEW ORLEANS.” In their bid to redefine themselves, BROCKHAMPTON has created a scattered yet brilliant album. They successfully demonstrate that they do not need to stick to a tired formula to create quality music and have paved the way for the next two installments in their The Best Years of Our Lives trilogy. BROCKHAMPTON’s iridescence comes at the close of a year of controversy and sees the group striving to do what is right by others and themselves. They prove over the course of 15 diverse tracks that they haven’t been weakened by their recent controversies; they’re stronger than ever and ready to take their place at the top of the rap game.

LEISURE

Nashville Pussy, Pleased to Eat You