Producers turn to Four Corners for casting call

By Elizabeth Piazza The Daily Times

Posted: 01/24/2010 12:00:00 AM MST

SHIPROCK - Hollywood is coming to the Four Corners to retell a story that nearly tore a community apart and that remains deeply rooted within the minds and hearts of people who bore witness. Auditions for the feature film "The Broken Circle" were Friday and Saturday at the Boys and Girls Club in Shiprock. About 185 hopefuls braved the ice and snow for a chance to try out.

 The movie is based on the 1992 non-fiction book, "The Broken Circle," written by...

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A call for unity, not segregation

Without blacks' sacrifice, Latinos would be 30 years behind in the fight for civil rights.

Earlier this year, I attended one of those sedate conferences writers get invited to every so often. I talked for an hour or so very politely about books, until the audience rose up in rebellion and told me to stop.
I'd been invited by USC to be on a panel discussing the topic of blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles literature. But the mostly student audience didn't want a writerly chat. They wanted to talk about the reality of a divided, angry city.

"There's certain parts of Watts and Compton where blacks can't go," a young black man told us, rising up from his seat to describe Latino gang members' slurs and threats.
A high school teacher rose to his feet, too, to talk about his Latino students' ignorance of African American history and the intolerance he often hears from the Spanish-speaking immigrants around him.
It hurts me deeply to hear of these things. I suppose, like a lot of people, I've been in a sort of denial...

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