GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

FEBRUARY 10, 1995

Evenings Out

University of Humanity

Diverse students give us a coherent picture of pluralism and prejudice

Laurence Fishburne

as the astute Professor Phipps

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Higher Learning

Directed by John Singleton

Reviewed by Dan Geslin

It is African-American History Month. To honor that, I strongly urge you to see Higher Learning. Go with friends and make time to discuss it afterward. Then see it a second time.

Higher Learning was written and directed by John Singleton, one of the most important independent filmmakers in the United States today. Singleton is a prophet, in the biblical sense. He is a genius at zeroing in on the critical social issues of a present historical moment, and reducing the complex political interweave of that moment into an artful story in which you can feel, experience, and—at least momentarily— comprehend the historical moment in which you're living.

The film is the story of a fictional Midwest college campus, Columbus University, and the tensions that arise between the various different groups of students. Singleton describes Higher Learning as being less about a particular college campus than about the larger context of America. "You have all these different types of people from different races, different cultures, different countries, different sexual orientations, living together in one place," he says. "A great deal of combustibility comes out of that, whether it's a campus or country."

Laurence Fishburne, who plays the astute Professor Phipps in the film, describes the college setting as the perfect metaphor for the country at large. "The whole idea of having a group of neo-Nazis and a group of very Afro-centric men, one woman who is a lesbian, and one who is thinking about experimenting with that lifestyle, all of this on screen in confrontational 1995, is new for a picture and very bold. But these things go on, these people exist in pockets around Our country, and I think that John Singleton is really very courageous in his attempt to address all the issues that he does with this film."

I found the film flawless—which is not to say I didn't find some of the film's characters annoying, some of the film's situations disturbing, and some of my own reactions to passing scenes in the film uncomfortable. But I liked the film especially in two ways. One, it clearly presents a moral message and a moral vision (which the right-wing has successfully degraded as “political correctness") without being wooden or dogmatic. Two, it reduces the complexity of our current social issues down into a story you can taste and see and feel without reducing the story and its characters down to something too simple to be real.

Higher Learning is very real. Singleton uses the college campus as a microcosm of American society. There are enough black characters to present the diversity of experiences and perspectives within African-American life. The interweave of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia is presented clearly. The questioning of authority throughout the film is thought-provoking. But the ultimate message of the film is spiritual: that all of our political issues and social conflicts stem from our personal psychic damage and our personal-yet universal-need for belonging.

I chose to see Higher Learning on the afternoon of Martin Luther King Day, as part of my observance of that day. Since it was a holiday, the theater was full of students from high schools and local colleges. In fact, the theater was packed, almost entirely with young adults. I saw only two other people over 30 out of an audience of several hundred, which I found heartening.

During the first half of the film, I kept wishing for more concrete lesbian and gay portrayals. But then, midway through the film, there is a lesbian Scene. A group of five white teenaged girls sitting in the row in front of me Squealed and squirmed with loud voices and large gestures to prove they were straight. But by the end of the film, other messages of prejudice and pluralism had gotten through to these girls so that, during subsequent lesbian and gay scenes, they behaved appropriately. I had to bow to Singleton's sense of how best to approach and confront homophobia in the audience, and how best to teach the inter-relation of racism, sexism, and homophobia.

Singleton's target audience is clearly college kids and politically unsophisticated adults-this is an educational film. But Higher Learning offers a lot for veteran Continued on page 20

Kristen (Kristy Swanson, front) and Taryn (Jenni-

fer Connelly) grow closer as tension rises at their university.