Lesson 17: Flour Baby, Part 1

Summary Ms. Weaver gives Anna and Pete a new assignment: make a show about single parents. But first, she wants them to try out parenting for themselves...    Conversation Ms. Weaver: Anna, Pete, I have a new assignment for you -- a show on single parents! What is it like for a mother or a father to raise a child by herself or himself? Anna: We can interview single parents. They can share their experiences themselves. Ms. Weaver: Yes, but you need to experience parenthood yourselves. Anna: Ourselves? Peter: Yeah, how do we do that? We’re not parents. Ms. Weaver: I asked myself the same question. I said, "Caty, how are they gonna do that?" Then an idea came to me. I will give you the babies! Professor Bot: You may be asking yourself the same thing that I’m asking myself: what is Ms. Weaver talking about!? I am sure we will find out shortly. This lesson teaches reflexive pronouns. Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of a sentence or clause. We use them when the subject and the object are the same person or thing.   For example, Ms. Weaver says, “I asked myself the same question.” “I” is the subject and “myself” refers back to it. Here, she would not use the pronoun “me.” You need to use the reflexive pronoun “myself.” Reflexive pronouns are easy to find: they end in “self” or “selves.” I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of reflexive pronouns. Listen for them! (Pete and Anna continue their meeting with Ms. Weaver. She puts two bags of flour on the table. Pete and Anna still look confused.) Ms. Weaver: Here are your babies! Pete: Those are bags of flour.   Ms. Weaver: No, Pete, for the next six days, this is your baby. Here are your instructions. Do not leave your babies alone. A baby cannot take care of itself. And you two must do everything by yourselves. We will meet next Friday. Oh, and the person who does the best research will get an extra day of vacation. Help yourself to a baby. Anna: Pete, look, my baby is organic and whole grain. Your baby is ordinary. (Pete pushes her flour baby off desk.) Anna: (to Pete) Monster! (to Caty) This is a great idea, Ms. Weaver! (Pete and Anna are now outside.) Pete: This is a terrible idea. Anna: Speak for yourself, Pete! We need to throw ourselves into the research! I’m starting right now! (She leaves but forgets her Flour Baby.) Pete: Hey Anna, you forgot your baby! (She turns and looks at Pete.) Anna: Come to mama!   (The bag of flour flies at her. She catches it.) Anna: Good girl! Good girl! Professor Bot: Singular reflexive pronouns end in “self.” Plural ones end in “selves.” Anna says, “We need to throw ourselves into the research!” The subject “we” is plural. So, we must use the plural reflexive pronoun “ourselves.” (The parenting research begins. Anna tries to open a baby stroller but can’t. A man walking by helps her. She pushes Flour Baby in the stroller but it falls out. On another day, she jogs with it. After several days, she is tired!)    Anna: This is hard! I hope Pete is not doing well. I really need that vacation day! Professor Bot: We will all see how Pete is doing in the next episode. We’ll also learn when not to use reflexive pronouns.     New Words experience – n. the process of doing and seeing things and of having things happen to you gonna – informal. In casual conversation, most Americans change “going to” to “gonna.” instructions – n. statements that describe how to do something ordinary – adj. normal or usual monster – n. an extremely cruel or evil person parenthood – n. the state of being a mother or father refer – v. to have a direct connection or relationship to something single – adj. not married or not having a serious romantic relationship with someone speak for yourself - expression. something you say to someone to say that the opinion that they have just expressed is not the same as your opinion stroller - n. a small carriage with four wheels that a baby or small child can ride in while someone pushes it​ terrible – adj. very shocking and upsetting throw (reflexive pronoun) into – expression. to begin to do something with great energy and determination   Practice Now, practice the grammar you just learned! Use the Comments section below to tell us about taking care of a baby (real or not), or maybe an animal. You can talk about yourself, or maybe a friend or family member/s. What happened? How did it go? Using Reflexive Pronouns We use reflexive pronouns when the subject and object of the sentence or clause are the same person or thing.  Ex: I asked myself the same question. Subjects and their reflexive pronouns: I…myself You…yourself He…himself Her…herself One…oneself It…itself We…ourselves You…yourselves They…themselves A reflexive pronoun can be a direct object, indirect object or an object of the preposition. Direct Object: Ex: A baby cannot take care of itself. Indirect Object: Ex: I asked myself the same question. Object of the Preposition: Ex: Anna and Pete are experiencing parenthood for themselves.  To show emphasis: Sometimes, we use reflexive pronouns simply to emphasize the person or thing in the sentence or clause. In this case, the reflexive pronoun often appears at the end of the sentence: Ex: Anna took care of the baby herself.   We do NOT use reflexive pronouns: After prepositions of place Ex: Anna found the flour baby in the kitchen herself. (wrong)        Anna found the flour baby in the kitchen. (right)  After these verbs: meet, feel, relax, concentrate Ex: They will meet themselves at The Studio next Friday. (wrong)       They will meet at The Studio next Friday. (right) After verbs that describe things we normally do for ourselves, such as dress, shave and wash​ Ex: Anna got dressed herself for a day with her new flour baby. (wrong)       Anna got dressed for a day with her new flour baby. (right) Don't miss the next episode when we'll talk more about when not to use reflexive pronouns!   Listening Quiz See how well you understand this lesson by taking a listening quiz. Play each short video, then choose the best answer.   ​Free Materials Download the VOA Learning English Word Book for a dictionary of the words we use on this website. For Teachers Send us an email if you have comments on this course or questions. Grammar focus: Reflexive pronouns  Topics: Interpreting information & advice; providing instructions   Comments Let us know what you think about this lesson. Send us an email or write to us in the Comments section below or on our Facebook page.

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College Admissions: Bridging the Language Gap

  International students can face many kinds of barriers in applying for admission to colleges and universities in the United States. These can include high costs and extreme distance from family and friends. A difficulty most students from non-English speaking countries face in the U.S. is a language barrier. Many such students feel they have little or no chance of gaining admission to an American school because of their poor English skills. But what if that barrier was removed from the application process? Rob Hardin says this is the goal of a special path to American higher education called conditional admission. Hardin is the assistant director for international student recruitment at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. He says most colleges and universities in the U.S. want international students on their campuses. “It adds significant value to have a student from Beijing, a student from Hanoi, a student from London in the classroom with the student from Portland, Oregon,” Hardin told VOA. “We think that enhances the student from Portland, Oregon’s experience.” He adds that many U.S. schools now accept the fact that some of the best students in the world do not speak perfect English. So, over the last ten years, more and more schools have begun using conditional admission as a way of helping these students. The way it works at the University of Oregon is very simple, Hardin says. International students apply in the same way any other student would. They provide records of their grades, information about their activities outside of school, and other application materials. They also must provide proof of their scores on an English language ability test such as the TOEFL. Hardin notes that many American colleges and universities only accept applicants whose TOEFL score reaches a certain level. But conditional admission permits students to ask for special consideration. Those schools then look at all the other materials these applicants have provided. Then the schools decide whether an applicant would be a good fit with some more English education. If the University of Oregon approves a student for conditional admission, he or she is placed in a special English-language education program, Hardin says. First, the university tests the students to identify which of seven instructional levels they should enter. Then, they begin English classes taught by university professors. ​ Hardin says many international students prefer to study English in their native countries. It is usually more economical, for one. And it means less time away from their homes and families. At the University of Oregon conditional admission students may start their degree program as soon as they complete the highest level of the language program. Hardin says this is true of most schools that offer conditional admission. He also argues that these conditional admissions programs offer more than a traditional language school can. He says they help international students get used to the American college experience before they start their degree program. Also, students often grow their language skills much faster while living at an American college and using its resources. “You’re going to have to figure out how to go to the grocery store and buy apples,” said Hardin. “You’re going to take what you’re learning in the classroom and you’re going to be able to immediately apply it to your daily life.” Hardin adds that this kind of non-traditional path to admission is not just for students with extremely weak English language skills. He says even generally strong non-native speakers can lack the level of English skill needed for success at an American college. For students whose TOEFL scores are still not high enough for traditional admission, some schools offer what is called a bridge program. At the University of Oregon, students in the bridge program must take as many as six special English classes in addition to the ones for their degree program. Again, students take a test at the start of their studies to determine how many of the bridge program classes they need. The classes are meant to provide a little extra language support, and they often relate to the general subject classes students are already taking. At the University of Oregon, Hardin adds, international students must complete their bridge program classes within their first year. Hardin says that both bridge programs and conditional admission are designed to make American higher education more inclusive. And they provide a path for students that they otherwise might not have known was available to them. But he also notes that international students should not expect every college and university in the U.S. to offer such programs. This is especially true of the top schools that get the most attention worldwide. At those institutions, competition is fierce and students who are already strong in English have a better chance at acceptance.  “Places … that receive such a high number of applications … want to admit students who are, frequently, going to have perfect grades, perfect SAT scores,” Hardin said. “And I don’t think they’re interested in teaching English. It’s not really what they’ve ever done. And a lot of … these institutions … do not have a shortage of applications.” So, he adds, a student who is worried about their language abilities may want to consider one of the hundreds of lesser-known schools. Asking one of those schools if they offer conditional admission or a bridge program might be what makes their dreams of American higher education come true. I’m Dorothy Gundy. And I’m Pete Musto.   Pete Musto reported this story for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. We want to hear from you. Do colleges and universities in your country offer non-traditional admissions programs? How do these programs work? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ QUIZ _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   apply(ing) – v. to ask formally for something, such as a job, admission to a school, or a loan, usually in writing conditional – adj. used to describe something, such as an agreement, that will happen only if something else also happens recruitment – n. the activity of finding people that have the right qualities and getting them to attend a school or join a company, an organization, or the armed forces campus(es) – n. the area and buildings around a university, college, or school significant – adj. very important enhance(s) – v. to increase or improve something grade(s) – n. a number or letter that indicates how a student performed in a class or on a test prefer – v. to like someone or something better than someone or something else grocery store – n. a store that sells food and household supplies determine – v. to officially decide something especially because of evidence or facts institution(s) – n. an established organization frequently – adv. done regularly or often

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Have You Ever 'Spilled the Beans?'

  Now, Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English. Beans are a popular food in many countries. From black to red, from kidney to pinto, beans are important in the diet of many cultures. Rich in fiber, protein and nutrients, beans are a healthy, plant-based food. So, spilling the beans at home or in a store would not be good. Food is important and does not belong on the floor. "Spilling the beans" when you communicate with others is also a bad thing. When you spill the beans, you share or make public secret information. You don't mean to do it. The secrets just spill out of you. However, this expression does not come from cooking beans or the fact that we shouldn't waste food. The expression "spill the beans" has been a part of the English language for hundreds of years. Some word historians say the term was first used all the way back in the 1500s. If you think that sounds old, you may be surprised to learn that the origin of “spill the beans” goes back to ancient Greece. Several websites say this expression comes from one way ancient Greeks voted. Back then in some communities, people voted by dropping a white or black bean into a clay urn. If the container fell on its side or broke, the beans would spill out. And this would show everyone the results of the secret vote before all the beans were counted.   While this origin story is interesting, it does not explain why the term "spill the beans" does not appear in common usage until much later. Maybe it is because other expressions with the same meaning were simply more popular. For example, letting the cat out of the bag means the same as spilling the beans. We’ve explained the meaning of "to let the cat out of the bag" before. But it’s always good to hear it again. Americans use the verb "spill" in much the same way. Sometimes we simply say, "Spill it!" When you tell others to "spill it," you are asking them to tell you all the details about something immediately. This term is very casual and could even sound offensive depending on the situation and expression in your voice. So it's best to use it with close friends, family or when you are joking around.   Blab is another word meaning "to spill the beans." Blab is not the nicest word, however. A man who blabbers keeps talking and talking, as if he can't keep his mouth closed. A blabber mouth is someone who can’t keep their mouth shut. Blabber mouths are known for often spilling the beans and for letting more than a few cats out of the bag.  From among our expressions today -- spill the beans, let the cat out of the bag, and blabber -- the blabber mouth does not always mean someone who gives away secrets. They sometimes just talk too much! Well, I don’t want to be accused of being a blabber mouth. So, this will be the end this Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English. I'm Anna Matteo.   Don’t start me talking or I’ll tell everything I know. Don’t start me talking I’ll spill the beans for sure. Right before your eyes, I’ll blurt it all open wide. Don’t start me talking … Do you have an expression like "spill the beans" in your language? Have you ever angered a friend or spoiled a surprise by spilling the beans? Let us know in the Comments Section. Or simply practice using the expressions you heard here today.   Anna Matteo wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. The song at the end is Paul Kelly singing “Don’t Start Me Talking.” _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   fiber – n. plant material that cannot be digested but that helps you to digest other food communicate – v. to give information about (something) to someone by speaking, writing, moving your hands, etc. origin – n. the point or place where something begins or is created : the source or cause of something clay – n. a heavy, sticky material from the earth that is made into different shapes and that becomes hard when it is baked or dried urn – n. a container that is often shaped like a vase with a closed top casual – adj. not involving a close or serious relationship blab – v. to say something that was supposed to be kept secret : to talk too much blurt – v. to say (something) suddenly and without thinking about how people will react

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Myanmar Businesses Support Rebuilding Rakhine State

  Myanmar’s business leaders are supporting Aung San Suu Kyi’s plan to resettle Rohingya refugees and to rebuild Rakhine State. Last August, Rohingya militant attacks on the police caused a military response that sent more than 650,000 Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh. Myanmar and Bangladesh have since agreed on a plan to send refugees from Myanmar back to the country within the next two years. And the leader of Myanmar is looking for private investment to rebuild Rakhine State. However, the return of refugees has stopped. Rohingya leaders have demanded that community land be returned and human rights violations be investigated. They also want the opportunity to become citizens of Myanmar. In an e-mailed statement to VOA, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said, “conditions in Rakhine State are not yet fully conducive to the safe…return of refugees.” Myanmar’s civilian government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), is constitutionally prevented from questioning the army. It has, however, tried to take control in other ways. The heads of Eden, KBZ, and Asia World were once under Western sanctions because of their ties to the previous government, a military junta. During her years of house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi criticized them as military “cronies.” In an October 2016 event, she reminded them of past misdeeds but asked for, “those who have previously worked for their own self-interest work for others in the future.” The same business leaders who made millions of dollars during military rule now support the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine, or UEHRD. It was formed in October with a $13.5 million donation from business leaders. Nyo Myint is a senior managing director of KBZ Group. He told VOA some of the $2.2 million donated from his company would be spent on a new fence across the border with Bangladesh. He said this would benefit “both countries” by stopping illegal migration. Other support has been more direct. Chit Khine, the Eden Group chairman, told VOA over the phone that his company is building structures in Nga Khu Ya, one of two areas near the border where refugees will be returned. The Eden Group built large parts of Myanmar’s new capital city in Naypyidaw under military rule. Gerard McCarthy works at the Myanmar Research Center of the Australian National University. He told VOA that asking for the support of businesses for national causes is not a change from NLD values, which believe that “capitalists can be moral as long as they contribute.” Aung San Suu Kyi’s plan also presents Rakhine State as a promising opportunity for increased investment in one of Myanmar’s poorest states. The government in October restarted an economic zone in Maungdaw in northern Rakhine State, by signing a deal with a group of local and Yangon-based firms. Vicky Bowman, director of the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business, told VOA via email that while humanitarian needs should come first, there was “a need for public investment in infrastructure” to fight poverty in Rakhine State. However, there are risks. Bowman said that there could be local anger that businesses from outside of Rakhine have more opportunity at a time of strong Rakhine nationalism. I’m Susan Shand.   Ben Dunant reported this story for VOA. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   sanction – n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country junta – n. a military group controlling a government after taking control of it by force crony - n. a close associate in a corrupt enterprise misdeed – n. a morally wrong or illegal act contribute – v. to help to cause something to happen opportunity – n. an amount of time or a situation in which something can be done infrastructure – n. the bridges, roads, and buildings of a society

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Rural Cameras Capture Animals in the Wild

  Have you ever wondered what wild animals do when no one is watching? Scientists have been able to document the “private” moments of wildlife with leading edge technology. Low cost, dependable and small modern cameras amount to a big help. Cameras placed in hard-to-reach places have captured images of everything from small desert cats called ocelots to larger snow-loving felines called lynx in the northern Rocky Mountains. Learning new information from far-away cameras Grant Harris is a government biologist with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In his words, “there’s no doubt,” that these rural cameras are important tools to learn new information on wildlife. Harris said some images help scientists see the effects of climate change. For example, the desert animal javelina and the tree-loving coatimundi have been caught on cameras north of their normal habitat. Harris said this could mean global warming is expanding their range northward. Researchers with the Wyoming Migration Initiative, or WMI, are among those using rural cameras along with global positioning systems, or GPS. They attach GPS devices to elk, mule deer and antelope in and around Yellowstone National Park. Then they can record their movements, or migrations. But WMI director Matthew Kauffman says as those devices are limited so is the amount of information they can gather from GPS. "You see one animal migrating, you don't know if it's migrating by itself, if it's migrating with a calf, or if it's migrating with 40 other animals," Kauffman said. However cameras can be left in very rural areas for days, weeks or even months.  They can provide information on how many animals are moving over a given period of time, he said. Putting those cameras in place requires careful planning. "There's this tension between subjectivity in where you put your camera and where it's statistically sound," Harris said. Sometimes, humans appear in the images. "I've seen people moon cameras, and that's always funny," he said. Rural video can show details about animal behavior, such as the calls made by migrating mule deer. Also, some cameras live-stream animal life, showing everything from bison in Saskatchewan, Canada, to the underwater kelp forest off of California's Channel Islands. Camera problems However, rural cameras have their problems too. Animals such as wolverines and bears sometimes attack them. Scientists do not know if the attacks are the result of anger or interest. Also, the devices have become popular tools to help hunters look for animals. Some people argue that it is unfair to use the cameras that way. Even with such problems, rural cameras are clearly an important scientific tool in researching wild animals. I’m Phil Dierking.   Mead Gruver reported this story for the Associated Press. Phil Dierking adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. Are you interested in watching video of animals in the wild?  We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   biologist - n. a science that deals with things that are alive​ live-stream - v. transmit or receive live video and audio coverage of (an event) over the Internet.​ migrate - v.  to move from one country or place to live or work in another​ moon - v. to bend over and show your bare buttocks to someone as a rude joke or insult​ range - n.  a specified distance​ subjectivity - n. based on feelings or opinions rather than facts​ statistics - n. a number that represents a piece of information (such as information about how often something is done, how common something is, etc.)​

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Researchers: Substance in Toothpaste Could Fight Malaria

  Researchers have found that a substance used in toothpaste could be developed to fight drug-resistant forms of the disease malaria. The researchers say the finding came from a study involving a ‘robot scientist.’ They said it was programmed with Artificial Intelligence (AI) – the ability to copy human behavior and make decisions. Scientists from Britain’s Cambridge University reported on the robot and their findings in the journal Scientific Reports. The scientists identified the common ingredient in toothpaste as triclosan. They said it showed the ability to stop malaria infections both in the liver and in the blood. Malaria kills around 500-million people every year. The majority of them are children in the poorest parts of Africa. The disease can be treated with a number of drugs, but resistance to these medicines is increasing. The Reuters news agency notes this raises the risk that some malaria strains may become untreatable in the future. Because of this, the search for new medicines was becoming increasingly urgent, says Steve Oliver. He works in Cambridge University’s biochemistry department and helped to lead the study. Malaria viruses are passed to humans through the bites of an infective female Aedes mosquito. The World Health Organization says the insects mainly get the virus while feeding on the blood of an infected person. In humans, malaria parasites work their way into the liver, where the organisms develop and reproduce. They then move into red blood cells and spread around the body, causing a rise in body temperature and possibly life-threatening conditions. Scientists have known for some time that triclosan can stop malaria parasites’ growth in the blood. They say it is able to restrict the action of an enzyme known as enoyl reductase. In toothpaste products, triclosan helps to prevent a build-up of plaque bacteria in the mouth. In this latest study, however, the Cambridge researchers found that triclosan stops a different enzyme of the malaria parasite, one called DHFR. DHFR is the target of an antimalarial drug called pyrimethamine. Malaria parasites are developing resistance to the drug, mainly in Africa. The Cambridge team’s work showed that triclosan was able to target and act on this enzyme even in pyrimethamine-resistant parasites. “The discovery by our robot colleague, that triclosan is effective against malaria targets, offers hope that we may be able to use it to develop a new drug,” wrote Elizabeth Bilsland, a co-leader of the study. She added that the ingredient is safe and can help to prevent the parasite from becoming more resistant. The AI robot scientist used in the study - named Eve - was built to speed up the drug discovery process. It does this by developing theories, doing experiments, seeing the results, changing the theory, and then repeating the process. I’m Susan Shand.   This story was reported by the Reuters news agency. Susan Shand adapted the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. _________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   toothpaste - n. a product used for cleaning teeth artificial intelligence – n. the ability of a machine to reproduce human behavior liver - n. a large organ that produces bile and cleans the blood parasite - n. an organism that lives in another creature and gets food or protection from it plaque - n. a thin coating that forms on teeth and contains bacteria colleague - n. a person who works with you  

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English in a Minute: To Have Nerve

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'A Princess of Mars,' by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Part Three

Editor's note: This is the third in our series of programs called “A Princess of Mars.” The story is from a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Last week we told how John Carter was captured by a group of warriors on the planet Mars. Later, he became one of them by defeating a huge warrior in a fight. He is still a captive, but he is treated with honor because he is a skilled fighter. We left John Carter at the beginning of a fierce battle between the green warriors and their main enemy. The enemy came close to the green Martians in huge air ships. The green Martians attacked.  John Carter continues to tell about what happens to him in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s story, “A Princess of Mars.” Paul Thompson adapted this story for VOA Learning English. Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter produced it. Shep O’Neal was the voice of John Carter. Steve Ember was Tars Tarkas. Barbara Klein was Sola. Gwen Outen was the voice of Princess Dejah Thoris. JOHN CARTER: Another of the large air ships exploded high in the air. Members of the crew fell to the ground. The huge ship lost control and began turning again and again. Soon it was close to the ground. The warriors climbed aboard the ship and began fighting the members of the crew who were still alive. Soon the fighting stopped. The warriors began taking everything from the ship. At last, they brought a captive from deep within the ship. Two of the warriors had their captive by each arm.  I wanted to see what new and strange form of life this creature would be. As they came near, I saw that it was a woman. She looked like a woman from Earth. She was young. Her skin was a light red, almost a copper color. I saw at once that she was extremely beautiful. She had a fine face with large dark eyes and long, black hair.  As her guards led her away, she saw me for a moment. She seemed very surprised. Her face looked hopeful. But when I made no attempt to speak to her, her face grew sad and she looked very small and frightened. As I watched her disappear into a building, I realized that Sola was near me. SOLA: John Carter, that woman will be saved for the great games that are held by our people. The games are long and cruel and end in death for those captured in battle. Her death will be slow and painful.  She will die for the enjoyment of all. JOHN CARTER: Sola’s face seemed sad when she said this. I could tell by the way she spoke that she did not like the games and did not want to see the young woman die. She was very different from the rest of her people. Sola, do you not like the games? SOLA: No, John Carter. My mother died in the games. That is a secret you must not tell anyone. The wall where Tars Tarkas found you held eggs that produce our young. All the children belong to the tribe. A mother never knows which child is hers when they come out of the egg. My mother hid the egg that carried me. It was not placed within the walled area.  She kept her secret until after I was born.  But others discovered her secret and she was condemned to die in the games. She hid me among other children before she was captured. If this secret were learned, I too would die in the games. Before she left me, my mother told me the name of my father. I alone keep that secret. It would mean death for him as well as me. My people are violent and cruel. JOHN CARTER: The next day I entered the great room where the green Martians held meetings. The red woman prisoner was there too. Soon, the leader of the green Martians came into the room. His name was Lorquas Ptomel. He began speaking to the prisoner. LORQUAS PTOMEL: Who are you and what is your name? DEJAH THORIS: I am the Princess Dejah Thoris, daughter of Mors Kajak, the ruler of Helium.  Our air ship was on a scientific flight. We were to study the air and atmosphere.  Without our work the air on our planet would grow thin and we would all die.  Why would you attack us? JOHN CARTER: As she talked, a warrior ran to her and hit her in the face, knocking her to the ground. He placed a foot on her small body and began laughing. I reached for the small sword I carried and rushed to attack the huge warrior. He was a strong opponent. But again, because of the low gravity on Mars, my strength was far greater than his. In a few short minutes, the green warrior was dead. I helped the young woman to her feet. DEJAH THORIS: Who are you? Why did you risk your life to help me? You look almost the same as my people, but you wear the weapons of a green warrior.  Who… or what.. are you? JOHN CARTER: My name is John Carter. I am from the planet Earth. How I got here is a long story. I attacked that warrior because, where I come from, men do not attack women. I will offer you my protection as long as I can. However, I must tell you that I, too, am a captive. SOLA: Come, John Carter, and bring the red woman with you. Let us leave this room quickly before some warrior attempts to stops us. JOHN CARTER: The three of us quickly returned to the building where I had spent the last several days. Sola then left to prepare food. Woola sat in the corner and looked at the both of us. The young woman was afraid of poor, ugly Woola. I told her not to fear him. Woola is not only my guard. He is my friend. I have treated him with kindness that he has never known. As each day passes, he trusts me more. I now think he would follow any command I give. Sola has told me that all captives are held until they can die in the great games held by the green Martians. Our only chance to survive is to escape. But we must have Sola’s help for our plan to succeed. DEJAH THORIS: Yes. If we stay with the green warriors, we will both die. If we are to escape, we will need several of the animals to ride. It would be our only chance. JOHN CARTER: I have several of the animals. They were given to me when I became a warrior. Sola came back later with food for the two of us. Dejah Thoris and I asked for her help. The three of us talked long into the night. At last Sola gave us her answer. SOLA: Your best chance for escape will be in the next two days. We will leave this city tomorrow and begin a long trip to the home of our tribe. I will help you escape. But I must come with you. I will be killed if you escape. DEJAH THORIS: Sola, of course you must come with us! You are not cruel or violent as many of your people are. Help us and I can promise you a much better life. You will be treated with respect as an honored guest. JOHN CARTER: The next morning we rode away from the city on our animals. More than a thousand animals were carrying the huge tribe of green Martians. Also in the group were one American, one Princess of the Royal House of Helium, our guard, Sola, and poor ugly Woola. Late that night we left the camp. One animal carried me. Another Sola and Princess Dejah Thoris. Woola followed close behind. We rode quickly through the Martian night. I looked into the sky and saw Earth across the great distance of space. Since I had met the Princess Dejah Thoris, I had not thought once of Earth or home. I knew then that I would never willingly leave her. The next morning, I could see that we were being followed by several hundred of the green warriors. Our animals were very tired. I knew we must stop. I told Sola and the Princess to take the stronger of the two animals and ride away. I will hold back the green warriors as long as I can.  Woola! Go with them and guard them with your life. DEJAH THORIS: We can’t leave you alone. It would be certain death if you are captured again. You must come with us! JOHN CARTER: Sola took the princess by the arm and lifted her on top of the animal she had chosen. Quickly she began riding away.  For a moment, Woola looked at me, then turned and ran after them. I took out my rifle from its case. I began firing to slow the green warriors. I was able to slow them for more than an hour. But then I had no more ammunition. Soon I was surrounded. A green warrior got off his animal and came toward me. He pulled out his long, thin sword. I reached for mine. As we neared each other I saw it was Tars Tarkas. He stopped and spoke to me very slowly. TARS TARKAS: You will die here… today… John Carter. It is I who must kill you. Know that I will take no pleasure in your death. Join us again next week as we continue “A Princess of Mars.” Download activities to help you understand this story here. Now it’s your turn to use these Words in This Story. In the comments section, write a sentence using one of these words and we will provide feedback on your use of vocabulary and grammar. ________________________________________________________________ QUIZ ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   captive - n. someone who is captured and kept as a prisoner capture - v.  to take and hold (someone) as a prisoner especially by using force condemn -  v. to give (someone) a usually severe punishment — usually + to survive - v. to remain alive : to continue to live ammunition - n. the objects (such as bullets and shells) that are shot from weapon

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Chilean Film Nominated for Academy Award

  Lebanon’s first Oscar-nominated movie and a Chilean picture with a transgender actor are among five finalists for best foreign language film at the 2018 Academy Awards. The winner will receive an Academy Award, also called an Oscar. The 90th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on March 4 in Los Angeles, California. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the best foreign language film award to a movie recorded in a language other than English. All the films under consideration were produced in a country other than the United States. Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri’s “The Insult” is competing against four other films, including Chilean filmmaker Sebastan Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman.” The other finalists are “The Square” by Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Loveless” and “On Body and Soul” by Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi. A film about the limits to our empathy “A Fantastic Woman” tells about a transgender woman who is rejected by her partner’s family after his death. Critics have praised the movie as a major turning point in how transgender people are represented in film. However, the director says he did not set out to make history. Lelio told The Associated Press that he was surprised how timely the film seems. He noted how the movie has made its way from the world of theatrical productions and into the cultural conversation. Lelio said he sees the film as a love story “that happens to happen to a transgender woman.” “For me, it has always been a film about the limits to our empathy,” he said. “About what we are willing to allow from others, where we draw the line in terms of which people are legitimate or which acts of love are legitimate or not.” Showing hope in the Middle East Paris-based Lebanese director Doueiri said the nomination for “The Insult” was “great news for us and for Lebanon.” “It’s been a very, very long and difficult road to get where we are,” he said. In “The Insult,” an argument between a Lebanese Christian man and a Palestinian refugee leads to a courtroom battle. The film shows examples of ongoing problems within Lebanese society. The film was first shown at the Venice Film Festival, where its Palestinian co-star, Kamel El Basha, won the best actor award. Doueiri was briefly detained when he returned to Lebanon because he had visited Israel, where his movie “The Attack” was being filmed. Lebanon and Israel are in a state of war. Lebanon’s government bars Lebanese citizens from visiting Israel or having business with Israelis. “Making films means crossing borders,” said Doueiri. “Nobody can tell a director where to film.” The director added that he hoped “The Insult” would show movie goers a different side of the Middle East than violence and conflict. Yet with these problems, there is hope of compromise, he said. A global representation The nominees for best foreign language film will come to the Oscars after winning awards at other film competitions. “Loveless” took the first place at the 2017 London Film Festival. Judges there praised Zvyagintsev for turning the story of one family’s problems into a universal tragedy. The Russian director said the Academy Award nomination means a lot to filmmakers, and helps them, “continue to tell the stories that move us, in the way we want to tell them.” Hungarian film “On Body and Soul” won the Golden Bear award last year at the Berlin Film Festival. The film, a love story, takes place in a building where animals are killed for their meat. Director Enyedi said the movie tells about two normal people whose lives are brightened by the power of dreams. Enyedi is the only female director among the foreign language finalists. She said getting an Oscar nomination “in a year where so many exceptional women are being honored for their work behind the camera humbles me.” “The Square” is a story of a museum director whose well-organized life turns into crisis after a series of strange events. It won the Palme d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Ostlund was very happy about the nomination of his film.  “I wanted to make an entertaining, wild and funny movie at the same time,” he told the AP from the Sundance Film Festival. I’m Phil Dierking.   The Associated Press reported this story. Phil Dierking adapted the report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Have you seen or heard of any of these movies?  What other foreign movies do you think should be nominated?  We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   conversation – n. a spoken exchange of idea or opinions empathy – n. the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions entertaining – adj. enjoyable and fun humble – adj. not thinking of yourself as better than other people legitimate – adj. fair or reasonable transgender – n. people who feel that their true self is different from their sex at birth universal – adj. done or experienced by everyone  

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Pakistani Doctor, Who Aided Hunt for bin Laden, Forgotten in Prison

  Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor, helped the United States find Osama bin Laden in 2011. He was later arrested by Pakistani authorities and has been in prison waiting for a trial ever since. The U.S. supports Afridi’s release. However, the debate over his future is an example of the complicated relations between the two countries. A difficult trial Afridi has not seen his lawyer since 2012. His wife and children are his only visitors. For two years his file “disappeared,” delaying his court appeal. The courts now say a prosecutor is unavailable, his lawyer, Qamar Nadeem Afridi, told The Associated Press. “Everyone is afraid to even talk about him, to mention his name,” said Nadeem, who is also Afridi’s cousin. Nadeem said lawyers working with Afridi have been threatened with violence. Nadeem’s law office has bullet holes from a shooting incident several years ago. One of Afridi’s lawyers was murdered outside his Peshawar home. Also, a jail administrator who supported Afridi was shot and killed. Afridi used a fake hepatitis vaccination program to try to get DNA samples from bin Laden’s family. However, he has not been charged with helping the U.S. to find bin Laden. Nadeem said Afridi was accused under tribal law for helping militants in the nearby Khyber tribal region. In a tribal court, the law allows them to be closed to the public, does not require the defendant to be present in court, and limits the number of appeals, he said. If Afridi were charged with treason, he would have the right to public hearings and appeals, even up to the Supreme Court. This would allow details of the bin Laden operation to be discussed publicly, something both the government and military do not want. ​Rising tension As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump said he would free Afridi. In an interview with Fox News in April 2016, he said he would get him out of prison in “two minutes. ... Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan.” In a tweet after New Year’s Day, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Pakistan took $33 billion in aid and gave only “deceit and lies” in return. He also accused Pakistan of protecting Afghan militants who attack American soldiers in Afghanistan. Pakistan accused the U.S. of blaming them for its failure to bring peace to Afghanistan. Shortly after, the U.S. suspended almost $2 billion in military aid to Pakistan. The Wilson Center’s Michael Kugelman said Pakistan and the U.S. should recognize their disagreements. And the countries should find areas where they can cooperate like fighting the Islamic State and al-Qaida terror groups. Both countries see them as threats. For now, Afridi spends his days alone in a prison filled with militants who want to kill him for his role in locating bin Laden. Still, Nadeem said Pakistani authorities are treating Afridi well and he is in good health. U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells recently met with Pakistani authorities. There is no information whether Afridi’s case was discussed in the meeting. In a statement, the U.S. State Department told the Associated Press that Afridi has not been forgotten. “We believe Dr. Afridi has been unjustly imprisoned and have clearly communicated our position to Pakistan on Dr. Afridi’s case, both in public and in private,” it said. I’m Phil Dierking.   ​Kathy Gannon wrote this story for the Associated Press. Phil​Dierking adapted this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. How do you think the United States and Pakistan can find peace?  We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   allow - v. to permit (something)​ complicated - adj. when something is  more difficult or less simple​ deceit - n. behavior that is meant to fool or trick someone​ DNA - n. a substance that carries genetic information in the cells of plants and animals. fake - adj. not true or real​ file - n. a collection of documents that have information you want to keep and that are stored so that they can be found easily​ hepatitis - n. a serious disease of the liver that causes fever and makes your skin and eyes yellow​. locate - v.  to find the place or position of (something or someone)​ mention - v.  to talk about, write about, or refer to (something or someone) especially in a brief way​ prosecutor - n.  a lawyer who represents the side in a court case that accuses a person of a crime and who tries to prove that the person is guilty​. region - n. a part of a country, of the world, etc., that is different or separate from other parts in some way​ role - n. a part that someone or something has in a particular activity or situation​

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What It Takes - Steven Spielberg

00:00:00    ALICE WINKLER: This is What It Takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.   00:00:08    I'm Alice Winkler.   00:00:10    OPRAH WINFREY: "Hattie Mae, this child is gifted," and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.   00:00:16    ROGER BANNISTER: If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another chance.   00:00:22    LAURYN HILL: It all was so clear. It was just, like, the picture started to form itself.   00:00:27    DESMOND TUTU: There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.   00:00:34    CAROL BURNETT (quoting CARRIE HAMILTON): “Every day I wake up and decide, today I'm going to love my life. Decide.”   00:00:42    JOHNNY CASH: My advice is, if they're going to break your leg once when you go in that place, stay out of there.   00:00:47    JAMES MICHENER: And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for, but boy, you’d better not miss them.   00:01:00    ALICE WINKLER: Most episodes of What It Takes tell the tale of a single, remarkable person, as you know if you’re a regular. But in this episode you’re getting a twofer, because the two men you’re going to hear from today, Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski, have worked together over the past 25 years to bring us some of the most memorable movies ever made: Schindler’s List, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, Munich, War Horse, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, the list keeps going.   00:01:37     STEVEN SPIELBERG: I dream for a living. This is what I’ve done all my life. This is what I wanted to do with my life.     00:01:43     JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Yeah, it became an addiction for me, creating images, you know, the sound of the projector. Of course, that doesn’t happen anymore because we don’t have 35-millimeter projectors, but that sound, you know. When I hear the sound of the projector, I’m getting ready to get high because that is — it’s just about to deliver that emotional adrenaline rush, you know — the images, my images, projected on the big screen.   00:02:06     MUSIC: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (THEME)   00:02:10     ALICE WINKLER: Director Steven Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski have made 15 movies together, and they have a few more in the pipeline already. If you’re a fan of their films, take a moment to tweet about this episode. Our hashtag is #WhatItTakesNow. The latest Spielberg/Kaminski production is called BFG. That stands for Big Friendly Giant — it’s based on a wonderful children’s book by Roald Dahl.   00:02:42    SOPHIE: And that is where our story begins.   00:02:46    MUSIC: THE BFG (THEME) 00:02:49    ALICE WINKLER: Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski’s personal stories are quite different, as I guess all personal stories are, but when I pulled recordings of both men from the vault at the Academy of Achievement, I found it so interesting to listen to them back-to-back. Spielberg was born to a middle class family in Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1940s. Kaminski was born in a tiny town called Ziębice in Communist Poland in the 1950s. At 22, he left, alone, to an imaginary America he’d seen on the big screen. Within ten years, in the real America, he’d learned English and filmmaking and was collaborating with Steven Spielberg on a powerful film about the Holocaust, a film that would win them each an Academy Award.   00:03:41     Given the body of work they’ve made together, starting with Schindler’s List, it seems that Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski, born a world apart, were destined to come together to tell stories. So first to Spielberg, who told the story of how he became a filmmaker to students at an Academy of Achievement gathering in 2006. Then we’ll take a little intermission, when you can refill your virtual popcorn bowl, and we’ll return with Janusz Kaminski. So here’s Steven Spielberg’s talk, pretty much in its entirety.   00:04:17     STEVEN SPIELBERG: Everything I’m about to tell you happened completely by accident. And I think it all started out when I was maybe six or seven years old, and my father came over to me and said, "I'm going to take you to see the greatest show on Earth." And when you promise a six-, seven-, eight-year-old young boy that you're about to see the greatest show on Earth, I couldn't have been more excited.   00:04:45    My father explained there were going to be lion tamers and circus acts. There were going to be clowns and trapeze artists, and I was absolutely delighted, and I looked forward to this for a week. On the weekend, we got in the car. We drove to Philadelphia — we lived in New Jersey, in Haddon Township, New Jersey. We drove into Philadelphia, and it was very, very cold. It was wintertime, around the holiday season, and we stood in a very long line, I remember, against a solid, red brick wall for what seemed like hours.   00:05:18     I think we actually stood in line for about two-and-a-half hours. The line just inched forward. I didn’t quite understand. I was waiting to see the tent, and there was not a tent. There was a brick wall. We walked into some rather large doors, and we walked into a very — kind of a dimly lit room. I remember the room had a lot of pink and purple lights, and the ceiling looked like a church. It was a lot of Rococo carvings.   00:05:46     There wasn’t any kind of iconic, you know, symbology in the room, but it felt like a place of worship, a little bit like our synagogue, actually, and I still didn’t quite understand about the greatest show on Earth. And I sat down in some seats, and they were all facing forward, not bleachers but seats. There was a large red curtain — I'll never forget this, and the curtain opened. The lights went down, and a dimly lit image came on the screen, and it was flickering, and it was kind of grainy because we were sitting way in front.   00:06:27     And suddenly I realized that my father had lied to me, and had betrayed me, and had taken me to a circus that wasn’t a circus. It was a movie about a circus, and I had never seen a movie before. That was the first movie I ever saw, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. I had never seen a motion picture before.   00:06:51    I had seen a lot of television because my dad was an electrical engineer, and in his spare time, when he wasn’t working for RCA, he was repairing the early television sets of the early '50s. So I knew television, but I didn’t know movies. That was my first movie experience, and I think the feeling of disappointment and regret and betrayal lasted only about ten minutes, and then I became just one more victim of this tremendous drug called cinema, and I was no longer in a theater. I was no longer in a seat.   00:07:23    I wasn’t aware of the surroundings. It was no longer a church. It was a place of equal devotion and worship, however. I became part of an experience, and I became part of the lives of a lot of people that I never would meet, and I would only get to know in this one story, but that became my life. Now in the center of this movie, if any of you remember the Cecil B. DeMille film The Greatest Show on Earth, there’s a tremendous train wreck, where a train speeding along the tracks is encountered by a car, and the train hits the car.   00:07:59    The car flips over the top of the engine, and the train goes off the tracks, and it's a tremendous disaster, where all the cars pile up. It was a special effect sequence. Later, I learned it was a miniature train, but it was as real as I’ve ever seen anything in my life. It was the greatest disaster I ever beheld, and for me it began my interest not in making movies but in asking my dad to get me a Lionel electric train.   00:08:29    So I went from wanting to become part of this incredible experience to wanting to own my first electric train, and that holiday season my dad got me my first Lionel engine and a little coal car and a caboose and a few passenger cars. And the next year, I asked for the same thing. I said, "I’d like another engine," so I had two trains. And as I got older, I began to collect every year, more and more cars and people and semaphores and crossing signals. I became a complete electric train nut.   00:09:01     And I had a rather large layout in our — and by this time, by the way, we had moved from New Jersey to Phoenix, Arizona, which, by the way, when you’re about 12 years old, there is nothing to do in Phoenix, Arizona, nothing at all. So I had a lot of time on my hands, and I was really interested in seeing what it would look like if I could recreate that memory, now several years older, of The Greatest Show on Earth, and could I recreate the train wreck? And I actually took my two trains, and I just rammed them into each other, and they broke.   00:09:32     And I told my dad the train had broken, and he said, "How did it happen?" I said, "I rammed them into each other," and my dad had them repaired. And the next week I crashed my trains into each other again, and the other train broke, and my dad said, "Look, you know, you — I’m going to take the train set away if you crash these things into each other one more time. You’re not going to have trains anymore." But there was something about whatever the primal sense of wanting to destroy something because of that movie — whatever got into me, I needed to see those trains crash into each other.   00:10:04     And so, I also didn’t want to lose my train set. My dad had, sitting around the house — which I always had taken for granted — this little eight millimeter Kodak film movie camera with a turret that had three lenses, kind of wide, medium, and close-up lenses. I never really bothered with the camera, but I thought, "Well, I know what I can do. What if I film the trains crashing into each other? I can just watch the film over and over and over again."   00:10:33     And that’s how I made my first movie.   00:10:36    I shot one train, just all in the camera. I didn’t have an editing machine. I just put the camera low to the track, the way we, as children, like to put our eyes close to the toys we’re playing with so the scale seems to be, you know — the scale seems to be realistic. And I just filmed one train going left to right. I filmed the other train, cut the camera, turned it around, the other train coming right to left. And intuitively I figured out that if I put my camera in the middle and they met in the middle, I’d have my train wreck. Well, that’s exactly what I did.   00:11:05     Luckily the trains didn’t break, but I looked at that film over and over and over again, and then I thought, "I wonder what else I could do with this camera?" And that’s how it began, and that’s how I became a director. And the first time I sensed that an audience was kind of agreeing with my choice of profession was when I was a Boy Scout and I went out for the Photography merit badge, and I wanted to — and the requirement in the merit badge simply said you have to tell a picture with still photographs.   00:11:38     Our still camera broke. I went to the Scoutmaster. I said, "Can I tell a story with our home movie camera?" He said, "Yes" — to fulfill the requirements for the merit badge — and I made a little Western called Gunsmog.   00:11:52     I’m really dating myself because, of course, James Arness and Gunsmoke was all the rage on television in those days. And I made this little Western with my sisters and my friends, and my next-door neighbors and some of the Boy Scouts. And we just — everybody had cowboy suits because we lived in Arizona, my goodness, you know.   00:12:09     And so we all brought our cowboy suits out, and I made this little Western movie and showed it to the Boy Scout troop on a Friday night when we had a meeting, and they went ballistic. They were screaming and clapping and laughing both with and at the movie. I didn’t care. It was a response, and the response set me on fire. It absolutely set me on fire, and I never wanted to live without some kind of affirmation, some kind of collective feedback.   00:12:37     And maybe that’s why my early movies were all about you. My early movies were all soliciting you, making you my partners, thinking about you behind the camera, thinking about what would turn you on, what would get you excited, what would make you laugh, what would make you scream. How could I create suspense out of whole cloth when that darn shark never worked?   00:12:58    MUSIC: RAIDER’S MARCH (from INDIANA JONES)    00:12:59     STEVEN SPIELBERG: And you were my partners. My audience, you know — I collaborated with you, and you collaborated with me, and I think in the beginning of my career, I had this wonderful experience, and the thing I really want to emphasize is, I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t have a choice.   00:13:17     When you have a dream — and the dream isn’t something you dream and then it happens, the dream is something you never knew was going to come into your life — dreams always come from behind you, not right between your eyes. It sneaks up on you. But when you have a dream, it doesn’t often come at you, screaming in your face, "This is who you are! This is what you must be for the rest of your life." Sometimes a dream almost whispers, and I’ve always said to my kids: "The hardest thing to listen to, your instincts, your human personal intuition, always whispers. It never shouts. Very hard to hear. So you have to, every day of your lives, be ready to hear what whispers in your ear. It very rarely shouts."   00:14:05     ALICE WINKLER: Cue the music.   00:14:06    MUSIC: RAIDER’S MARCH (from INDIANA JONES)     00:14:24     ALICE WINKLER: So that is how Steven Spielberg came to make movies and listen to what intuition had to tell him, and one thing his intuition told him in 1991 was that a guy named Janusz Kaminski was someone he needed to meet. Kaminski was a Polish émigré, a young cinematographer with just a few years’ experience. Spielberg was already a giant. He’d made Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun.   00:14:59     He didn’t know anything about Janusz Kaminski. He had no reason to. But one day he was watching a TV movie called Wildflower, directed by Diane Keaton, and he really liked the way it looked, so Steven Spielberg followed the voice whispering in his ear.   00:15:16    GAIL EICHENTHAL: What do you think he saw?   00:15:18    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: He saw great composition and great lighting and great storytelling through camera.   00:15:22     ALICE WINKLER: That is Janusz Kaminski talking to journalist Gail Eichenthal for the Academy of Achievement.   00:15:29     JANUSZ KAMINSKI: But also I think he really liked that it was a television movie, and television during that time was not good-looking, you know. Now television is amazing. I mean television is such a powerful medium, so in early — during that time, visuals were not a part of television language. So I was able to create a very interesting language on a very short schedule. Steven Spielberg watched the picture on television. He fell in love with the movie. We had a meeting.   00:15:55     He wanted to meet me in person to see who am I and so forth, and he asked me to do a movie for his company. It was a television movie. It was a pilot called Class of 1861. It dealt with West Point cadets on the brink of the Civil War, where the friends ended up fighting and killing each other during the Civil War. And I did that pilot, and I sort of learned during the production this was my testing ground, you know. And after the pilot, he offered me a job, which was basically Schindler’s List. And from thereon, I was pretty much set through the rest of my life.   00:16:27     ALICE WINKLER: So that is how cinematographer Janusz Kaminski began his remarkable 25-year collaboration with Steven Spielberg, with an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, ten years after arriving in the United States, speaking no English. In a few minutes, you’ll hear Kaminski talk much more specifically about the look and feel he created for Schindler’s List and some of the other movies he’s made with Spielberg. But let’s not lose track of the plot, and by that I mean Janusz Kaminski’s story, going back to the beginning, back to his childhood in Poland.   00:17:04     JANUSZ KAMINSKI: You know, Poland was very interesting because it was under the Communist regime. There was a tremendous emphasis on culture. There was a tremendous emphasis on art. We really did not have many things to buy, so subsequently there was no focus on material goods, you know. We were pretty much emphasized to be as smart as we could, participate in school events, go to the theater, see plays, participate in artistic events, and just have a life of a young man who eventually will grow up to be a successful individual.   00:17:44     Of course, all that ends when you have to compete for a job. That situation would completely get twisted because of the Communist regime.   00:17:55     ALICE WINKLER: Janusz Kaminski says Poland had its own pretty unique form of communism, and it really was a mixed bag.   00:18:03     JANUSZ KAMINSKI: There wasn’t much political freedom, but there was definitely artistic freedom. I always say, and trivialize it a bit, by saying that we had artistic freedom, but we didn’t have any food. If you went to East Germany, there was a tremendous amount of food, but there was no artistic freedom. There was no personal freedom. Poland was relatively liberal when it came to that. Of course, there were restrictions. You couldn't travel outside the Eastern Bloc, but you could travel, whereas the East Germans couldn’t travel.   00:18:29     So the Poles could travel to Czechoslovakia, to Yugoslavia, to East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, and all that stuff. So we were exposed to other cultures. Also we had tremendous access to Western European and American music, and also films. We were exposed to most current American films, and I had a good education. And right from the beginning, my values were set the right way. I was never poor. I just didn’t have money. There’s nothing worse than being poor, where poor means you are uneducated.   00:19:01     You are ignorant. Not having money, there’s nothing wrong with it. I would say it was pretty good to grow up in Communist Poland.   00:19:09     ALICE WINKLER: Kaminski’s family situation, on the other hand, was pretty bad. When he was six years old, his mother abandoned them, or as he likes to say, she bailed, leaving him to be raised by his father and grandmother.   00:19:22    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Yeah. I think my father was a little bit of a tyrant. Daddy had some anger issues, and I mean nobody really talks about the post-war generation. I mean there’s a little bit of a — you know, in America, after the Vietnam War, we made some movies that would deal with that anger, that rage, you know. But the whole of Europe was full of anger. You’re going through a period of six years of total chaos, total, you know, moral decay. In fact, morality did not exist, you know.   00:19:51    So he grew up in Poland during the war. He was nine when the war started, and he was 15 when the war ended, and you know, the country was completely destroyed by the war. There’s no intelligentsia. There’s no morality. So you know, it was stuff, you know. He was separated from his mother, never knew his father. So there was this tremendous rage, anger that he didn’t really know how to deal with and probably was really, really tough on my mother.   00:20:21     He probably beat the hell out of her, you know. I mean that’s that generation, you know. He beat the hell out of me, so why wouldn’t he beat her up? You know, that’s an unfortunate period of our human development, where it was okay to express your rage towards your dependent. Towards your wife, towards your child, but I’m sure he was very violent with his wife, and she was a young woman, and she probably couldn’t take it and bailed out when I was six years old.   00:20:47     ALICE WINKLER: And then he lost his father and his grandmother just two years apart.   00:20:52     JANUSZ KAMINSKI: My grandmother, who raised me, I was 14 when she died, and I was about 16 when he died. So I’ve been on my own since I was 16. Now, talking about my father’s rage, it was one thing, but he was also a wonderful man. He was well-educated. He loved culture. He read books, you know. He was a lovely man. He, I think, exposed me to so many things in life that automatically shaped me and shaped who I am. You know, the culture, the music, the arts, you know. That was his contribution to my life, you know. Interest in images, you know. Interest in landscape, you know. That came from him.   00:21:29     I remember very often we would drive in the car and he would say, "Look around," you know, and I would not look around. Whack! Got slapped in the face. Now I’m looking around. Now I’m paying attention. So somehow Dad was beating me to pay attention to what’s around me. It’s not as brutal and dramatic as it sounds, but it was pretty bad occasionally. Yeah. Yeah.   00:21:49     ALICE WINKLER: It’s pretty unsettling to hear that that's how one of the world’s greatest cinematographers learned to see, but there it is. When he accepted his first Oscar, for Schindler’s, Janusz Kaminski dedicated it to his dad and kissed the statue. He can sound a little flip talking about his family situation in this interview, but he did reveal that while his art benefitted, his personal life paid a price, and continues to, to this day.   00:22:17    MUSIC: A RELUCTANT HERO/BETSY/END CREDITS (from TAXI DRIVER)   00:22:19     ALICE WINKLER: Going to the movies while he was growing up offered Kaminski an escape and another view of the world.   00:22:25    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Well, since we couldn’t really travel outside the Communist bloc and since we were able to see American movies, we were always — I mean the whole Eastern Bloc was infatuated by American culture. I mean they were liberators. They were, you know, innovators. It’s the, you know, the '70s, the hippie time, when the new ideas are so — such a — it's the '70s. It’s the new cultural and ideological awakenings.   00:22:53    So that trend, that ideology managed to go across all the borders, and we heard it. We knew about it. We’ve seen the movies, so we were all fascinated by America. And we really wanted a pair of jeans. We really wanted to buy a pair of jeans, you know, and drink Coca-Cola. For me, jeans and ketchup were the main things. I love ketchup, and I wanted to have enough ketchup, enough pairs of jeans, and I wanted to travel. I wanted to see the world, you know.   00:23:21    And all that desire was really brought to me through movies, you know. Through movies made in the '70s, the best period in history of American cinema, the movies of the '70s, which is basically a re-evaluation of current — for that time, the current sociopolitical system, where things were questioned, where things were not taken for granted, where youth stood up and said, "We don’t want this. We don’t believe it." And that ideology was very transcendent across the world.   00:23:55     So movies of the '70s, American movies of the '70s were very influential because the movies permitted me to live American life to some degree. For about two hours I was able to be American by watching the movies. And you have to understand that all those movies were embraced by the censorship, Polish censorship, because they were portraying life of America as a country of decadence, drugs, violence, weapons, you know, crime, you know. And they were telling the citizens, "Watch those movies. See how decadent and how horrible the life is in America. There are junkies. They do drugs. They drink. They kill each other."   00:24:32     But for us, you know, we saw different things. We saw the rebellion. We saw the freedom. We saw the questioning of authorities. We saw personal freedom in terms of being able to express yourself.   00:24:45     ALICE WINKLER: Janusz Kaminski says he was so fascinated with America, he used to write “Johnny” Kaminski in his school notebooks. By the time he was a teenager, he realized that he wanted to be part of the storytellers’ world — that’s what he called it — so he joined an amateur filmmaking club and managed, with his friends, to get permission to travel to Greece to make a documentary. Only he had something else in mind: emigrating.   00:25:13     It was the summer of 1980 and pro-democracy protests were beginning in Poland. By the end of the summer, the Solidarity movement would launch, and soon after, the government would crack down with martial law. So with that all brewing in the background, Janusz Kaminski slipped away from his film crew in Greece and hitchhiked into Austria. His goal was America, though, and after a year, he was granted political asylum.   00:25:40    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Of course, most of the Poles that would emigrate to America, they were emigrating for economical reasons. I didn’t emigrate for economical reasons simply because I was too young. I emigrated for the sense of adventure, for the sense of desire to experience a life of my movie heroes, you know. I wanted to be Easy Rider. I wanted to be Taxi Driver, in a sense. I wanted to be the rebel.   00:26:06     I wanted to walk through the streets of New York and look at the big buildings and be able to go into a coffee shop and have a coffee and look at people, you know. That kind of a desire was very much a driving force in my need to leave Poland.   00:26:23     ALICE WINKLER: But what he found when he landed in the United States didn't quite square.   00:26:27    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Well, it was not that — definitely it was not the America of the movies. I’ll tell you that much, you know. Nineteen eighty-one, I think, the beginning of the working-out culture just started, so men started looking really buffed up, you know. And, you know, certainly the '70s were over. There was no “free love.” The ideology had changed immensely. It started to be more and more self-absorbed ideology, more and more ideology of commercialism.   00:27:05    GAIL EICHENTHAL: Jane Fonda workout videos.   00:27:06    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Jane Fonda workout videos. But it definitely was disappointing to some degree because it was not what I expected. You know, I landed in Chicago, somewhere in the Polish neighborhood, which is about 30 minutes' drive on the train from downtown, and that’s not America to me. That was just some kind of a — you know, you didn’t see that in the movies. And finally, after two weeks, I managed to get away from the Polish neighborhood and went to downtown. I went to the North Side, and I realized this is really where I want to be.   00:27:36     ALICE WINKLER: He didn’t want to become the “clichéd immigrant,” in his words, with a job in a factory, a secondhand car, and a color TV. He was already drawn to Hollywood, and he knew it was a place that had always welcomed Europeans: Roman Polanski, Milos Forman, and plenty of French, German, and British directors. So he spent a year studying English full-time, working at night as a stock boy at Sears & Roebuck on the South Side of Chicago, until he was fluent enough to get into Columbia College to study film.   00:28:09     As soon as he graduated, he headed west. He studied some more at the American Film Institute in L.A. and pretty soon was getting jobs as a cameraman and a lighting director. Did you ever see The Terror Within II? Hopefully not.   00:28:25     JANUSZ KAMINSKI: The Terror Within II was pretty much of a low-budget exploitation movie with a guy in a rubber suit running around and pretending to be an alien, and was made for about $600,000 for Roger Corman Studios. Roger Corman was a king of B movies. He was one of the very few filmmakers that allowed young filmmakers to begin their professional lives, you know. And you can name a filmmaker, and they started there, with Scorsese, with Al Pacino, with Robert De Niro, with James Cameron, many cinematographers, many actors.   00:28:56    GAIL EICHENTHAL: Jack Nicholson.   00:28:56    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Jack Nicholson, you know. He would get them at the beginning, or he would get them at the end. So we had a chance to work with young filmmakers who were in the process of succeeding or with the older generation of actors who were on the downslide, you know.   00:29:11    ELABA: He's dead!   00:29:12    DAVID PENNINGTON: I should kill you. Where's Ariel?   00:29:16    ELABA: There is nothing you can do. It is too late.   00:29:22    DAVID PENNINGTON: Then die.   00:29:23    ALICE WINKLER: In a year-and-a-half, he says, he made about 15 movies with Roger Corman, each one shot in just 18 days. And then, using a personal connection to get a meeting — it is Hollywood after all — he got the job on that TV movie directed by Diane Keaton, the one that caught Steven Spielberg’s eye. So within a remarkably short period of time, Janusz Kaminski went from The Terror Within II to Schindler’s List.   00:29:49    MUSIC: SCHINDLER’S LIST (SOUNDTRACK)   00:29:51     ALICE WINKLER: But when he first got the call from Spielberg, he wasn’t particularly excited or intimidated. To him, Spielberg was the guy who had made Jaws.   00:30:00     JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Frankly, I liked Steven’s films, but he was not one of my idols. I mean we all — in film schools, we all wanted to put Steven down, you know. I mean he was not making important stories in the students’ minds. He was making entertainment. So we liked the Truffauts. We liked Buñuel. We liked Tarkovsky. We liked Scorsese. We liked all the other directors who are not really successful in terms of the commercial success, but critically they were the filmmakers that we admired.   00:30:33     Steven represented to young students at that point — he represented the marriage between commerce and arts. And it’s very interesting because my friend and I, we had a conversation about this, and he said, "Well, you said you don’t like Steven’s movies." I said, "No, I really don’t." "Well, did you like E.T.?" I said, "Yeah, very much so." "Did you like Jaws?” I said, "Yeah, very much so." "Did you like Empire of the Sun"? "Yes, very much so." "What are you talking about? You love Steven’s movies.”   00:30:58     And he was right. It was a snobbish thing to — it was not cool to like Steven’s movies. You had to be a snob and say, "Spielberg, he makes commercial movies," but in reality it’s that, I really liked his movies, but I was just not aware of it. And after I met the guy, I was very much impressed by him, but I think I looked at the meeting as a meeting of two filmmakers.   00:31:25     I wasn’t aware of the significance of that picture. I wasn’t aware of who Steven really was within the Hollywood community. Now I’m much more aware. Now I know what it meant. Now I would be very nervous about meeting him, but at that point I just saw a colleague who wanted to make a movie with me. I was perhaps a bit arrogant or stupid.   00:31:46     ALICE WINKLER: Schindler’s List had a very particular look to it, if you can remember, an almost documentary quality, shot in black and white with just a few fleeting and profound moments of color.   00:31:58    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Well, Steven was the one that really decided to make the movie in black and white, so automatically right there, you’re looking at black and white as a medium which is a little bit more associated with documentary filmmaking. And on the top of it, all of our historical records of that particular period come from black and white photography and documentary footage.   00:32:20     But it’s not really a documentary. There is a very strong story line that makes the movie successful. It's really a story about a man who was greedy, and he discovered humanity. He discovered what it means to be human.   00:32:35    ITZHAK STERN:    It is Hebrew from the Talmud. It says, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire."   00:32:42    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: And yes, there are parts of the movie that we consciously wanted to make the viewers feel like they’re experiencing something that’s real. Steven’s work was always very slick, very high-production value, with beautiful crane shots — just beautiful camera moves. And this story allowed for much more raw, and kind of a primal, camerawork, you know, simply because it’s a story of us over the story of the Holocaust, you know. And you want to create that kind of a sense of urgency and sense of participation in the whole event, and the handheld camera definitely adds to that, you know.   00:33:23     You just feel the tension when you hold the camera in your hands, you know. So that was the introduction of handheld camera into Steven’s work, and you know, subsequently, we’ve done many movies with the camera being handheld. And our work became slightly more — less slick, I guess, you know. More — yeah, less slick.   00:33:46    MUSIC: I COULD HAVE DONE MORE (from SCHINDLER’S LIST)   00:33:55    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: I think one of the most important elements of being a cinematographer is to be aware of the life around you, simply because part of the cinematographer is to have the ability to create — recreate — the world around us, and you really have to be relatively well-educated. You really have to have a solid knowledge, not just of the present time, but of the past and what the world may look like in the future.   00:34:22    You have to be very in touch with the world around you because we operate in the world full of light and shadows, and you have to understand what the light does. You have to understand how people behave without really speaking because that’s part of our language. The non-verbal language is the language of the cinematographer. The words and the way people deliver them, those are the job of the director. Our job is to tell the story the way the actors move through a set, the light that follows them, or devoid of light.   00:34:56    That’s the part of our job, you know. And another part is to recreate reality. What is the room going to look like when it’s raining outside? What is the room going to look like when it’s overcast? What does the sun do to the room? What does the sun — hot sunlight — do to the character? Is the character trying to hide from the sun? So those are the elements that we work with. What happens if the face is only half-lit and the other face is dark?   00:35:23    Using the example of Schindler’s List, the Amon Goeth character, the Nazi guy, he was so evil, he was so bad that I didn’t really have to light him with shadows. You know, actually his character was very clear. We knew 100% what he was about, so the light was always very, very flat, very bright. He was always — looked almost angelic.   00:35:44     With Liam, for example, he was the guy full of ambiguity. He was struggling with the whole idea, "Do I want to make money, or do I want to be a good guy?" You know. So that’s why he’s frequently in the shadows. He’s got a half-light, where one side is brightly lit and the other side is kind of dark, you know. Liam was the one that was the ambiguous character, so you don’t have to really — you have to enhance that ambiguity through lighting.   00:36:10    MUSIC: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (SOUNDTRACK)   00:36:15     GAIL EICHENTHAL: I want to ask you about some other scenes that are embedded in our heart and our mind. In Saving Private Ryan, of course, we almost immediately go back to the storming of the beach at Normandy, which has been called one of the greatest depictions of war ever, and I attended a screening with veterans of the Second World War. I was a news reporter at the time, and my job was to talk to them on their way out.   00:36:50    And it was an unforgettable experience because they said they felt like they were back there. Tell us how you achieved that sense of almost the audience being in the battle.   00:37:05    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: See, that's earlier, I spoke about the power of the camera, the power of creating images, the power of creating stories, you know. It had to feel real to me. I have to be emotionally moved when I’m making the movie to know that I’m doing something right. And the power of dreams — I dream things, you know. Before the movie starts, I have dreams, very vivid dreams, so a lot of that stuff comes to me in my dream, you know. And the particular color or lack of color and composition — I dream that.   00:37:34    It’s not a continuous and lengthy process. It may happen two weeks before actually I start making the movie. Steven would ask me often, "So what’s this movie going to look like?" I say, "I have no idea." It was too far, you know. I will know on the first day of principal photography what the movie’s going to look like. You have ideas. I have a whole bunch of ideas in me, and you definitely have — by then I’ve definitely made very extensive tests, photographic tests and equipment tests and visual tests, but I’m not sure what this movie’s going to look like.   00:38:06    So with Saving Private Ryan, you can analyze the combat newsreel, but you know, it’s irrelevant because no combat cameraman wanted to die, so everything was from a distance, you know. Everything was with long lenses. People were hiding. The cameramen were hiding behind objects because they didn’t want to get shot, you know. And that was the typical approach toward Second World War movies, you know. If you look at the newsreel photography, you try to emulate that.   00:38:38    But we were not making a documentary. We were making a movie, so nobody was shooting at us, nobody was killing us. So I wanted to be right there with the soldiers, and granted, Steven wanted to be there as well. He wanted to be with the troops as they’re landing at Normandy. So we decided to, again, use the handheld camera, follow the soldiers. The cameraman had to run with the troops, you know. Occasionally he would fall down, occasionally he would get some sand in the lens, occasionally he would get some fake blood on the lens.   00:39:07    It created this sense of immediacy. It’s a very simple statement, but there’s so much more to it that I’ve done, you know. The type of lenses, the type of manipulations I’ve done with the shutter degree, with the camera speed, you know, where the camera had to be, the lighting, the color. You know, it’s massive, but you know, it takes two to tango. Steven wanted to be there with the actors. He felt that the camera needed to be there.   00:39:33    I did very extensive tests, and perhaps he was interested in using some of the ideas from the tests, particularly, you know, the immediacy of photography into his movie, and he was. So it takes — you know, it takes a brave director and a brave cinematographer to create images that evoke emotions, you know.   00:39:59    ALICE WINKLER: The gizmos Janusz Kaminski employs in his art are of course invisible to the audience. You feel their power without understanding how. Sadly, I don’t have a gizmo to show you a film excerpt in an audio podcast, but luckily Janusz Kaminski and Steven Spielberg have created so many searing images, you may be able to recall one, or go back and watch at least the opening scene of Private Ryan.   00:40:25    Watch how the action slows down and speeds up, is jerky or smooth. Watch the bullet tracers move through the water as you drown, along with the soldiers, pulled down in the water by their backpacks.   00:40:39    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: There are very dramatic tricks that I’ve used in that movie, where the audience perceives the movie as a real experience. By manipulating the shutter degree, by manipulating the camera speed, by playing with the color, by going from slow motion to regular speed. When there's an explosion, when you go with 180-degree shutter, things just fall really fast. With 45-degree shutter, they stay a little bit longer, so you start seeing the sharpness of the little particles of dirt and debris flying through the air.   00:41:15    And that gives you some kind of a hyper-reality sense, just like you would experience if you’re going to the battlefield and the bullets are flying and the things are exploding. So that’s one technique. You play with the color. You pull the color out. You don’t want to have full Technicolor images when you’re dealing with Omaha Beach. You want to pull the color back so it feels more desaturated, more brutal, more violent, you know.   00:41:43    ALICE WINKLER: So for Kaminski, the visual approach always starts from the story, from the characters, from the script, always. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but he has made films with other directors, really great directors: Julian Schnabel, Cameron Crowe, Judd Apatow. Janusz Kaminski is in the fortunate position of being able to cherry-pick the projects he works on.   00:42:06    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: I read the script, and if I emotionally connect with the script, that’s the job I want to do. And with Jerry Maguire, for me, it was a very, very, very different adventure because I’m working with a director that I’ve never worked with, with a director whose work I really admire, with a director that I really didn’t think visually he was sophisticated, but with a director whose writing I respected and I liked. And the script of Jerry Maguire was so well written that I just couldn’t miss the opportunity to work with Cameron.   00:42:35    JERRY MAGUIRE: I’ll tell you why you don’t have your ten million dollars yet, because right now you are a paycheck player. You play with your head and not your heart. In your personal life, heart, but when you get on the field, it’s all about what you didn’t get, who’s to blame, who underthrew the pass, who’s got the contracts you don’t, who’s not giving you your love. And you know what?   00:42:57     That is not what inspires people. That is not what inspires people. Just shut up. Play the game. Play it from your heart, and you know what? I will show you the quan, and that's the truth, man. That's the truth. Can you handle it? It's just a question between friends. You know?   00:43:16    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: And when I read the script, I realized that there’s a tremendous challenge to make a story that feels emotional but yet the setting is contemporary — contemporary Los Angeles — which is very not interesting visually. It’s a dreadful city, Los Angeles. It has no very — it has no aesthetics. It’s just an ugly city. So to me, to make a movie in Los Angeles, a contemporary movie in Los Angeles, and have a chance to romanticize the ugliness — and I think that's the direct descendence of living in Poland, you know.   00:43:50     And living in a very dreadful, ugly environment — bleak, bleak reality — and being attracted to the bleakness of Eastern Europe, being attracted to ugliness. And I was able to romanticize Los Angeles the way I would romanticize Poland if I would make a movie there. And I think that’s the unique point of view that I brought in to American cinema simply by being raised in a country of totally different political ideology and also different aesthetics, you know.   00:44:17     I see beauty in ugliness. Where someone else would just completely point the camera in the other direction, I find that very attractive, you know.   00:44:26    GAIL EICHENTHAL: You've said that, you know, at the same time, you — as a cinematographer, you have to resist the desire to produce beautiful shots because cinema has to be like life.   00:44:37    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Right.   00:44:37    GAIL EICHENTHAL: And it’s not always beautiful, for sure.   00:44:40    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Well, certainly, you know, I do believe this to be true, and often I try to live by what I said, and often I cannot resist the temptation to make it beautiful, you know. Cannot resist it. So there’s nothing wrong with creating beautiful images. I think, you know, beauty for itself is probably wrong, but if you have a story that allows you to create beautiful images, why not? Why not do that, you know?   00:45:05    But I just don’t want to be just beautiful, you know. It's always — there’s a little bit of anger in those beautiful images, you know. So maybe the bright light is not just perfect bright, but maybe the bright light is just maybe a little bit too bright. Maybe the face is burning by the sun just a little bit too much, you know. Maybe the shadows are a little bit too dark, you know.   00:45:26    GAIL EICHENTHAL: The technology of film has been revolutionized in recent years from film to digital. What do you lose? What do you gain? Where do you stand?   00:45:38    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Yeah. You lose everything. You gain nothing. We lost so much. We lost language. You gain nothing. Zero.   00:45:46    GAIL EICHENTHAL: Efficiency?   00:45:49    JANUSZ KAMINSKI: Nothing — maybe a few hundred thousand dollars’ savings in print. So is it greed? Because certainly it’s not pushing the art into another level, and certainly it’s not creating new brilliant filmmakers who now can get a camera and make a movie. In fact, working with the 35- or 16-millimeter film emulsion created better filmmakers because you actually had to restrain yourself. You had to raise money because it cost money.   00:46:17    You had to buy film. You had to process the film, you know. Digital cameras, they can do it, you know — people made it with an iPhone, and some of them succeeded. I saw this movie Tangerine, made with an iPhone. A great movie, you know. So you’re gaining that. Correct. You’re gaining, you know — because a movie like Tangerine would never be made, you know. But on the grand scale, you’re definitely robbing filmmakers of the ability to tell the story the right way, but it’s done, you know. So it’s pointless to talk about it.   00:46:49    ALICE WINKLER: Interviewer Gail Eichenthal took direction from Janusz Kaminski and dropped that line of questioning, but she had one more thing she wanted to ask before their interview was over. Did Kaminski wish he’d become a director rather than a cinematographer? He has, actually, directed a couple of films. In fact, he’s got a horror movie called The Postcard Killings scheduled for release in 2017, but Kaminski told her, when it comes right down to it, he’s made the life here in America he dreamed of as a young man.   00:47:22     JANUSZ KAMINSKI: And I like my life as a cinematographer. It’s very rewarding artistically and professionally. I can tell the stories that I want to tell. I have a chance to pick my projects. I’m working with one of the greatest directors in the world, whose work I tremendously admire, and each picture is a different experience. And we rediscover our love of movies by making each new film, and we re-learn the whole idea of —   00:47:50     See, every time I make a movie, it’s like being infantile, like being a child who discovers a new thing, you know. We discovered a new way of telling the story. We discovered a new way of making the movie, and that’s a very rewarding practice.   00:48:04    ALICE WINKLER: Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. His latest film with Steven Spielberg, their 15th together, comes out in July. It’s called BFG. The interview segments you heard in this podcast were recorded in 2008 and 2016. You can see more about both Spielberg and Kaminski at the Academy of Achievement’s website, achievement.org. I’m Alice Winkler, and this is What It Takes.   00:48:34    ALICE WINKLER: Thanks to the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation for providing the funding that makes What It Takes possible. See you in two weeks.   00:48:43    MUSIC: FREEDOM’S CALL (from LINCOLN)   END OF FILE

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