The secrets of sausage creation WEEKEND | 20 AUGUST 2, 2013 VOLUME 21, NO. 27
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MOVIES | 23
‘Documented’ film comes to Bay Area ZUCKERBERG TO SPEAK AT SCREENING OF JOSE VARGAS’ NEW DOCUMENTARY By Daniel DeBolt
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WHAT’S SHAKIN’? Leonardo painstakingly arranges a figurine in the “Harlem Shake” scene in his team’s film, “The Genie,” at KMVT’s claymation camp on July 30. KMVT, Mountain View’s community access cable channel, sponsors the week-long camps for children looking for a hands-on learning experience in this stop-motion animation technique. The camps are also offered during the school year’s winter and spring breaks. For information, go to kmvt15.org. MICHELLE LE
n what may be a “historic event” for immigration reform, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be speaking on Aug. 5 before the Bay Area screening of “Documented” — a film about Mountain View High School graduate, Pulitzer prize winner and former Voice intern Jose Antonio Vargas — and his struggle to exist as an undocumented immigrant. Vargas left his mother as a child in the Philippines to live in the United States with his grandparents, where he found lifelong mentors among the staff at Mountain View High School, later becoming a Pulitzer-winning journalist at the Washington Post. The film records his emotional reunion with his mother over Skype, as Vargas could not risk traveling back to the Philippines. Without U.S. citizenship, he wouldn’t be able to return home. Two years ago Vargas revealed to the world his illegal citizenship status in a New York Times story about his life, which he says
was more difficult than coming out as gay in high school. He has since been running the non-profit “Define American” which seeks to humanize and elevate the debate on immigration reform. His experience as a journalist has apparently come in handy. “I profiled Mark (Zuckerberg) around this time three summers ago for the New Yorker,” Vargas said. “If I were to tell you three summers later he’d be giving remarks (on this film), I’d tell you you were nuts.” On Aug. 5 the film is playing at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, the second showing of the film after it opened last month at the American Film Institute’s documentary festival in Maryland. The event is co-sponsored by Zuckerberg’s immigration reform advocacy group, FWD.us, which has been criticized for advocating for the narrow interests of Silicon Valley tech companies. But Vargas says the event aspires to transcend such divisions. See DOCUMENTED, page 9
Two copters down: sequestration cuts hit 129th Rescue Wing By Daniel DeBolt
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embers of the Air National Guard at Moffett Field say their capacity to rescue people from wildfires, shipwrecks, hurricanes and other disasters has been diminished by sequestration cuts that hit the Department of Defense this month. The 129th Rescue Wing’s fleet of six Pave Hawk rescue helicopters is down to four because
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the DOD has ordered work furloughs and cuts that prevent repairs to one and the replacement of another that was shot down during a rescue mission in Afghanistan, according to Rescue Wing officials. The Department of Defense ordered $1.8 billion in across the board spending cuts on July 8, triggered in March by sequestration. “These aircraft are normally the first to respond to large-scale
emergencies, and are used to perform complex lifesaving rescues and firefighting operations that are beyond the ability of others to perform,” said Col. Steven J. Butow, the Rescue Wing’s commander. “Keeping these aircraft operational is critical to our ability to respond to life-threatening disasters in the Bay Area and across the state and nation.” The 129th Rescue Wing — which has rescued 600 people around the United States since
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1977 and responded to Hurricane Katrina within 24 hours — is missing one of the helicopters because recently ordered work furloughs have kept it from being repaired for 60 days, just as the Rescue Wing’s busy wildfire season begins. Meanwhile, ongoing budget issues have kept another rescue helicopter from being replaced after it was shot down in Afghanistan in 2009, despite replacement funding approval from Congress.
“Congress funded operational loss replacement aircraft and the 129th (Rescue Wing) is due to receive one but the combination of sequestration and other program cuts may delay this action indefinitely,” said spokesperson Roderick Bersimina in a press release. “The effects of the $85 billion in cuts to federal agencies due to sequestration are clearly hitting See RESCUE WING, page 8