The Dartmouth 9/19/17

VOL. CLXXIV NO.110

CLOUDY HIGH 75 LOW 63

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

DDS introduces new changes

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Students send letter of support to University of Virginia

By SUNPREET SINGH The Dartmouth Staff

CAROLYN SILVERSTEIN/THE DARTMOUTH

Dartmouth Dining Services introduced a different menu at the Courtyard Café for fall.

OPINION

CHUN: JUST IMMIGRATION PAGE 4

SZUHAJ: ON ‘ANTIGONE IN FERGUSON’ PAGE 4

ARTS

FILM REVIEW: ‘DOWNSIZING’ PAGE 7

By ALEX FREDMAN The Dartmouth Staff

When he started work last fall as the new director of Dartmouth Dining Services, Jon Plodzik says he found the Courtyard Café to be, visually speaking, the weakest part of the campus dining experience at Dartmouth.

Now, after a roughly

$25,000 renovation and significant changes to the menu, Plodzik said the Courtyard Café — often referred to as the Hop by students — has moved in the direction of recent dining industry trends, such as healthy eating and smaller portions.

For returning students, this transformation is one of several new developments

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SEE DDS PAGE 3

SEE CHARLOTTESVILLE PAGE 2

‘Highpointers’ features Mackenzie Scurka ’19

By REBECCA FLOWERS The Dartmouth Staff

FILM REVIEW: ‘THE SHAPE OF WATER’

at D D S l o c at i o n s t h i s fall. To Plodzik, finding opportunities for change is something that DDS has embraced and should continue to do.

“The desire to continually improve this program is nothing new,” Plodzik said.

T he most significant part of the Courtyard Café

After white nationalists marched at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Vi r g i n i a l a s t m o n t h , several Dartmouth ’21s began brainstor ming a letter of solidarity for the University of Virginia Class of 2021.

The violence and polarization in Charlottesville inspired Carlos Polanco ’21 to message a GroupMe with hundreds of members of the Dartmouth Class of 2021 asking students to contribute to writing the letter. Along with Luiza Odhiambo ’21 and several other incoming Dartmouth students, Polanco published the letter on social media where it was retweeted and shared hundreds of times,

he said. Polanco later uploaded a video featuring incoming first-year from various universities each presenting a message of unity and love.

When the current P re s i d e n t o f C o r n e l l University, Martha Pollack ’79, issued a statement condemning the violence and offering words of support to the UVA Class of 2021, Polanco felt that Dartmouth’s Class of 2021 had a responsibility to send a similar message of solidarity and unity.

“It’s one thing to enter college and be anxious, afraid of the new life that you’re going to live and new things you’re going to experience, but it’s another thing to have that overshadowed by the events that were happening

The documentary “Highpointers,” which features Mackenzie Scurka ’19, aired on 150 PBS stations during this past August and early September.

The film follows Gary Scurka — who is the documentary’s director ­— and his daughter Mackenzie Scurka. Also featured are Fallon Rowe and her mother Terri Rowe — two people whom the Scurkas met through highpointing — and their ascent of Gannett Peak, the highest point in Wyoming, with an

elevation of over 13,500 feet.

Gary Scurka defined highpointing as “hiking, climbing or driving, to the highest point in every state,” and said his love for it drove him to document the experience on film.

“No one had done it before, so I decided I’d be the one to do it,” he said.

Gary Scurka runs a documentary film and production company called EveryStep Productions that he and his wife established after their retirement from careers as broadcast journalists.

SEE HIGHPOINTERS PAGE 5

COURTESY OF GARY SCURKA

Mackenzie Scurka ’19 and her father documented their experiences highpointing.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Students send solidarity letter after Charlottesville rally “I told them that what is right class sent theirs. will continue to be right regardless Odhiambo said that she thought in Charlottesville and for us that of the circumstances,” Polanco the letter met its goals of showing wasn’t right,” Polanco said. “We said. solidarity and establishing that the just wanted to show exactly what The letter started off as an students of UVA were not alone this Dartmouth family is all about online document put together by a in facing hatred. and it’s standing in solidarity few people and quickly grew to be Polanco added that he was with other people through their over four pages contacted by struggles.” with about 20 “I was just in several people Odhiambo echoed Polanco, students total expressing thanks saying that she was anxious going e d i t i n g i t . amazement really and appreciation from Dallas, Texas to Hanover and Po l a n c o s a i d the entire time after sending the understands the fears associated that everyone letter. with transitioning to college. i n i t i a l l y because ... our “I spoke with However, she said that the letter b r a i n s t o r m e d purpose wasn’t t h e i r [ U VA’ s ] emphasized the message that a l o t o n t h e undergraduate really for [the love wins over hatred, and that d o c u m e n t , dean of student life connected the Dartmouth Class which was later letter] to blow and he expressed of 2021 to the UVA Class of 2021. edited down to up and garner so his thanks for the The letter states, “Allow our be one page. letter,” Polanco response to this tragedy and our P o l a n c o much attention. said. “Many of ability to effectively collaborate said that when It was our way of my friends who go (notably, before stepping onto t h e letter to UVA expressed responding to our campus) fuel the need for was initially their thanks and togetherness.” r e l e a s e d , moral conviction how their class is Rachna Shah ’21 was involved n o n e o f t h e of needing to do talking about it and in the editing process of the letter students were how much it meant and was initially horrified to see the expecting it to something and to to them knowing events unfolding in Charlottesville. garner national not stay silent.” that they weren’t “We view college as a transition a t t e n t i o n alone and that the p e r i o d , ” S h a h s a i d . “ I t ’s a from students, other colleges were transition and a difficult period p a r e n t s a n d -CARLOS POLANCO ’21 standing besides because you’re leaving your media outlets. them and behind community behind at home for T h e o r i g i n a l them.” something completely new. And expectation was Po l a n c o s a i d it’s difficult because ‘how do you that the students and parents of that one of the biggest impacts feel when you’re not welcomed in UVA would receive the letter and of the letter was showing that a new college and people tell you be positively impacted by it, he Dartmouth and other schools they don’t want you to be in their said. care about social issues and must community?’ So with creating “I was just in amazement work together in ending hate and this video and really the entire time promoting diversity. w r i t i n g o u r “It’s one thing to because like I said, open letter we our purpose wasn’t enter college and wanted to create really for it to blow up a community to be anxious, afraid and garner so much show that as ’21s of the new life attention,” Polanco at Dartmouth said. “It was our way to the ’21s at that you’re going of responding to our UVA that we’re to experience, m o r a l c o nv i c t i o n here for each of needing to do but it’s another other, that we something and to not thing to have that stay silent. When we stand as one.”

Polanco said overshadowed by read the [Washington that some other Post] article and then ’21s questioned the events that when we started to whether they were happening in see how many shares should send letter was getting, Charlottesville and the the letter and how many views the f e a r e d w h a t for us that wasn’t video was getting, would happen right.” that kind of put into if the College perspective like wait a found out about minute something big it. Responding -CARLOS POLANCO is happening here.” to their

Fifteen other ’21 apprehensions, incoming freshman P o l a n c o classes from schools emphasized such as Columbia the need to do U n i v e r s i t y, Ya l e what is right University and and pushed forward with drafting Pomona College, among others, the letter. issued letters after the Dartmouth FROM CHARLOTTESVILLE PAGE 1

Shah said that was especially with that.” motivated to help in writing the The video that accompanied letter because of the support she the letter focused on the power received from Dartmouth even of diversity and was intended to prior to matriculation. be non-partisan, Shah said. She “A t D a r t m o u t h we fo u n d added that while she thinks there that students should be more a r e c o n s t a n t l y “We wanted to civil discourse welcomed into the in our society community even write as ’21s to rather than before we arrived fellow ’21s because hateful dialogue, on campus,” Shah we ourselves students should said. “We received to be able to have several emails and understand the open, yet civil explanations about transition period c o nve r s a t i o n s how we would be wi t h s t u d e n t s part of this greater and the excitement of opposing community and so of going into college viewpoints. we were inspired and the worries and “ T h e e f f e c t to write the o f t h i s l et t er excitement that statement.” and the video She added that comes along with reinforced my one of the priorities belief that the of the letter was that.” words that we to avoid creating say and write a statement really do have -RACHNA SHAH ’21 that furthered an impact,” polarization and Shah said. to rather focus on “Even though unity. we hadn’t even “We didn’t want matriculated to create something into the College about ‘us’ versus our words were ‘them,’” Shah said. “We wanted to still able to have an impact and create a statement that surrounded that was amazing.” the idea of ‘we’. We wanted to write Representatives from the Office as ’21s to fellow ’21s because we of Pluralism and Leadership ourselves understand the transition did not respond to requests for period and the excitement of going comment. into college and the worries and the excitement that come along Shah is a member of The Dartmouth.

LADIES AND LEGACY

CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com for corrections.

STANISLAV VAN GENDEREN/THE DARTMOUTH

Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority participated in a “Meet the Greeks” event held yesterday evening.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 3

Dartmouth Dining Services changes Courtyard Café menu

CAROLYN SILVERSTEIN/THE DARTMOUTH

As part of changes at the Courtyard Café, the salad bar moved to the former sub and burrito station and was replaced by the checkout station.

desire to incorporate healthy choices prompted changes to this renovations was the removal of area as well. A larger selection the sandwich station, which also of healthier options like grilled featured taco salads and burritos. chicken sandwiches were added This station has been replaced to the menu, and out went higherby an employee-served salad bar, calorie items such as breakfast and the café’s wraps, though the checkout station “bob” wraps were was moved to the “I really want recently brought location of the people to think back due to student old salad bar. about ’53 Commons demand.

Plodzik said B e t h that only a few as the gem of our Rosenberger, the of the options program.” staff dietician at offered at the old DDS, said that sandwich station some meals at the w e r e p o p u l a r -JON PLODZIK, grill can land in among students, the range of 1,500 DIRECTOR OF and that the to 1,800 calories, station had “lived DARTMOUTH DINING an a mount s he its lifespan.” He SERVICES said is more than added, however, most students t h at p re p a re d should consume s u b s w i l l n ow i n o n e s i t t i n g. be found in the She added that c a f é ’s c o o l e r many Dartmouth across from the students simply are grill. not aware of the Replacing the potential health sub sandwiches hazards associated with salad with their dietary options is a choices. contemporary Plodzik said that and unique idea, he believes DDS Plodzik said. He should pl ay an added that he educational role hopes this change when it comes to will attract students looking to eat healthy eating by providing more a lighter or healthier meal. opportunities for students to do so.

Yet if there’s anything the He also noted that some of these Courtyard Café is known for, changes can provide other benefits it’s the often-long line for the – for example, the decision to only grill’s hearty selections. DDS’s serve four ounce instead of eight FROM DDS PAGE 1

ounce burgers at the Grill is not and building community are only healthier, but can also reduce important aspects to dining on wait times by increasing the speed campus. of preparation.

“I really want people to think As with the Courtyard Café, about ’53 Commons as the gem DDS has also made a number of of our program,” Plodzik said. changes in the A n o t h e r food selection “When you take a significant at the Class of at ’53 plastic container and change 1953 Commons Commons is the — often referred put it in a recycling introduction to as Foco — bin, you are officially of a new takebeginning this out system. t e r m . T h e s e separated from the P i o n e e r e d by i n c l u d e t h e action that happens Madison Sabol introduction ’18, the new of Goose and after it leaves program — Willie’s bagels, campus.” called Green2Go locally-branded — brought in coffee, locallynew reusable based Gifford’s -MADISON SABOL ’18, containers to ice cream, as CREATOR OF GREEN2GO replace the old well as new items disposable ones. at the “grill and To participate world view” in the program, areas. Plodzik students pay a said that many one-time $4 fee. of these new Students do not options are need to clean the purchased as containers once part of DDS’s finished; they overall efforts s i m p l y re t u r n to incorporate their container more regionallyto ’53 Commons, produced foods Novack Café into their dining or Collis Café, areas. regardless of DDS also the location at made some physical updates at ’53 which they picked it up. When the Commons, including new sound containers are returned, students systems, televisions in the upstairs receive a green carabiner, which eating area and booths in the south can later be used to pick up a new dining room. Plodzik said that container when they get take-out having an enjoyable experience again.

Sabol said that in addition to the environmental benefit of reducing a significant waste stream, the program provides economic and social advantages as well. Economically, she said the program will save DDS around $20,000 a year, which can be used for improvements in other areas.

In terms of social benefits, Sabol said that taking the extra step of returning, rather than disposing, the container induces a positive behavioral change for students.

“When you take a plastic container and put it in a recycling bin, you are officially separated from the action that happens after it leaves campus,” Sabol said.

Plodzik noted that the $4 fee, in addition to covering the cost of a container, represents a way for students to “buy in” to the program, which he said would not work as well if the containers were free. He added that student feedback has been very positive, calling Green2Go a “wonderful success for our program.”

Sabol said she initially developed the idea for the program during her sophomore year. After doing research on similar programs at peer institutions, Sabol ran a pilot program with 12 other sophomores during summer 2016.

Plodzik said DDS then purchased 5,000 new containers this past spring to start the program, adding that each container is estimated to have 800 uses per lifespan.

Sabol said she appreciates DDS’s sustainability efforts, and she expressed gratitude for her partnership with DDS in implementing Green2Go. “[DDS] this whole time has taken a huge interest and has been really supportive in this whole endeavor,” Sabol said.

STAFF COLUMNIST STEVEN CHUN ’19

STAFF COLUMNIST BEN SZUHAJ ’19

Just Immigration

On ‘Antigone in Ferguson’

In defying unjust laws, illegal immigration is fundamentally American.

They broke the law — plain and simple.

It’s the common thread that runs through every argument directed at the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Even the phrase “undocumented immigrant” seems to irk conservative Americans, who more commonly prefer “illegal alien” as well as the crude shorthand: “illegal.” As if breaking a law in a broken system is all that defines a family seeking a better life. But I digress.

Undocumented immigrants undoubtedly break the legal code of the United States. To millions of Americans, anything that comes after is moot. The law is the law.

But our current immigration system is a wasteland of backlogs and waiting times in the order of decades. In defying this broken and often cruel system, undocumented immigrants accomplish something wholly American: They defy unjust laws in a way that benefits the nation.

It’s important to ask whether any government can rightfully and morally exclude any human being from its public lands. The comparison of a nation’s land to private property is a false equivalence; a country’s peoples do not own their public institutions like they own their lawn. In the United States, we view it as plainly evident that the government shouldn’t ban anyone from the town square or the streets based on their race, religion or sexual orientation. It follows that where someone was born is an equally unjust condition on which to exclude; our ethics dictates that we have no right to stop or hinder anyone from becoming an American. Our immigration system is exactly this: a barrier and a hindrance. Thus, we cannot fault undocumented immigrants for bypassing a barrier we had little right to erect.

Of course, there are certain realities that stop us from adhering strictly to this philosophy. For a modern nation-state to stay secure, it requires some formal process of allowing foreigners into our country, but this process is convoluted and sluggish at the expense of all. Last year, the U.S. issued roughly 625,000 immigration visas, yet for the coming year the global waitlist sits at over 4.3 million. For countries like the Philippines and Mexico, even people with family members in the U.S. may have to wait for more than 24 years.

And yet, President Donald Trump has made the morally nauseating decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

program and to support a bill that would cut legal immigration by half. An article from the conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, wonders aloud at the decision, noting, “economists strongly agree that the average U.S. citizen would be better off if a larger number of highly educated foreign workers were legally allowed to immigrate to the U.S. each year” and “a demographic-driven slowdown in U.S. labor force growth means real GDP growth is likely to be slower in the future than in the past” — a slowdown that immigration, both legal and illegal, greatly ameliorates.

There are other facts that anti-immigration hardliners seem to ignore: More people emigrate from the U.S. to Mexico than immigrate in the other direction; illegal immigration is a highly efficient economic instrument, rising when the U.S. economy needs labor and slowing when it doesn’t (unlike legal immigration); and roughly two-thirds of unauthorized immigrants simply flew in and overstayed their visa. It’s important to do away with incorrect images of illegal immigrants that demonize them and instead remember that illegal immigrants neither overcrowd the country nor harm its economy. In fact, illegal immigrants pay $13 billion in payroll taxes into Social Security, a system from which they will likely never benefit from.

Our nation of immigrants, by immigrants, is defined by welcoming outsiders. Our laws, often misguided and antiquated, do not always act justly and moral nor do they, as is plainly evident, always act in the interest of the people.

Between the moral and economic imperatives, one cannot say our immigration system is just or enriching for current citizens.

To define undocumented immigrants as “illegals” puts them in the same category as those who hurled tea into Boston Harbor and those who marched for civil rights. The defiance of laws we find untenable is fundamentally American.

Yes, undocumented immigrants have broken the law. They’ve broken laws in ways that benefit the average American and run true to the moral foundations of our country. Those who take issue with illegal immigration may be driven by a strong sense of right and wrong associated with the law, but to anyone who feels that way I urge you to reconsider whether the law was really ever just or fair in the first place.

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ISSUE

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 4

NEWS EDITOR: Mika Jehoon Lee, Julian Nathan

SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.

Weighing in as an outsider on an incredibly sensitive topic.

After seeing “Antigone in Ferguson” on Friday night, I did not leave necessarily with mixed emotions but rather with numerous discrete, difficult-to-handle thoughts, ideas and feelings. The show itself — a modern reading of the eons-old Greek tragedy “Antigone,” interspersed and complemented by song — was spectacular, raw, powerful, vulnerable, thought-provoking, discomforting and (by design) cathartic. The parallels between “Antigone,” which tells the story of the young title character and her quest to bury her dead brother Polyneices after he is deemed an enemy of the State and left to rot in the streets; and the story of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri and whose body was left uncovered in the streets for four hours, were clear. Even so, the cast of “Antigone in Ferguson,” which included established actors Tracie Thoms and Zach Grenier, as well as equally talented performers who were closer to the tragedy in Ferguson — two of Michael Brown’s teachers and multiple members of the Ferguson police force — did not explicitly equate Michael Brown with Polyneices. Rather, it seemed the intent was, as Bryan Doerries, the artistic director of the production, put it in an interview with The Dartmouth, “to set up the conditions for a conversation in which people will interrogate what the word ‘Ferguson’ means to them.”

“Antigone in Ferguson” did just that. The in-house discussion which took place afterward stretched well beyond the scheduled end of the night’s events. It was equally as spectacular, raw, powerful, vulnerable, thought-provoking, discomforting and cathartic as the play itself.

Four community members — including a student, a faculty member and a Safety and Security official — bravely took the stage and shared their reactions to the performance.

By the end of the night, the mission of Theater of War Productions, which is to “comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable,” was accomplished. Many people found comfort in the restorative message of the performance’s final song, “I’m Covered,” which included the memorable, repetitious phrase “Thank God I’m covered!” To some, being covered meant being protected by the blood of Christ. To others, it meant being covered by family and friends, having people who have your back. To others still, it meant a literal protective covering, such as the bulletproof vests worn by police.

Regardless of personal interpretation, “I’m Covered” was meant to help comfort the afflicted. For me, it was a beautiful song, but afterwards, when listening to the reflections of members of the audience who spoke directly to the pain, complexity and burden of racial injustice and police violence, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit like a voyeur. There I was, a white male of privilege, one of the “comfortable,” a person who has never felt threatened by the police or has had his body regarded unjustly as a weapon, listening to the voices of people of color, listening to their strife and suffering.

The messages afflicted me: I felt anger, sorrow, a desire for justice. At the same time, I knew

that I could never truly understand what it means to be Black in America.

To paraphrase one audience member, black suffering has become so mainstream it’s almost like smut-porn. You can scroll through Twitter and see pictures of black bodies mutilated. The statement only made me feel more unsure of my role, of being in the theater in the first place. Of course, viewing images of mutilated black bodies is a completely different engagement with the problem of racial injustice than listening to the stories of Dartmouth community members and residents of Ferguson. Yet both provide exposure to the suffering caused by a problem of which I have the privilege of ignoring. I get to go home white. I don’t have to worry about being stopped and frisked. I have the daily privilege of being unaware of the police and of the police being unaware of me. I have never felt the pain of losing a father, brother, sister, mother or friend to one “bad” cop.

I wanted to help, but I was (and still am) afraid of overstepping my racial bounds, of appropriating somebody else’s voice, story, cause. The American criminal justice system disproportionally benefits people with the color of my skin and discriminates, perniciously and at times flagrantly, against people with skin darker than mine. This is evident and must change. But just saying so feels woefully insufficient.

This is one of the fundamental problems keeping comfortable people from truly and meaningfully supporting causes of social justice: It’s all too easy to simply say that you care, that you’re not racist, that police need to stop murdering people of color then slip back into your life of comfort and have the privilege of ignoring the issue. The paradox of this article is that, as someone who lives comfortably within the current system, I am entering into the dialogue on a seemingly superficial level and showing support for a cause without doing the legwork necessary to actually affect change.

I could continue to flush out the difficulties, pitfalls and sticking points endemic to engaging in dialogues about racial injustice as a white person, but I won’t. Instead, I’m going to put it as plainly as possible: If you are comfortable within a system of injustice — perhaps you are even unaware of the injustice until somebody points it out to you — stop and ask yourself, “why am I comfortable? What advantages do I have? Is there any way I can help?” And once you have asked yourself those questions, open your ears and your heart to other people’s stories. Do not deny their experiences. Do not become defensive. Listen. Empathize.

Understand. And once you have done that, actually put something at risk. Do not simply say you support a cause like Black Lives Matter. Join a protest. Sign a petition. Call your government officials. Do not boast about doing so. Do not expect a pat on the back. Do not expect to understand fully the experiences of those who have lost a loved one to the police, who live in constant awareness of the police, who have bodies more often subjected to violence than yours. But try to come close. Please try.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

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Documentary highlights adventures of Mackenzie Scurka ’19 she wrote.

Gary Scurka agrees that some Scurka has been climbing since of his favorite memories from the he was a teenager. filming experience were bonding “I first got interested in it when with his daughter. For example, I went on a hike with my girlfriend before he retired and the film had back in the mid-60s, and I went not yet come to fruition, he and his up to New Hampshire and fell daughter climbed the highest peak in love with the landscape up in New York together, a 5,000-foot there,” he said. “I’ve been climbing mountain called Mount Marcy. mountains ever since.” “ [ T h e s e a r e ] v e r y, v e r y Since then, challenging hikes for h e a n d h i s “No one had a young person who family have not only 10 or 11 years done it before, so isold,” only continued he said. “I’ll climbing but have I decided I’d be always remember also become avid the one to do it.”

[Mackenzie Scurka] highpointers. being a willing Mackenzie participant and really S c u r k a h a s -GARY SCURKA being strong and not been hiking being afraid and being since she was 3, able to hike 15 miles and she began without stopping.” highpointing at

Terri and Fallon nine.

Rowe, the Scurkas’ Highpointing with her dad is companions in the film, were the “a great bonding experience,” she first mother-daughter team to wrote in an email statement to The reach the highest points of the Dartmouth while studying abroad lower 48 states. Fallon Rowe, now in South Africa. a junior at Utah State University, “Traveling the country together has been hiking since 2003 and on road trips and challenging began highpointing in high school. ourselves with these climbs and this S h e e x p r e s s e d a s i m i l a r adventure overall has allowed us sentiment to Mackenzie Scurka to spend a ton of time together,” about the bonding opportunity FROM HIGHPOINTERS PAGE 1

highpointing provides with a parent.

“I got to know my mom a lot better through highpointing,” Fallon Rowe said. “I think it helped us unite over a common goal.”

T h e S c u rk a s a n d Ro w e s connected through the Highpointers Club, which has about 2,500 members, Gary Scurka said. Fallon and Terri Rowe were about to climb Gannett Peak as their 48th peak, and they agreed to take part in the documentary after interviews with Gary Scurka.

The documentary crew filmed interviews with the participants both before and after the climb, which took a week in total. The initial hike to the mountain took a couple days, and they waited out a storm for a day before summiting, Fallon Rowe said. They summited on July 22, 2014, and the final hike away from Gannett Peak took a few more days, Fallon Rowe said.

Mackenzie Scurka said filming the climb made it more physically challenging, “There would be times when I would be on the trail exhausted, and my dad would ask me to walk back and forth on the same stretch just for a good shot,” Mackenzie Scurka said. However, looking

back on it, she believes it was Rowe said. necessary and is “so happy that I All of the participants continue cooperated,” she wrote. to climb and highpoint. Mackenzie Originally, though, she did not Scurka is a member of the want to make the film.

Dartmouth Outing Club and “It made it seem like highpointing recently hiked the Fifty. Gary was a job,” she wrote.

Scurka hopes to do another film However, she eventually agreed about highpointing. that the sport was “too good not to “Highpointing truly is more share,” Gary about the Scurka said of “Highpointing truly jour ney than his daughter. the destination,” “It was my is more about the Mackenzie first technical journey than the S c u rk a w ro t e. snow climb, “Reaching the destination.” and I was so top of 50 states nervous that is a great goal, I w o u l d n ’ t -MACKENZIE SCURKA ’19 bu t t h e m o r e be able to important goal make it, but for me has been summiting to see parts of was one of the United States the most I w o u l d h ave satisfying and never been able rewarding to experience experiences of my life,” Mackenzie otherwise.”

Scurka wrote.

Gary Scurka likes highpointing Fallon Rowe agreed that the for the accessibility and inclusivity. filming was worth the extra effort Many of the highpoints can be for great footage of the wilderness accessed by car and don’t require in Wyoming. She also appreciated a lot of athleticism, he said. the female-dominated nature of “The point is for everyone to their climbing group, she said. get out, experience the outdoors, “It was cool to have so much experience something with their strong, female energy,” Fallon family,” Gary Scurka said.

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY

8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Breakfast with the Arts: exhibition and discussion with artist Daniel Heyman, Nearburg Gallery, Black Family Visual Arts Center

4:45 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.

Artist Talk: “Infinite Receptors,” by Enrico Riley, Loew Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Film: “The Other Side of Hope,” directed by Aki Kaurismäki, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

TOMORROW 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Lecture: “Mathematical Interventions in Gerrymandering,” with Tufts University professor Moon Dunchin, Silsby Hall 119

3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Hanover Farmers Market: live local music, agriculture, prepared foods and crafts, Dartmouth Green

7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Film: “First Reformed,” directed by Paul Schrader, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

PAGE 7

Visual interest doesn’t save boring characters in ‘Downsizing’

By HALEY GORDON

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

Going into “Downsizing,” all I knew was the major overarching concept. People were shrinking in order to get more bang for their buck, in a strangely practical use of science fiction technology. An odd premise; one that makes you both eager to get to the ramifications and impatient with opening scenes establishing the given circumstances.

After grounding the technology within the realm of a genius scientist and a cult of environmental enthusiasts introducing the world to this new procedure, the story jumps in time to meet the main protagonist, Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), and his wife, Audrey (Kristen Wiig). In an exchange devoid of conflict, the two eventually decide to “get small” and downsize, to live in the lap of luxury at a price they can afford in Leisureland Estates.

Most likely intended as an

Everyman-esque character, Safranek is an American man defined by his lack of character traits. He goes through the motions of everyday life while he is “Big,” and that lackluster attitude continues in his life while he is “Small.” He doesn’t realize his dream of becoming a doctor, he doesn’t have an exciting sex life, he doesn’t watch the news. He rarely even emotes. His partyobsessed neighbor Dusan (Christoph Waltz) correctly pegs Paul as pathetic in a conversation that might have been revelatory or achingly sad but wasn’t.

A downsized environmental activist Ngoc Lan Tran, played by a sparkling Hong Chau, burst through the whitewashed suburban landscape with a scowl and no nonsense attitude.

Tran has decided the fame accompanying her escape from prison is not for her, and turns to a smaller scale of activism — she takes care of members of her housing community, located on the

outskirts of the community and without all of the amenities and perks advertised to the wealthier clientele living in the center of Leisureland Estates. Oh, and these residents do not get leisure, they get to perform the service jobs, like cleaning houses, that allow higher paying people to relax — just as in the Big world. Chau brings an earnestness to the table that far surpasses the others and is a welcome relief from the forced cynicism and complacent, tranquilized acceptance brought by the Waltz and Damon respectively.

This disparity is intentional of course. The movie has been described as a social satire, and it does showcase economic and racial disparities constantly. Unfortunately, I continually

had to remind myself that it was a satire.

Especially when off-color moments earned laughter — like smatterings of chuckles at Tran’s strong Vietnamese accent. Hopefully the films’ creators did not intend that attribute as a punchline.

Ultimately, I struggled to ascertain what was comedic, what was insightful and what was cloyingly extraneous.

However, I confess to enjoying the confusing moments more than the ones whose meaning was practically stamped on them, like the insertion of a “mangets-high-for-the-first-time” scene.

Paul Safranek immediately gets caught up in Tran’s life, as she adopts him as a kind of assistant and subsequently jolts him out of his routine. More and more, I wished the writers would allow

Tran to pull focus. Instead, we watch Tran go through her normal day through Paul’s dopey eyes. Paul, who cannot fathom her sacrifice and work, eventually falls for her. And the hardest part for me to believe in this science fiction film was that she falls for him, too.

That aside, the visuals of this film were exciting. Shots played with scale and visual illusions, and the novelty of seeing miniaturized people interact with regular-sized everyday items never quite wore off. Marveling at the technological success of making this movie might be worth the first watch, but the story fails to convince me that it deserves a second.

Rating: 5/10

PAGE 8

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’ touches greatness

By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff

If you were to hold a gun to my head and demand that I produce a list of my all-time favorite films, “Pan’s Labyrinth” would make it into the top five one way or another. I mention this because when early reviews for Guillermo Del Toro’s newest film, “The Shape of Water,” declared it the director’s best work since “Pan’s Labyrinth,” I was both optimistic and skeptical. To be clear, I make the comparison to “Pan’s Labyrinth” not because I wish to put “The Shape of Water” at an unreasonable disadvantage, but because the two films have so much in common.

French filmmaker Jean Renoir once famously said, “A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it up and makes it again.”

Del Toro has affirmed his belief in this statement in interviews; indeed, “The Shape of Water” is perhaps best understood as a cap to a thematic trilogy that began with “The Devil’s Backbone” and continued with “Pan’s Labyrinth.” All three films fuse fairy tale narratives and period piece war stories together, highlighting the connections they share to illustrate what does and does not work about each.

As always, Del Toro’s greatest strength is his ability to write engaging characters, particularly complex and well-defined female characters. Sally Hawkins leads the charge as Elisa, a mute janitor who works with her best friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer) in a mysterious government lab overseen

by Col. Strickland (Michael Shannon).

The two janitors learn that Strickland is experimenting on an amphibious Creature (Doug Jones) who looks eerily, and intentionally, similar to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Elisa befriends the Creature, and the rest of the film is a “Beauty and the Beast”-style love story in a manner only Del Toro could conjure.

Sally Hawkins deserves an Oscar nomination for this performance.

In fact, she needs that nomination if next year’s Best Actress category intends to be taken seriously. Her character’s silence is, in many respects, metaphoric: a means for Del Toro and co-writer Vanessa Taylor to explore the way in which society has historically attempted to silence and demean women. In fact, the film regularly incorporates social issues such as sexism, racism and general

prejudice, with a deft touch that helps motivated. Shannon’s performance reinforces the story’s central themes. continues this tradition; Strickland For instance, one of the many is terrifying because he is decidedly pleasures in “The Shape of Water” human. is watching Elisa use her silence to In particular, I loved the way her advantage, as in a scene where Del Toro commented on the “white she curses at Strickland using sign picket fence” ideal of the ’50s and ’60s language that he cannot comprehend. through his depiction of the character’s While her silence may have symbolic home life. The Colonel has achieved value, it provides Hawkins with a a version of the American Dream, very real acting challenge and she yet this has only made him more truly rises to the c o n t ro l l i n g, occasion. I wished “While her silence may more abusive that Del Toro had and more not felt the need have symbolic value, miserable. to translate her it provides Hawkins

“The signing as often Shape of he does; her use with a very real acting Water” shifts of body language challenge and she truly the setting of is so precise that rises to the occasion.” this thematic subtitles become trilogy from superfluous. the Spanish Amongst the Civil War to supporting cast, the Cold War Shannon is another stand-out. Both era in America. Part of what makes “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” demonstrated Del Toro’s Labyrinth” brilliant is that the ability to create villains who are fantasy elements and period setting irredeemably evil yet complex and are complimentary and symbiotic.

You can’t separate one aspect from the other. “The Shape of Water,” however, is a little different. The film heavily features a subplot involving a Russian spy who works in the lab, and while this part of the story is not bad, per se, it belongs in a different film. As much as I enjoyed seeing a depiction of a Russian spy that was actually sympathetic, it felt to me like Del Toro only included the character out of obligation for the setting he had chosen.

In an excellent video titled “What Writers Should Learn from Wonder Woman,” video essayist Sage Hyden discussed Alexander Pope’s literary term “Bathos” and its influence on modern cinema. “Bathos” refers to an artistic juxtaposition between a serious moment and a closely following trivial or vulgar moment.

Instances of Bathos have become exceedingly common in today’s genre films as a way for the filmmakers to acknowledge that aspects of these films might be rather corny. Hyden praised “Wonder Woman” for its refusal to use Bathos to undercut its

emotional sincerity.

Using Bathos in “The Shape of Water” would have been all too easy; after a tender moment between Sally and the Creature, a different character could have joked about the absurdity of the circumstances. But Del Toro never succumbed to that impulse.

Instead, he approached the events he portrayed with pure sincerity. This is a love story between a fish creature and a human woman and, yes, Del Toro expects us to take it seriously. And perhaps that’s the thing that delighted me most about “The Shape of Water.”

Personally, I found it a little too polished and well-mannered when contrasted with some of the director’s earlier work. But while it may be the weakest member of this thematic trilogy, like “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth,” it possesses an emotional honesty that has recently been in scarce supply at the movies.

As a result, “The Shape of Water” may not be a great film, but it certainly touches greatness.

Rating: 8/10

STUDENTS PERUSE POSTERS IN PAGANUCCI LOUNGE

ADRIAN RUSSIAN/THE DARTMOUTH

Yesterday, the annual poster sale began in the Paganucci lounge and will be open until Wednesday this week.