Monday, June 6, 2005

Colorado School Board Refuses To Allow Filming Near Columbine

6 June 2005 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

The Jefferson County, CO school board has refused to allow an independent production company to shoot scenes at a local high school for a film about a gay teenager who is bullied by his peers and learns martial arts to protect himself. The scenes for the film, titled The Sensei, were to have been shot at Alameda High School in Lakewood, a short distance away from Columbine High School, the scene of the 1999 rampage by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, students who were said to have been bullied by classmates. School Superintendent Cindy Stevenson told the Rocky Mountain News Saturday, "Nationwide, what I see consistently is, whenever there is any issue with school violence, it gets connected to the Columbine community. In thinking of the good of the entire community who are very tired of being connected to school violence, it would just be better if it were filmed in a different location."

Sunday, June 5, 2005

JEFFCO

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
Jeffco schools nix movie bid
Board says indie film could reopen Columbine wounds

By Holly Yettick, Rocky Mountain News
June 4, 2005
Concerns about reopening the wounds of the 1999 Columbine school shootings have ended a bid to film an independent movie at Lakewood's Alameda High School. School board members in Jefferson County, which is home to Columbine High School, decided in a closed-door session last month to deny a request to use Alameda as a backdrop for a movie about a gay teenager who learns martial arts after being bullied by high school jocks. Bullying has been offered as one of the reasons killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris went on their April 20, 1999, rampage at Columbine.

"Our understanding is the scenes that were going to be filmed in the school were violent scenes," Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said Friday. "We are still a healing community.

"Nationwide, what I see consistently is, whenever there is any issue with school violence, it gets connected to the Columbine community. In thinking of the good of the entire community who are very tired of being connected to school violence, it would just be better if it were filmed in a different location."

Stevenson said the board's denial had nothing to do with the film's treatment of controversial subjects such as homosexuality and AIDS.

The movie, The Sensei, features actors Keith David, who has appeared in a number of movies including Barbershop and Clockers, and Louis Mandylor of My Big, Fat Greek Wedding fame. The writer-director is Diana Lee Inosanto, an actress, stuntwoman and daughter of martial arts pioneer Dan Inosanto.

She expressed disappointment with the decision in a May 20 letter to the board.

"I do understand that, after Columbine, there is some significant sensitivity," she wrote. "But my film bears no resemblance whatsoever to what happened in that tragedy. There are no guns, no cults, and no extreme violence. The Sensei is a movie about respect, tolerance and personal growth. A humanitarian film about AIDS could not and should not be confused with that sort of tragedy."

Inosanto said the board had jumped to conclusions after seeing a single storyboard and scene from a 104-page script.

Stevenson acknowledged the school board had not seen the entire script.

"The overall message of the movie is very, very positive," she said. "It was just too close to the edge for us."

Alameda High School Principal Dale McCoy said he was disappointed that students would lose opportunities to be extras and learn about drama and video production.

"This proposal presents a safe, wholesome learning experience for AHS and the community it serves," he wrote in a letter to the school board.

Although it is just seven miles north of Columbine in the state's largest school district, Alameda is a very different school. About 10 percent of Columbine students are minorities and 4 percent are poor. Nearly half of Alameda students are minority and close to one-third live in poverty.

Inosanto wanted to film at the school because the students are diverse and the buildings fit in with the movie's early 1980s timeline. Inosanto's cousin attends the school, said producer Tarik Heitmann.

Heitmann said he's now considering shooting the film at Denver's South High School. South Principal William Kohut could not be reached Friday for comment.

Other parts of the movie will be filmed in Sterling, he said.