October 5, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3000

                         lunger@oscars.org

Beverly Hills, CA - "Just a Wedding" and "American Hollow" will be the featured documentaries for the October 17 installment of the 19th Annual Contemporary Documentary Series, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy Foundation and the UCLA Film Television Archive. The screening will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the James Bridges Theater at UCLA and, like all screenings in the series, is free and open to the public.

Directed by Beverly Shaffer and produced by Gerry Flahive, "Just a Wedding" is a kind of continuation of Shaffer's 1978 Academy Award^®-winning short documentary, "I'll Find a Way," which profiled Nadia DeFranco, then a youngster, growing up with spina bifida. Twenty years later, Shaffer finds DeFranco a sophisticated urban dweller engaged to a fast-driving, rock-and-roll blaring, non-disabled, self-described "hick." The film tracks the couple's story from their meeting online all the way to their wedding day.

Shaffer will be present at the screening to discuss the film and answer questions from the audience.

"American Hollow" examines the dilemma of the Bowling family in rural Kentucky: whether to remain in the place where they have lived for seven generations and where they face increasing isolation and poverty, or to move. Struggling to hold the family together is matriarch Iree; working to tear it apart are alcoholism, an unsympathetic criminal justice system, dwindling social resources and the lure of a better life in the big city. The film, directed and produced by Rory Kennedy, is a challenging look at an America often overlooked.

The James Bridges Theater is located in Westwood on the northeast corner of the UCLA campus, near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue. Parking is available for $6 in Lot 3, adjacent to the theater. For more information, call 310-206-FILM.