The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority is having problems with their telephone service. All electrical problems should temporarily be reported to 774-1424. It is possible that this number may be busy, according to a press release from WAPA. The Authority asks that the public please be patient and try again. The plant and garage can still be contacted by calling WAPA's switchboard at 774-3552. The Virgin Islands Telephone Corp. started repairing the lines last week and continued to do so Monday. Several lines to the power plant have been restored.

According to the president of the Yellow Cedar residential community, the Port Authority has failed by half to keep its pledge to relocate some 40 families temporarily, at its own expense, while work proceeds on the runway extension project at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
Work on the project resumed last Wednesday after a three-month interruption because of concerns about the impact of the construction on the health of nearby residents, especially those of Yellow Cedar.
Louisa Williams, Yellow Cedar Homeowners Association president, appearing on the WTJX-TV program "Behind the Scenes" Sunday night, said residents of at least 20 homes have not been relocated.
The project, to extend the runway to 10,000 feet from the present 7,600, resumed more than three months after it was halted. On March 28, the Port Authority board voted to stop the project after Yellow Cedar residents complained that dust stirred up by construction was causing health problems.
The runway project "has wreaked havoc on our community," Williams said. She said government officials "assured me back in 1999 that mitigation measures would prevent such a catastrophe."
Another guest on the program, Port Authority spokesman Ken Hobson, said he couldn’t comment on Williams’ charges. Hobson repeated earlier statements by Port Authority officials to the effect that if the project is delayed further, federal discretionary funding "will be gone."
As part of the project, the Port Authority is to purchase 31 parcels of land adjacent to the airport, 25 of them with dwellings that house 65 families. The first phase of this effort, to obtain two appraisals for each property, has been completed, Port Authority officials said, and they are now in the process of negotiating with the property owners with the objective of relocating them permanently.
Meanwhile, Williams said, Yellow Cedar residents' requests to have Health Department officials advise them on possible health risks have gone unanswered.
The $18 million project is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2002. The current, and first, phase is expected to be finished in November.

A search team led by the U.S. Coast Guard found a portion of the wreckage believed to be that of a twin-engine aircraft that went down early Saturday in the waters southeast of Vieques.
The aircraft, owned by M&N Aviation in Puerto Rico, was on a mail run from San Juan to St. Croix when it literally fell out of the sky, a USCG spokesman said late Saturday.
Parts of the cockpit, landing gear and the fuselage have been located about 10 miles north of Vieques. The spokesman said the plane went down southeast of Vieques but strong currents and wind pushed the debris to the north of the island, where it was located.
The search continued through sundown Sunday in the hope of finding the pilot, Edwin Quinonez, the only person on board the aircraft. Those hopes diminished as Sunday night approached.
The plane left San Juan around 4 a.m. but was reported missing an hour later. National Transportation Safety Board members are expected to begin examining the recovered wreckage Monday to determine what caused the Cessna 402 to nose-dive into the ocean at a high rate of speed. As the safety board probe begins, more wreckage is expected to be recovered from the ocean floor.
The search was launched at sunrise Saturday and involved several airplanes, helicopters, two Coast Guard cutters and other boats.

The celebration of French Heritage Week, as proclaimed by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, got under way Saturday night with the crowning of Miss French Heritage 2000, Shelli Brin, and French Heritage Princess Pulani Armstrong.
Brin beat out three other young ladies vying for the Miss French Heritage 2000 title in competition at the Mahogany Run convention center. A senior at All Saints Cathedral School, Brin also won Best Evening Wear.
Brenda Aubain was first runner-up and was selected as Miss Intellect, Miss Popularity and Most Cooperative. Other contestants included Jennifer Greaux and Rita Ledee. Both tied for Miss Congeniality, and Greaux was named Miss Photogenic.
In the princess competition, Armstrong virtually stole the show, walking away with the title and four of six awards. The 9-year-old was named Miss Intellect, Miss Photogenic, Best Evening Wear and Most Cooperative. Shanelle Brin, the first runner-up, was named Miss Popularity and received the award for Best Talent.
On Sunday a day-long arts and crafts fair was held on the grounds of Sib's ballpark. Participants displayed arts, crafts, delicacies, plants and handmade goods. There were pony rides for the younger folks and food and drinks on sale. Health screenings were offered by the Department of Health. Lions Club volunteers offered blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar testing.
On Friday, Bastille Day, the events will continue with a formal program that evening at the Magens Point Hotel. Live music will follow the formal program.
The activities will culminate Sunday with the annual Bastille Day Kingfish Tournament in Hull Bay, according to Sen. Lorraine Berry, the coordinator of many of the French Heritage Week activities.

Forty-five Chinese illegal immigrants face an advice of rights hearing in District Court on St. Thomas Monday after being apprehended over the weekend on St. John.
A resident of Coral Bay notified police at Zone D Command after observing a large number of Orientals in the area shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday. Officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service took the group into custody and began transporting them in shifts to St. Thomas via ferry.
Left behind on the roadside of Route 10 near the Annaberg hiking train were discarded denim dungarees, a yellow raincoat, two long-sleeve shirts, a black plastic overnight bag and an empty black wallet with a red lining.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hugh Mabe said the Saturday arrivals may be the largest number of Chinese to land in the territory this year. "I don't remember a larger group," he said.
All 45 were all charged with unlawful entry, Mabe said.
Last month, a group of 39 Chinese nationals was detained on St. Thomas. As the 45 picked up Saturday on St. John were being processed for their court appearance on Monday, another group of 11 immigrants apprehended on Friday was in District Court Saturday in an unusual weekend session.
St. John administrator Julien Harley said he read recently that St. Thomas and St. John are part of a four-island illegal migration route – beginning with St. Vincent and St. Maarten – used by international smugglers for those seeking illegal entry into the United States. "It seems like it all ties in. It's frightening that people could come in that easily," he said.

The League of Women Voters took its objections to the Ritz-Carlton expansion to two fronts this week – Territorial Court and the Board of Land Use Appeals.
At issue is a modification of the resort's Coastal Zone Management permit which the League says was made in secrecy without the required input either from the public or from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The complaints suggest that the permit modification could hamper public access and cause damage to wetlands.
CZM issued a permit to the Ritz-Carlton's owner, Marriott Hotel Services Inc., on Sept. 3, 1999, authorizing the construction of 24 rooms, 24 hotel suites, a 15,000-square-foot spa, 80 two- and three-bedroom units and 125 parking spaces near the existing hotel at Great Bay Beach, popularly known as Bluebeard's Beach.
Both the League and a nearby resident, Susan Anderson, challenged that permit but were unsuccessful. Anderson has joined the League in its current court complaint. Both say they are not opposed to the development in general, but have specific concerns about access and the environment.
Their suit is against the resort, CZM and Gov. Charles Turnbull.
In March, the Ritz asked for a modification to its major CZM permit. In its suit, the League says it asked in writing for information from CZM about the application. But on April 27, CZM Committee chair Albert Paiewonsky wrote back to the League to say the committee had already reviewed the application in a closed-door meeting April 4 and that details of the meeting "are privileged information." The committee formally approved the modification on May 16.
The modification of the permit allows the resort "to reconfigure the location of the road and parking lot so as to avoid impact on wetlands areas."
But the League is charging that it could do just the opposite, and that the modification also contains language that could result in limiting public access.
In a controversial move, the government sold the road, Route 322, to the resort last fall to make way for the project. Under the permit modification, the resort creates a public easement to Great Bay Beach but reserves the right to relocate it "should it subsequently be established that this easement will conflict with the future plans of Marriott Hotel Services, Inc. or its successors or assigns."
The League charges that the easement is "illusory" and "does not grant the public real access to the Great Bay Beach in violation of the public's right to use and enjoy shorelines and to maximize public access to same, all in violation of the Virgin Islands Coastal Zone Management Act."
In its appeal to the Board of Land Use Appeals, the League also questions whether the proposed parking lot will encroach on wetlands. As required, the Army Corps of Engineers reviewed the original application and determined that an edge of the area was in wetlands. In its revised plan, the Ritz shows the area completely out of wetlands, and CZM accepted that determination without consulting the Army Corps of Engineers.
The League is asking the court not only to halt work at the site but to enjoin the CZM committee "from holding closed meetings on coastal zone permit applications and from withholding records. . ."
St. Thomas attorney Gwendolyn R. Wilds filed the suit late Thursday on behalf of the League and of Anderson. The League sent its complaint to the Board of Land Use Appeals June 27.

Island Resources Foundation (founder Edward Towle and early collaborators Bob Van Eepoel and Maynard Nichols, going back to the Caribbean Research Institute days at the College of the Virgin Islands) was instrumental in presenting the concept to fill in the "Lindbergh Bay hole" in a series of proposals dating back to the early 1970s.
Over the years, Island Resources Foundation and our collaborators have probably studied the local geomorphological aspects of coastal erosion, sedimentation and siltation more than any other group in the region. (The term "geomorphological" refers to the study of the shape of geological features such as points or bays and how they influence and are influenced by other elements such as current and wind patterns.)
We recently received a request for our background on this issue from an individual close to the situation who noted that the hotel owners on Lindbergh Bay are against depositing the spoil there. One theory, our contact noted, is that filling in the hole would leave the hotels more at risk from storm surge and coastal erosion. This individual said he believes, on the contrary, that filling in the hole would have the effect of improving water quality in the bay and lessening the erosion due to normal wave action, and that the hole does not provide the hotels any protection during a storm surge.
None of our studies or any other work that we know of would support the notion that filling the hole in Lindbergh Bay would have any appreciable effect on storm surge or coastal erosion processes.
Based on the studies we have conducted, we were and are confident that the problem of constant siltation and turbid water quality in Lindbergh Bay stems from the particular depth and shape of the single deep hole that was dredged in the bay (in connection with the construction of the St. Thomas airport the 1930s).
During calm periods, the hole is filled with very fine silt, most of which was generated during the dredging process itself as a by-product of the technologies then employed. This silt quickly goes into suspension during storms and possibly when stirred up by inland floodwaters flowing into the bay. This pattern is relatively common in the Caribbean. Water Bay, St. Thomas, and the area by the seaplane base on St. Lucia are other places where it may be seen.
In our surveys of Lindbergh Bay, we identified the original depth of the water prior to the dredging and then developed a proposal to fill the hole with pieces of debris or sand or other suitable material in order to bring the water to its previous depth. This would enable the bay to resume its "normal" low turbidity and full flushing, which would improve water quality over the conditions encountered in the last 50 or 60 years.
We remain convinced that this is a viable proposal.
With specific reference to the current proposal to use some of the spoil from the dredging of the St. Thomas harbor, we would probably support such a proposal, as long as individual loads of fill were closely monitored to be sure they were free of toxicity and that the fill was of a proper-size material – that is, no fine silt. These are conditions that we have always proposed for filling Lindbergh Bay.
It should be noted that these two conditions are not issues necessarily addressed in most "ordinary" dredging projects. And we expect that there would be extra costs involved in accommodating them in the course of operations for the St. Thomas harbor dredging project.
On the other hand, with these issues properly addressed, we see no significant medium- or long-term risk in filling the existing dredge hole in Lindbergh Bay. However, residents should be advised that there will be short-term increases in turbidity as the fine particle matter in the existing hole are displaced one last time by the new fill.
Once the deep hole is properly filled to the old bottom contour, we would expect significant increases in water quality in the bay.

Editor's note: Bruce Potter is the president and Edward Towle chairs the board of Island Resources Foundation Inc., an educational and research organization headquartered until last year at Red Hook on St. Thomas and now based in Tortola and Washington, D.C. They encourage anyone with ideas on the subject of depositing material dredged from St. Thomas harbor into Lindbergh Bay to join the "Island Systems and Coastal Zone Information Services" e-mail list (by sending a totally blank message to virmc-subscribe@egroups.com) and to post their thoughts to the other subscribers by mailing to virmc@egroups.com.

Second of four parts
Rail travel has always appealed to me. As a child I watched the California Starlight come and go at the Santa Barbara Railroad Station for entertainment.
My first great adventure was taking the Super Chief from Los Angeles to Newton, Kas., to work on my uncles' farms, then returning on the California Limited from Kinsley, Kas. The Chief was an express from L.A. to Chicago, while the Limited was a "milk train" making every whistle stop along the line. On this trip, at the ripe age of 11, I tasted my first Hershey bar.
Lately, I have ridden the Canadian across America, the Ghan from Adelaide to Alice Springs in Australia, the California Zepher from Chicago to San Francisco, and the Sunset Limited from Los Angeles to Orlando, Fla.. Add Euro Railways and Chinese trains, and you have ample evidence of a traveler who enjoys riding the rails.
So I decided to take advantage of Amtrak's senior citizen and child rates to introduce Maximillion Grybowski, my 5-year-old grandson; to travel, trains and independence from Mom and Dad. The Silver Meteor makes an eight-hour trip between Max's home in Orlando and his cousins' home in Charleston, S.C. Round-trip fare was $146 for the two of us.
Prior to traveling, Mom and Dad instructed Max to stay away from strangers and keep close to Grandpa, and how to telephone 911 as well as his home. He was also admonished to keep real close to Grandpa when Grandpa goes to sleep.
His telephone training was tested early on right at home. Mom and Dad left the door to the patio open one morning while they were having their morning cigarette outside. The smoke drifted into the living room. Max saw the smoke, remembered his school lesson on drop-roll-call 911 and promptly went into action. The good news was that, fortunately, the sheriff's office called the house before dispatching a hook and ladder. The better news was that Mom and Dad decided enough was enough and gave up nicotine.
Our train was to depart Orlando at 12:46 p.m. As my son and his wife had to be at work then, my son engaged "the most responsible taxi in the area" to pick Max and me up at 11 a.m. and take us to the station. By 11:30, Max and I were on the curb anxiously looking for the taxi. Finally I called the cab number, and the driver admitted he was late and lost.
By 12:10, we were in the cab, then the driver decided to take a short cut, which included a detour for a bridge under construction and an intersection gridlocked by several flat-bed trailers. We arrived at the station at 12:50, giving us 6 minutes to run down the platform and get aboard the train only because it was 10 minutes late. No tip!
Rules of thumb regarding trains: They are very often late. Don't count on them being late, as they will leave on time when possible. The next train is in a day or two. The next train doesn't have an available sleeper.
The conductor assigned us two seats in the train car destined for Charleston. Max had handled the taxi well but was a bit apprehensive boarding the train. When I tried to get him to take a stroll through the train, he declined.
Our seats were spacious, particularly to someone used to flying coach. We had a very large window, plenty of space for our suitcases, and relatively clean floor area — most important to young children.
Five-year-olds have a very short attention span. This is both a problem and a blessing. It means you must be constantly ready for a change in direction, but it also means a problem is soon forgotten. I thought I could spend a great deal of time talking about the scenery enfolding outside our window. Wrong. This activity lasted for almost five minutes and could only be revisited every hour or so.
Five-year-olds need to build their confidence. In an hour or so, Max became comfortable with his seat, the car and our companions. Now he was ready to tour the train. Since he found the bathrooms new and different, we visited most of them and tested the flush pressure. He showed great interest in the lounge car, where one could purchase cakes and candy.
The train had several different seatings for meals. We chose the early seating. When the time came, Max was in his glory strolling through the cars randomly announcing we were going to dinner. He was most emphatic telling the lounge attendant we were on our way to the dining car.
Food on the train, alas, has lost its appeal. In the first half of the last century, Fred Harvey opened Harvey Houses along the Southern Pacific line from Chicago to Los Angeles and food became a big item. The railroad took note and provided fine dining in the premier trains. Today the lounge car's hamburgers are microwaved White Castle miniburgers, and the dining car could improve its food by microwaving Banquet. Our salad was adequate, but the pasta was warmed-up stuff Chef Boyardee would reject, and the vegetables had been boiled limp and colorless. Conclusion: Anyone taking the Silver Meteor should shop a supermarket prior to departure and forgo both the lounge (the only smoking area) and the dining car.
Our stay in Charleston was a ball. Max and his 7-year-old cousin bonded, and this mom and dad had free babysitting while Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed all the grandchildren together. (Grandma got there by airplane, leaving the rail riding to us guys.) The one problem was Max's lack of spacial relationships. He simply couldn't understand why his mom or dad didn't come by to see him. He was upset when he called home (as they had taught him to do) and got an answering machine. Grandparents, Uncle and Auntie and all the cousins in the world simply don't take the place of good old Mom.
After a couple of weeks, Max was champing at the bit to make sure Mom and Dad still existed, along with his personal cache of toys.
The trip home was far different. Max had no hesitation getting on the train and moving into his seat. Within an hour, he had everyone in the car organized and knew who was friendly and who to ignore. In two hours, he was ready for lunch. Unfortunately, it was only 10 a.m. By 11, he was "sharing" a snack with the woman across the aisle. By 11:30, he was strongly suggesting a tour of the train ending at the dining car.
When we got to the dining car, we found it was not yet receiving customers. I have determined that the dining car staff on Amtrak firmly believe that customers exist to serve them. This attitude is in evidence throughout the dining experience – beginning with assignment to rigid dining hours and continuing with staff demands rather than service.
Finally, the car opened and we trooped in to dine. We were seated with a mother and her 10-year-old going from Washington, D.C., to Miami. I have always enjoyed meeting a cross section of people in train dining cars. This woman was a part-time actress and a full-time mom. From the beginning, Max turned on a mixture of charm and obstinacy for her benefit. Whew.
The food itself was the usual bad news. The children's menu was not available. The original chicken order did not arrive in the manner described, the staff would not vary the manner of preparation, and the pasta entrée we settled on was served with a grilled chicken addition we had not requested. We decided to cut our losses, forwent dessert, and headed back to our seats.
From my own experience and from what I have observed of others, dining with children is stressful, period. Playing with cutlery, playing with food, demanding inappropriate food, refusing to eat what is there, and a natural tendency to spill things separate the generations.
Once we regained our coach, Max was his charming self. The remainder of the trip included exchanging snacks with our seatmates, coloring, reading, and telling tales. As long as he was free to move around when he felt it necessary, he was happy as could be.
When we got back to Orlando, there was much hugging and expressing of affection for Mom and Dad. The next morning, Max wanted his cousin to ge
t on the train and come visit him. A couple of days later, as I was getting ready to leave, he was angry with me. I had become a permanent resident to his thinking, and my leaving was a rejection of him.
Rules of thumb regarding 5-year-olds: Space out of sight is meaningless – around the corner, across town, in the next state, around the world are all the same. The refrigerator and cupboards are full of food, and if you do not like what is on your plate, you should be able to get it replaced. The telephone is there to be used. "Cost" is a word adults use a lot for some unknown reason. Whatever the problem, Mother is the solution. Grandpas are okay most of the time, but when the going gets tough, go direct to Mom.
Would I do it again? Yes, yes, yes.
Next: Going to London to visit the Queen with a 9-year-old

When you think about kids and movies, what comes to mind?
How much violence is on the screen nowadays?
How many films glorify irresponsibility and self-gratification at any cost?
How few of the heroes are positive role models for today's youth?
How little motivation or opportunity there is for young people to think and talk about what they see?
Well, has the Virgin Islands Film Society got a festival for you! Actually it's for the kids – but adults will be admitted, and in the case of younger children, encouraged to attend.
The first Virgin Islands Children's Film Festival will be held first on St. John, on Saturday, July 15, and then repreated on St. Thomas on Sunday, July 16. The St. John viewings will be at the Westin Resort; those on St. Thomas will be at Wyndham Sugar Bay.
The festival is the brainchild of Karrl Foster, the Reichhold Center for the Arts staffer who brought the first V.I. International Film and Video Festival into being at the Reichhold in February. He created the not-for-profit film society soon after that and has been getting award-winning movies to St. John for periodic weekend showings in the Westin ballroom ever since.
Now, Foster has teamed up with the Coalition for Quality Children's Media / Kids First, a not-for-profit group based in Santa Fe, N.M., to put the kids' film fest together. It will consist of a day's worth of movies (shown in video format) for specified age groups, the youngest being 2-5 years and the oldest, 12-18, interspersed with evaluations and discussions by the kids themselves.
Presented by the film society in association with the Reichhold Center, the festival is being sponsored by St. Thomas Source, Knight Quality Stations (WVWI, KISS-FM and 105-JAMZ), AT&T of the Virgin Islands, Banco Popular and The West Indian Company, with grant support from the V.I. Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to between 4 and 5 p.m.
Schedule of film festival showings
Screening Room A:
10:30 – 11:45 a.m. – Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (ages 2-5)
Noon – 1 p.m. – Dr. Seuss: My Many Colored Days (ages 3-8)
1:15 – 1:45 p.m. – Veggie Tales: King George and the Ducky (ages 5-8)
2 – 2:30 p.m. – Snow Jam (ages 5-12)
2:45 – 3:15 p.m. – Magic School Bus: Rainforest (ages 3-8)
Screening Room B:
10:30 – 11:25 a.m. – Degas and the Dancer (ages 8-12)
11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. – Galileo: On the Shoulders of Giants (ages 8-18)
1 – 2 p.m. – Our Friend Martin (ages 8-18)
2 – 3:15 p.m. – critics' session
3:15 – 4:45 p.m. – The Iron Giant (ages 5-18)
Elmo and Magic School Bus, of course are from PBS. Many Colored Days blends animation, live acting and the words of Dr. Seuss to introduce young people to orchestral music, literature and art. The Veggie Tales video is the 13th in a series that features Larry the Cucumber, Bob the Tomato et al. playing other characters – in this case Larry being the king of a land at war who doesn't want to deal with it.
Martin combines animation, live action and time travel in a film about Martin Luther King Jr. Degas is about the 19th Century French painter as he late in life changes his thinking because of his interaction with a ballerina. Galileo is fictionalized account of the 16th and 17th Century "father of modern science" that artfully integrates lessons in physics, astronomy, the scientific method and history.
The Iron Giant, about xenophobia – the fear of others not like you – is set in the 1950s amid American paranoia about invasion from outer space and communist conspiracies. The story of a boy and a 50-foot robot "is definitely of the action-adventure genre," according to Ranny Levy, co-founder (in 1992) and executive director of the Coalition for Quality Children's Media. And Snow Jam, about an inner city boy who literally does want it to snow, is from an independent producer and "is essentially a world premier," she says.
Young viewers to be critics, too
Levy, a former teacher and video producer, is coming to the territory to help direct the festival and to talk about the CQCM program and its related Kids First! rating system for videos, CD-ROMs and television that was "created to identify programing based on its integrity and not on its hype." Kids First! relies on panels of young and adult critics to critique materials being considered for endorsement, and that approach will be a part of the film festival, too.
There will be a few minutes of discussion after each showing, including comments from the audience, and then everyone will mark evaluation forms and turn them in. For the younger children, icons of happy faces, neutral faces and frowning faces are employed, with older folks on hand to help with questions such as: "Do you think your friends would like this video? Why?" and "How much did watching this video make you want to learn more about something you saw?" For the older kids, the questions include "How well did you like the technical presentation?" and "Is it respectful of persons your age? (Explain)."
The critics' session will be a panel discussion by a jury of young people who will get some training first in how to critique a film. Foster has lined up some volunteers but is looking for more, ages 12 to 18. Levy will conduct a training session of less than two hours for those who want to serve on the panel, at a time and place to be determined.
"We understand kids' ability to look at deeper messages in stories and films," Levy says. "We're not showing any ‘goody two-shoes' pictures. We've selected films that have some chewy issues. . . We're challenging the youngsters to come see for themselves. All of these titles have been endorsed by kids their ages, and we wouldn't be showing them if we hadn't gotten great reviews."
Tickets are $4 per person (child or adult) per movie. However, there are two ways around that: First, for $10 you can get a day pass good for everything. Second, Foster is hoping to have enough corporate support for scholarships to make sure "that nobody is turned away who wants to come – especially if there are four or five children in a family."
Can "good" (if not "goody two-shoes") films draw an audience of blasé and terminally bored teenagers? Foster and Levy hope so, and the movies they've selected for the 12- to 18-year-olds have passed the viewer-feedback test from that age group with flying colors. Still, Foster concedes it may be the hardest sell of the festival's targeted outreach. If he gets enough scholarship funding, he says, he'll let the teenagers "who are too cool to come to films like these" in for free.
Why a kids' film fest? ‘They need this'
The decision to produce such a festival came shortly after the Reichhold fest, Foster says. "One day I was reading how many child rapes there had been in the islands," he recalls. "I had been focusing on the adult festival and wanted to do a children's film segment in the one for next year. All of a sudden, I said, ‘I can't wait for that. I need to do it now.' My motivation was, ‘They need this'. . . So many films at the theaters aren't for kids. There's no message in any of these pictures for them."
While there's no requirement that children be accompanied by grown-ups at the festival, Foster says, "I would like to see someone with the younger ones, because there will be no other supervision." Also, he adds, "what we are doing is partly for the parents, to let them know what's out there."
To preview the festival, the V.I. Film Society will host cocktail receptions for any
and all adults interested in finding out what it's all about. The St. John gathering will be Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the St. John School of the Arts. The one on St. Thomas will take place Friday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Café Amici in Riise's Alley. Admission's free and there will be complimentary hors d'oeuvres and wine.
Foster says his goal is "to keep the consciousness up." He's hoping "to develop a showcase once a month where we would do just one film," and he already has his eye on a couple of prospective pictures.
To volunteer as a youth panelist, offer scholarship support or learn more about the kids' fest or the film society, call Foster at 693-1552.
For more information about the Coalition for Quality Children's Media, check out the organization's web page at www.cqcm.org.

When you think about kids and movies, what comes to mind?
How much violence is on the screen nowadays?
How many films glorify irresponsibility and self-gratification at any cost?
How few of the heroes are positive role models for today's youth?
How little motivation or opportunity there is for young people to think and talk about what they see?
Well, has the Virgin Islands Film Society got a festival for you! Actually it's for the kids – but adults will be admitted, and in the case of younger children, encouraged to attend.
The first Virgin Islands Children's Film Festival will be held first on St. John, on Saturday, July 15, and then repreated on St. Thomas on Sunday, July 16. The St. John viewings will be at the Westin Resort; those on St. Thomas will be at Wyndham Sugar Bay.
The festival is the brainchild of Karrl Foster, the Reichhold Center for the Arts staffer who brought the first V.I. International Film and Video Festival into being at the Reichhold in February. He created the not-for-profit film society soon after that and has been getting award-winning movies to St. John for periodic weekend showings in the Westin ballroom ever since.
Now, Foster has teamed up with the Coalition for Quality Children's Media / Kids First, a not-for-profit group based in Santa Fe, N.M., to put the kids' film fest together. It will consist of a day's worth of movies (shown in video format) for specified age groups, the youngest being 2-5 years and the oldest, 12-18, interspersed with evaluations and discussions by the kids themselves.
Presented by the film society in association with the Reichhold Center, the festival is being sponsored by St. Thomas Source, Knight Quality Stations (WVWI, KISS-FM and 105-JAMZ), AT&T of the Virgin Islands, Banco Popular and The West Indian Company, with grant support from the V.I. Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to between 4 and 5 p.m.
Schedule of film festival showings
Screening Room A:
10:30 – 11:45 a.m. – Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (ages 2-5)
Noon – 1 p.m. – Dr. Seuss: My Many Colored Days (ages 3-8)
1:15 – 1:45 p.m. – Veggie Tales: King George and the Ducky (ages 5-8)
2 – 2:30 p.m. – Snow Jam (ages 5-12)
2:45 – 3:15 p.m. – Magic School Bus: Rainforest (ages 3-8)
Screening Room B:
10:30 – 11:25 a.m. – Degas and the Dancer (ages 8-12)
11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. – Galileo: On the Shoulders of Giants (ages 8-18)
1 – 2 p.m. – Our Friend Martin (ages 8-18)
2 – 3:15 p.m. – critics' session
3:15 – 4:45 p.m. – The Iron Giant (ages 5-18)
Elmo and Magic School Bus, of course are from PBS. Many Colored Days blends animation, live acting and the words of Dr. Seuss to introduce young people to orchestral music, literature and art. The Veggie Tales video is the 13th in a series that features Larry the Cucumber, Bob the Tomato et al. playing other characters – in this case Larry being the king of a land at war who doesn't want to deal with it.
Martin combines animation, live action and time travel in a film about Martin Luther King Jr. Degas is about the 19th Century French painter as he late in life changes his thinking because of his interaction with a ballerina. Galileo is fictionalized account of the 16th and 17th Century "father of modern science" that artfully integrates lessons in physics, astronomy, the scientific method and history.
The Iron Giant, about xenophobia – the fear of others not like you – is set in the 1950s amid American paranoia about invasion from outer space and communist conspiracies. The story of a boy and a 50-foot robot "is definitely of the action-adventure genre," according to Ranny Levy, co-founder (in 1992) and executive director of the Coalition for Quality Children's Media. And Snow Jam, about an inner city boy who literally does want it to snow, is from an independent producer and "is essentially a world premier," she says.
Young viewers to be critics, too
Levy, a former teacher and video producer, is coming to the territory to help direct the festival and to talk about the CQCM program and its related Kids First! rating system for videos, CD-ROMs and television that was "created to identify programing based on its integrity and not on its hype." Kids First! relies on panels of young and adult critics to critique materials being considered for endorsement, and that approach will be a part of the film festival, too.
There will be a few minutes of discussion after each showing, including comments from the audience, and then everyone will mark evaluation forms and turn them in. For the younger children, icons of happy faces, neutral faces and frowning faces are employed, with older folks on hand to help with questions such as: "Do you think your friends would like this video? Why?" and "How much did watching this video make you want to learn more about something you saw?" For the older kids, the questions include "How well did you like the technical presentation?" and "Is it respectful of persons your age? (Explain)."
The critics' session will be a panel discussion by a jury of young people who will get some training first in how to critique a film. Foster has lined up some volunteers but is looking for more, ages 12 to 18. Levy will conduct a training session of less than two hours for those who want to serve on the panel, at a time and place to be determined.
"We understand kids' ability to look at deeper messages in stories and films," Levy says. "We're not showing any ‘goody two-shoes' pictures. We've selected films that have some chewy issues. . . We're challenging the youngsters to come see for themselves. All of these titles have been endorsed by kids their ages, and we wouldn't be showing them if we hadn't gotten great reviews."
Tickets are $4 per person (child or adult) per movie. However, there are two ways around that: First, for $10 you can get a day pass good for everything. Second, Foster is hoping to have enough corporate support for scholarships to make sure "that nobody is turned away who wants to come – especially if there are four or five children in a family."
Can "good" (if not "goody two-shoes") films draw an audience of blasé and terminally bored teenagers? Foster and Levy hope so, and the movies they've selected for the 12- to 18-year-olds have passed the viewer-feedback test from that age group with flying colors. Still, Foster concedes it may be the hardest sell of the festival's targeted outreach. If he gets enough scholarship funding, he says, he'll let the teenagers "who are too cool to come to films like these" in for free.
Why a kids' film fest? ‘They need this'
The decision to produce such a festival came shortly after the Reichhold fest, Foster says. "One day I was reading how many child rapes there had been in the islands," he recalls. "I had been focusing on the adult festival and wanted to do a children's film segment in the one for next year. All of a sudden, I said, ‘I can't wait for that. I need to do it now.' My motivation was, ‘They need this'. . . So many films at the theaters aren't for kids. There's no message in any of these pictures for them."
While there's no requirement that children be accompanied by grown-ups at the festival, Foster says, "I would like to see someone with the younger ones, because there will be no other supervision." Also, he adds, "what we are doing is partly for the parents, to let them know what's out there."
To preview the festival, the V.I. Film Society will host cocktail receptions for any
and all adults interested in finding out what it's all about. The St. John gathering will be Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the St. John School of the Arts. The one on St. Thomas will take place Friday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Café Amici in Riise's Alley. Admission's free and there will be complimentary hors d'oeuvres and wine.
Foster says his goal is "to keep the consciousness up." He's hoping "to develop a showcase once a month where we would do just one film," and he already has his eye on a couple of prospective pictures.
To volunteer as a youth panelist, offer scholarship support or learn more about the kids' fest or the film society, call Foster at 693-1552.
For more information about the Coalition for Quality Children's Media, check out the organization's web page at www.cqcm.org.