The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 37

MiMiiniir-iwrfU'-ininy tihm iifnrmirimiih BEST BET Critical mass bike ride, an en masse ride through the streets of Burlington. Join up at SECTION Horoscopes: 2D Ann Landers: 3D Comics: 3D 5:05 p.m. today at UVM's Royall Tyler Theatre, or at 5:15 p.m. at Burlington City Hall. Inline skaters welcome.

Friday, April 22, 1994 Features Editor: Joe Cum, 660-1865 or (800) 427-3124 Living Dee Tom Hardie grandparenting 2 xv befits a filmmaker with industrial train-f I ing, David Giancola accompanied his first Viii feature-length film with a commercial gesture. While filming "Tangents," which opens tonight at the Century Plaza in Burlington, the 24-year-old Rutland native documented his movie by shooting a second movie: "Tangents: Behind The Scenes." "We knew that you can make the best film in the world but if no one sees it it doesn't make any impact," Giancola said. "Especially up here. You have a vibrant artistic community here. We needed to let people know we did something special." The movie was officially awarded special status last week at the Houston International Film Fest: "Tangents" won first place the gold award in the independent feature film category.

Giancola wrote and directed "Tangents." The film is a science-fiction adventure about a physics professor, Nick Miller, who develops a time machine. When it gets into the wrong hands, Miller realizes the only way to avoid the Inn iii Dm 'jffr Gin 1 1 fit (t -'JL ft I IS'. 4. i destruction of the future is to erase the past. The movie spans centuries, from the Revolutionary War to the year 2041.

The future, as seen by Giancola, whose vision was informed as much by his $150,000 budget as anything else, is ecologically sound. It includes no cars. People get by on bicycles and skateboards. Buildings, some of which will be recognized by Burling-tonians, are made of recycleable material. (Hint: Bank Street.) "What we're aiming for is mainstream entertainment," said Giancola, whose film was produced by his partner in Edgewood Entertainment, Peter Beckwith.

"A lot of Vermont films have been personal visions: This is for the people instead of for the artist." The people get a scene in which a car is flipped on a Rutland street. Shot in one take because there was only one car to wreck, the stunt was an "afterthought," Giancola said. Matthew Bruch, who plays the lead, performed the flip himself. The flipping car failed to make a complete revolution a minor disappointment, but one Giancola was able to laugh about. Like the rest of the cast and crew, Bruch worked for nothing.

The actors and technicians, about half of whom made it through the 52-day shoot, agreed to get paid only if the movie made money. See FUTURE, 4D A km i i ft 'J The old doc has still got some legs My father-in-law has been a "family doctor" all his adult life. But he's nearing 70, and the clinic where he works has asked him to retire. He doesn't know what he's going to do! My wife and and our three children, all love him and don't want him to be shipped out to "pasture." You've written before about the need of a "second career." Any suggestions? Meridi-. an, Miss.

Tom's mother, Agnes, born in your own hometown in 1889 and known to her four grandchildren as "Mamoo," died at 92. Her lifelong motto was: "Never get in a rut." She followed it to the hilt until the very day she died. We're also close to a very special doctor, Dr. James P. Isaacs of Fruitland, a former professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, where he helped pioneer cardiopulmonary resuscitation, heart defibrillators and cardiac pacemakers.

Although he moved to the rural eastern shore of Maryland eight years ago, he has refused to succumb to those "pastures." Now 77, he's busy on a new book, and last year went back to a near-full schedule, examining applicants for insurance policies. "I now have more time to talk to the patients, and we're all more relaxed. We talk about important things, like lifestyles! their spirits and preventive medicine," he said. "Many of my patients are seniors. I tell them they are extremely important persons, important to all of humanity.

They should examine themselves, and adapt to a changing world. They have already exerted considerable courage in living and surviving, and should now exert the same courage to face and master the future." His new financial budget is also original. All the extra money earned from his insurance practice is earmarked for "meaningful" gifts for his wife, Arlene, their four sons (all of them doctors in Maryland), four daughters-in-law and 10 grandchildren. He explained: "I especially like to give things, and ideas, to grandchildren that will help nurture and stimulate them items that are constructive, that I can share with them." We hope you and your wife can warn your father-in-law to avoid those dangerous "pastures." Instead, urge him to keep active and stay in harness for his own good, and the good of his entire family. Dear Dee and Tom: I read with much laughter your letter and response regarding the 73-year-old grandmother who had been receiving massages from a licensed massage therapist to uplift her spirits and reduce her stress.

Her granddaughter feared she had "fallen under the spell" of the young masseur, age 27. As a massage therapist, I can attest to the profound effect that a therapeutic massage can have on a client's health and well-being. It doesn't surprise me that Lisa'a grandmother started "bouncing around like a chorus girl." Sounds like her therapist really helped her! Marian Hamburg, N.T.S., Albuquerque, N.M. Grand Remark of the Week, from Anita Norman, Spokane, We have a son and a daughter who have blessed us with six wonderful grandchildren. They each have two boys and a girl.

When our little granddaughter Riley was 3 years old, she made a remark that we still chuckle over. All the kids adore their "Papa" (my husband), and he adores them. One day she was snuggling in his lap and told Papa that she loved him. He said: "I love you too, Riley." She looked very thoughtful and looked up at him, and said: "Papa, why did you never have any children of your own?" Tom and Dee Hardie's column appears Fridays in the Living section. They welcome questions or suggestions short, about 100 to 150 words with a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Send to: P.O. Box 33. Charlotte, Vt. 05445. I M.

i IPPJ-J -WWII NOW Showing: "Tangents," an independent science-fiction film produced entirely in Vermont, is showing at Century Plaza in South Burlington. David Giancola punched up the visual impact of his Vermont-made movie with a spectacular car crash (above), filmed at a Rutland location as an afterthought. Vermont has a big fan at 'CBS This Morning' SI Mark McEwen still toys with the idea of buying a house in Vermont. Welfsprtng, a dinner Cnce and silent auction to benefit the Cancer Well- ness Centertakes at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Buriirtrton Hotel.

Tickets cost $75. Call (GOO) 640-7786. The CWC proves free services and support to cancer business," he jokes. But the former stand-up comedian says Vermont holds a special allure for him. "I grew up in Germany, Alabama, and Maryland my dad was a colonel in the Air Force," he said.

"Vermont was a place I'd never been and when I came up here I had no idea what to expect. It's like finding out a secret." McEwen, who confesses he loves Shelburne Farms Cheddar and Ben Jerry's ice cream but is not a big fan of winter sports, returned from his first trip to Vermont laden with brochures from real estate agents. He and his wife, Judith Lonsdale-McEwen, are still thinking about buying a house here, he said. "What's wrong with coming up and being treated like a king?" he said. By Maria Blackburn Free Press Staff Writer CBS weatherman Mark McEwen isn't sure what brought him to Vermont for the first time almost six years ago, but he knows what brings him back.

"The people in Vermont make me feel as if I grew up there," he said. "They are as warm, as gracious and as sweet as any people I've ever met before in my life." McEwen, who will be in Burlington on Saturday to attend a benefit for the Cancer Wellness Center, says there are other reasons he's returned to Vermont three times since his first visit. One of the biggest, he said, is his friendship with WCAX weather director Sharon Meyer. "Sharon is one of my best friends," said McEwen, 39. "When Sharon asks 1 me to do something, I say, And when it involves Burlington and the state of Vermont, I say we're coming up here to rock 'n' roll." McEwen's job as a weather reporter and entertainment editor for "CBS This Morning" has brought him around the country and the world.

He has water-skied in Cannes, France, scrimmaged with the Atlanta Falcons, and performed with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. "Next to James Brown, I'm the hardest working man in show.