SDCC – Angelica Wallingford

Life behind the screen(writer)

Longtime San Diego City College screenwriting professor Russell Redmond recalls his adventurous life in TV, cinema and education

In the quiet corner of the first floor of the L building, students stagger out into the unusually hot September sun on their last in-class session of Introduction to Screenwriting class. Left behind was a their teacher, longtime San Diego City College professor and screenwriter Russell Redmond.

“Russell is very patient, and you can gather the fact, especially when it comes to the attention given,” Erny Rivera, a student enrolled in Redmond’s online Introduction to Screenwriting class said. “Writing is still a delicate craft, to which Russell helps transform into an artform.”

Underneath Redmond’s casual demeanor lies a fun and energetic man with a passion for all things cinema and storytelling. Sitting behind a small desk in L-108 he began to recall his colorful journey to that lead to his love of film and teaching screenwriting at City; starting with his love of stories.

“I was always interested in storytelling,” Redmond said. “You know, you grow up watching TV as a little kid and you go ‘oh, that looks like fun’ and it seems exciting and so you proceed down that avenue thinking ‘maybe I’ll be interested in that’.”

He recalled going through high school and being in that phase all young men and women go through and figure out what they want to do with their future.

“…You have to decide (and say) ‘well, you know I think I really have a burning desire to get into film’ and of course everybody want to be not only an actor but a film director or someone else,” Redmond said. “I mean they want to do everything… and that was me.”

After graduating high school Redmond left Carlsbad and headed north to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After he graduated in 1973, Redmond received an offer from his screenwriting teacher, so he packed up and headed to Europe where he wrote for the BBC show “The Old Man’s Blood.”

After his run writing for the show, he moved to the European film capital of Almeria to work on a screenplay about “The Little Prince” author Antoine de Saint-Exupery and work as an extra in Spanish Western films starring Jack Palance and others.

During his stay in Almeria he was approached by director Sergio Corbucci, best known for his Spaghetti Western films and being a protege of Sergio Leone, to star in a film called “The Three Man War.”

“… It’s was a modern World War II movie where there’s three characters: a German, an Italian an Englishman; and it’s set in the desert of Libya but of course we’ll shoot it here in Spain,” Redmond recalled. “There was an interesting plot about it but there was only three characters in it. One of them was going to be Peter O’Toole, the other was Anthony Quinn and the other third one was going to be me.”

Funding for the film eventually fell through, however, before Redmond learned of that he boarded a plane and headed home to the United States where he got an agent and wrote more screenplays. About a year after he returned to the U.S. he dropped out of the film scene and became an illustrator in San Diego and Los Angeles for 10 years.

In the ‘90s Redmond struck up a friendship with City College professor Hope Shaw, whom he and his wife had met while sailing through Mexico working on various projects. Shaw became a great friend and told Redmond that she wanted to retire and if he would be interested in taking on one of her screenwriting classes.

“I said ‘no way, me teach, you’re crazy’ I mean no way I was going to do that,” Redmond said. “I just thought that was the worst Idea and that woman could talk anyone into anything. She was good; and by God she talked me into it and I finally said ok, I’ll do this one class and I went in there and I realized that this isn’t so bad.”

When Shaw died Redmond was asked to teach both sections of the Introduction to Screenwriting class, where he enjoys talking about films with his students.

“You end up talking about stuff that you should be remembering all the time you know you go back to beginning screenwriting and you start talking to kids about characterizations and how you should structure your film and motivations…’” Redmond said. “…you’re really getting in there, in the nitty gritty of the ‘this doesn’t work and that doesn’t work’ so you’re thinking about film structure all the time.”

RTVF department chair Laura Castaneda has worked with Redmond since she started as a part-timer at City College in 2000.

“It’s such an incredible experience (working with him),” Castaneda said. “He’s such an interesting person with an interesting perspective on life.”

Currently, Redmond has a short film out called “El Camino,” based on a true story about an undocumented woman’s journey through rough terrain to get back to the U.S. after visiting her sick father in Mexico, which he released through his production company Work With Me Films and hopes to make a feature film out of it here in San Diego in the near future.

Originally published in City Times, January 2016.

TV students’ work catches FBI attention

Police question ‘Newscene’ reporters after filming in front of building

Three San Diego City College student journalists were questioned by authorities before and after capturing video in front of San Diego’s FBI building on April 7 for a report on sex trafficking.

Abtin Mohammadi, Daniela Porter and a third student who doesn’t want to be identified were recording a stand-up report for “Newscene,” City College’s student broadcast news show, about how the FBI named San Diego the eighth most popular location for sex trafficking crimes to occur.

According to Mohammadi, one security guard said it was fine to capture footage in front of the building.

However, while the students were setting up equipment, another officer approached the students asking for their IDs, taking down their information and proceeding to give the three a half-hour time limit to shoot. After about 20 minutes, the same officer came out and told the students to wrap up filming.

Some time after filming in front of the FBI building, Porter and Mohammadi said that the third student involved told them that a detective from the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force came to her home while she wasn’t there with photos of them filming and wanted the footage that the three of them shot to be handed over.

“The (third student) called me and what she told me was that she wasn’t home; the detective went to her house when her mom was home …” explained Mohammadi.

Mohammadi said that the third student told him that the detective showed up at her house while she was not home. The detective told her mother that he heard of some suspicious filming at the FBI building and wanted to know who was involved with the recording and wanted the footage from the day they were filming.

Mohammadi also said that the third student said the detective’s name was Dan Vile.

In an email to “Newscene” adviser Laura Castaneda, provided by the San Diego Police Department media relations office, Vile said he wanted to verify who the students were and to make it clear that it was an assessment — not an investigation. Vile also verified that the students did speak with security personnel but did not state why they wanted to film in front of the FBI building and after filming in their first location moved to another location where it looked like the students were filming cars moving in and out of the building.

Vile wrote that while he understands that police visits can be uncomfortable, he said that it’s apart of the job of being an officer and maintained the visit with the third student’s mother was respectful. Vile also confirmed that the third student gave him the information he was looking for. Vile said that post Sept. 11, police have to be “as thorough as possible with our inquires.”

“To be clear, no one is questioning their rights to photograph or film the building. Nor is anyone saying what they did was illegal in any way,” Vile wrote. “However, it is not only appropriate, but also a necessity, for us to simply ask, ‘why.’ Their answer, or even lack of one, is their business.”

The FBI did not respond for comment at press time.

After the April 7 incident, Porter said that Mohammadi told her that he would take care of things and talk to Vile. However, on April 29, Porter received news from the third student involved that she needed to contact the detective because he had warrants out for the students involved.

“I found out from the third student involved what the message was, (she said) ‘Daniela he said he has a warrant on you guys and you must call him back’… then it was like wow, I didn’t know that … I didn’t like that at all,” Porter said.

Mohammadi said he called Vile and explained everything regarding the situation but that it seemed like the detective didn’t know exactly what was going on and asked for all of the information starting from the beginning.

After Mohammadi answered all the questions again, he said, the detective told him that everything was OK and that he just wanted to know because of “global terrorist things and suspicious activity out there.”

In an email statement, “Newscene” adviser Castaneda said, “I wish I could tell you more, but I’ve been asked by Dean Trudy Gerald to forward all law enforcement and media inquiries to her.”

The students have consulted with Frank D. LoMonte of the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit organization that specializes in helping and educating high school and college journalists about the “rights and responsibilities embodied in the First Amendment and supporting the student news media in their struggle to cover important issues free form censorship,” according to its website.

“There’s no problem with asking why people are outside the building filming. That’s a perfectly fine security precaution,” LoMonte said via email. “But where the police very clearly crossed the line into harassment and intimidation was in going to a journalist’s house and asking to be given a copy of the film. That’s indefensible and it violated the journalist’s First Amendment rights, without question.”

“There were many more effective ways to verify whether the student was genuinely on a journalistic assignment outside the FBI building, but the police purposefully picked the most frightening way to send a message to the journalist: we know where you live. If all they cared about was verifying the journalist’s employment, they could have picked up the phone and contacted the professor in a non-threatening way, but they chose not to,” LoMonte continued.

“It’s scary that someone wants to talk to you since we didn’t do anything. … We have the rights of the First Amendment to record outside in a public space and any citizen has the same right …” Porter said.

According to Mohammadi and Porter, before the students started filming in front of the building on April 7, Mohammadi went to a security guard, showed him his student ID and explained who the students were, where they were from and why they were at the FBI building in Mira Mesa.

After talking with the security guard, the guard gave the students directions on where they could park and gave the green light for the students to film as long as they didn’t show the building or images of the FBI. While preparing to set up to film the stand-up, another officer came out and started asking questions.

”I went back to the car … to basically get ready, then an officer came out, out of his office and he asked us, ‘Where you guys come from?’” Mohammadi said. ”We told him we’re from City College, the local broadcasting station, then he asked us, ‘Are you guys students?’ and I said, ‘Yes, we are from City College and we’re doing a report …’” Mohammadi said.

The officer then asked the three students for their California IDs and, according to Porter and Mohammadi, wrote all three of their information in a log in order to verify that they were students and proceeded to give them half an hour to film.

“He asked us for a California ID … and I didn’t hesitate; I just bring it out and said, ‘Here’s my ID,’ (Porter) showed it to him and so did the other girl. So, he just wrote information …” Mohammadi explained.

Mohammadi said that the officer just wanted to verify that they were who they said they were and after he took down their information the officer told him that they could only film for a half-an-hour.

“We wanted to get the shot because it was almost sunset, so we didn’t have much time for the light, so we were like, ‘OK we want to do this fast’ … And that was when they asked us so many questions and we just really wanted to record because we were outside … This is a public place where we can record and it’s just, you know, a stand-up, and then you know they got very, um, intimidating,” Porter said.

“He didn’t tell us anything about what he was gonna do with (the information), he just wants to verify that ‘you’re a student as you said, we just want to see if you have valid everything,’” Mohammadi said.

After about 20 minutes of filming, the officer came out and told the students that they had to leave without any explanation.

“We explained to him exactly what we were going to do. … We’ll be on the streets, I’m gonna shoot (Porter) and (the third student) just gonna do a little piece, but then he came again despite knowing all the information and kind of rushed us off, very nervously saying that ‘you have to leave, you have to wrap up right now,’” Mohammadi said.

Mohammadi explained that the three students wrapped up quickly, packed up their equipment and left.

“There is nothing wrong with filming the exterior of federal buildings and the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Protective Services have put out memos instructing federal agents not to overreact if they see people peacefully and non-disruptively filming from a public space, as these student journalists were. The police department owes these students an apology and a promise of better training for its officers,” LoMonte said.

LoMonte also explained in his email statement that it’s routine for journalists to film in front of federal and government buildings and cites the coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court as an example.

San Diego City College Public Information Officer Heidi Bunkowske said via email, “I have not spoken with the students or the FBI so I cannot comment regarding filming activities.”

Originally published in City Times, May 2015.

ASG election dates extended by a week due to low turnout

In an effort to get more students involved with Associated Students Government, Student Affairs extended the election dates for the upcoming election in April.

Potential ASG candidates originally had until March 16 to get their election packets turned into the Student Affairs office in M-200 with voting to begin April 15-16. However, due to low candidacy turnout, the dates were extended until March 23 for candidates to turn in their packet with voting to take place April 22-23.

“What happened is that we didn’t get much of a response from people wanting to run for election,” Lori Oldham, student affairs coordinator, said. “We had so many places still to fill in the ASG that we extended a week in an effort to get more people to apply for the particular position.”

“If they meet the requirements and have a desire and if they really want to one, be a leader that support and that is there to help support and figure out ways of helping support students. That’s one thing, so we’ll see by extending it (election dates) if we can get those other positions filled with candidates,” William Ponder, student affairs manager, said.

The low turnout was unexpected since the voter turnout for the ASG election last year rose from one percent of City College’s population to three percent.

“I believe our voter turnout on campus increased by two percent,” said current ASG President Adam Garcia in a 2014 City Times article. “Our percentage before was one percent so our percentage increased by two, so it went up to three percent.”

Oldham and the current ASG administration have boosted their efforts by reaching out to students through digital signs, emails to faculty and staff, ASG’s website, City College’s website and classroom announcements.

Another new thing that Oldham is utilizing to help get students to get out and vote is candidate profiles on the ASG website.

“When Monday comes and candidates are there, I’m gonna ask for a headshot and a brief purpose statement … and post that on our website so that students can go online, in the ASG section, and see who’s running for president and what their position statement is, and vice president and down the line,” Oldham explained.

To increase voter turnout for the upcoming election, ASG is adopting new methods of voting including utilizing the computers in the new student services building and having polling stations peppered throughout campus.

“We’re moving the voting into areas where students … all they have to do is come out of their class and sit down and do the vote,” Ponder explained.

According to Oldham, ASG has been working with the IT department to dedicate ports for voting. The ports will be on the computers in the ASG office and designated secure laptops to combat voter fraud.

“We’ll have one (laptop) in front of the Student Affairs office, we’ll have one computer at the AH quad and then two down at the MS building,” Oldham said. “We wont sit there with a paper ballot saying ‘hey, have you voted?’ and then come have them fill out a paper ballot. We’re taking the vote to the people.”

For more information on ASG, including a full list of election dates, visit sdcity.edu/asg.

Originally published in City Times, March 2015.

A new vision for City College

New City College President Anthony Beebe held his first convocation for faculty, staff and administrators Aug. 14 at the Saville Theatre.

The convocation day started with breakfast on the patio of the theater for the attendees, who then quickly convened inside the theater to await the start of the program.

Before Beebe took the stage, there were welcome remarks and commentary from Vice President of Instruction Randy Barnes, Board of Trustees President Rich Grosch, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Guild, Local 1931, President Jim Mahler and San Diego Community College District Chancellor Constance M. Carroll.

Carroll talked about numerous changes at City over the past year, such as receiving millions of dollars to invest in the college, the opening of the Arts and Humanities and Business Technology buildings, the school’s budget and the hiring of 92 new faculty members.

“Our district has hired 92 new faculty positions, 24 positions at City … We’ve also been hiring new classified staff members mostly in student services and facilities management,” Carroll said.

After a quick introduction from Carroll about Beebe’s long career in education and community service, the man of the hour took the stage.

Beebe’s speech consisted of what he called “elements for a new vision,” which included a list of four points — advancing social change and civility, increasing access and completion, transitioning the adult learner and building community connections — with a majority of the speech focusing on the first point, and not only about improving City College itself, but the students who attend here, as well.

“Community colleges were founded on social justice issues. City College has local relevance to the community here; we’re not just a generic milquetoast community college here in San Diego,” Beebe said. “… Our community has social issues. City College needs to be involved in framing the community solutions to those social problems.”

His speech then shifted to the privilege of having an education and the importance of helping those who are less privileged in the community.

“We are privileged because we are educated … If you look at the world’s population of 7.2 billion people, 6.7 percent of that population has a degree or has been educated. By our very nature, we are presaged because of that component. Now do we potentially each have oppressions, as well? Absolutely, but we have a privilege, and because we have privilege, we have a duty and a responsibility to help the less privileged among us,” Beebe said as the audience’s applause filled the theater.

He went on to cite the 1970s book “Education of the Oppressed” by Paulo Freire as a foundation for his ideas for City and encouraged the audience to read or re-read the book for its significance.

Accompanying his speech, Beebe had a slideshow presentation that included a slide that said he will have an “open door policy,” meaning that no appointments are necessary for staff, faculty and students to visit and speak with him; a mailbox where people can send suggestions anonymously; and a Twitter account to keep people up to date with the goings-on at City.

Beebe’s speech concluded with a clip from the film “Dead Poets Society,” in which the late Robin Williams asks his students, “What will your verse be?” The answer that Beebe gave was that he believes City’s verse will be strongly related to social justice issues.

Concluding the program were remarks from Berta Harris and Yvonne Schmeltz, presidents of the Academic Senate and Classified Senate, respectively, a video tribute for new faculty and retirees, and presentations from Dotti Cordell, director of Student Health Services, and Denise Whisenhunt, vice president of Student Services.

Faculty and staff later gathered in Gorton Quad for Beebe’s official welcome party.

Originally published in City Times, August 2014.