The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 18

BEST COP mm D7 TKE VANCOUVER SUN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1987 Movie about Bethune 'will tell air Sun News Services BEIJING Shooting begins today on a movie about Dr. Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who is revered in China." The film is expected to cost about $13.5 million Cdn. The Canadian side, led by Telefilm Canada, will pay about 60 per cent with China and two French companies Bel-star Production and Eiffel Production splitting the remainder. Helen Shaver, who starred opposite Paul Newman in The Color of Money, will play a Protestant missionary who works with Bethune while English-born actress Jane Birkin will play Bethune's wife. The producers hope to have the movie ready for the Cannes Film Festival in May 1988 and release it to theatres in North America, Europe and China by the fall of 1988.

China but who also had a worldly, hard-drinking, womanizing side generally overlooked by the Chinese. "It will all be in there," said scriptwriter he said. "Bethune was a man, not a god." The fact remains that Chinese accounts of Bethune's life do not mention his drinking problems or his turbulent personal life, as described in Western biographies, and his life story still is taught as a model to Chinese schoolchildren. The title role in Bethune: The Making of a Hero will be played by Donald Sutherland. The Canadian-born actor, sipping medicine and nursing a bad stomach, told the news conference he is "obsessed" by the role, having played Bethune in a made-for-television movie sev Mao's poem describing Bethune as a "great internationalist fighter" was widely read during the 10 years of the ultra-left Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966.

China produced a film biography of Bethune in 1962 but it was not released until 1977, after Mao's death. "No foreigner outside of Buddha has ever had such impact on the people of China," said Allan. "He came to help us in our most crucial moment," added Wang. "He is known to every household in "I wouldn't want anyone to think I am writing this script for the Chinese Communist Party," Allan added at a new conference Tuesday about the project, co-sponsored by Canadian, Chinese and French interests. Bethune became a propaganda hero in China after the late chairman Mao Tse-tung eulogized him in a poem.

But Wang Xingang, deputy film director of the August First Film Studio, the Chinese partner, insisted Allan's script poses no problems. "Chinese people are capable of understanding an objective film," eral years ago. Bethune, a communist, was born in 1890 in Gravenhurst, Ont. He left Canada in the 1930s and the film will depict his experiences as a doctor for the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, his journey to China in 1938 and his arrival at Mao's northern headquarters in March of that year, where he set up mobile tal units for the Red Army. In 1939, the difficult, hard-living doctor died at the age of 49 of blood poisoning after cutting his finger during an operation hurried because of the approach of Japanese troops.

SUTHERLAND Ted Allan of Montreal, longtime friend and biographer of the man who died in 1939 while serving as a front-line medic for the Red Army during the war against Japan. TV TIMES UPDATE Report backs live-in studios for artists By MIA STAINSBY Vancouver artists may soon get the legal nod to live in warehouse studios in industrial areas. A planning department report, expected to go before council in about three weeks, says the department would approve of artists living in industrial areas as long as basic safety and health standards for residential Mike Hammer nudges Roxie Programming changes by the TV networks have led to a revised schedule for tonight's television. Ch. 7 has removed Roxie and Take Five from the schedule at 8 and 9 p.m.

and inserted Mike Hammer. Ch. 13 has inserted a program called Man Power at midnight and moved the movie Target Of An Assassin to 1 a.m.; $100,000 Pyramid and the News, originally scheduled at 2 and 2:30 a.m. have been moved up one hour. Today's grid on page D8 incorporates these changes.

use are applied. The report comes after five Because of noxious and volatile materials artists often use, warehouse studios make sense. Michael Gordon. 1 I I A Hf ritSFS fcOld T0UCH: wm Morton finishing touches to antique carousel he restored ushy ending fails to spoil absorbing look at treasures months of lobbying by Artists for a Creative Environment (ACE), which mounted a campaign in favor of live-in studios after fire officials evicted artists living and working in warehouse studios at 339 Railway and 560 Cambie Street last fall. Currently, Vancouver's industrial zoning permits artist's studios in warehouses, but does not allow residential use.

However, artists have often ignored the regulation and, until the large-scale evictions in October and November, artists did not feel particularly vulnerable to eviction. Said city planner, Michael Gordon: "Definitely, the two evictions really brought it to media attention, and the issue was forced. We had to decide to enforce current bylaws or come up with more appropriate ones, looking at the demands and needs of artists." Gordon said if bylaws permit live-in studios, the city could give artists living in sub-standard buildings the option of staying and upgrading to building code requirements, or leaving. "It's my understanding that the building code requirements will be affordable," he said. Any such bylaw change would only apply to artists, and the planning department is still refining the definition of artist.

"Because of noxious and volatile materials artists often use, warehouse studios make sense," said Gordon. "And as part of the production process, it's important to have affordable residences attached, so to accept proposal Associated Press NEW YORK The negotiating committee of the Writers Guild of America announced Tuesday it is recommending approval of a CBS contract proposal to end a 614-week 1 strike against the network. "We are pleased that the nego-. tiating committee has recommended acceptance of the package," said CBS spokesman George Schweitzer. "We look forward to its ratification by the membership and their return to work." Terms of the proposed settlement were not revealed.

About 525 writers, editors and graphic artists went on strike against ABC and CBS on March 2 in a dispute over job-security issues, not wages. Talks are continuing with ABC, said guild spokesman Martin the works can happen." City social planner John Jessup said 500 to 1,500 artists in Vancouver require low-cost work spaces. Roger Hebert, Director of Permits and Licences, said the building code can be relaxed to 75 per cent of normal residential requirements in special cases. It means that, with council approval, parking, fire safety, and earthquake protection requirements could be relaxed by 25 per cent of normal criteria for live-in warehouse studios. "I have no objections, as long as it doesn't create hazardous situations," said Hebert.

i ACE spokesman Terry Power said artists rely on these warehouse spaces. "Under present circumstances, we feel like cockroaches," he said. "The arts generate an enormous amount of capital for the city it seems ironic that we're being evicted from places where these very works are being created." Gordon said he surveyed Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Minneapolis, Boston, New York and Toronto, before preparing the report and he found all, except Toronto, allow ar breath to apply delicate gold flake to a war-ravaged statue in a Leningrad palace. And we get close enough to see the compulsive love (and perhaps greed) in the hands of a man restoring a Duesenberg Model an outrageously beautiful car from the '20s that can fetch more than $1 million US. classic car restorer, who spends years resurrecting Duesenbergs for the rich, reveals the more crazy side to it all when he says that many of his clients, getting on in years, "express the concern they won't live long enough to see the finished product." For the most part, Treasures From The Past is a gentle, tender homage to restorers that reflects the same sort of soft and unhurried passion its subjects show toward their own projects.

During a final segment on the tall ship restoration, however, writer and producer Joe Seamans gets a bit carried away with himself and his script From the restoration of the tall ship we are rushed along to Statue of Liberty celebrations and then force-fed grandiose, semi-jingoistic statements about the resurrection of "national pride" Seamans forgets that while patriotic fervor and its logical consequence of war inspired so many of these treasures, it was also what often led to their TREASURES FROM THE PAST. Tonight at 8 on Ch. 9. By LEE BACCHUS This National Geographic special is about the love of things. Not things the Gucci bag, the Rolex watch coveted by status seekers and middle-class dreamers, but things alive with history and the ghosts of their i.

Like the 1918 Curtiss Jenny biplane that took a Virginia airline pilot 15 years to reconstruct. Like the ramshackle and rat-infested 1905 Philadelphia Tobbogan Co. carousel put back in working order by a Colorado man. Like the 1877 tall ship restored by an army of volunteers from Galveston, Texas. Except for a mushy, flag-waving conclusion, it is an absorbing, almost hypnotic hour of television.

Absorbing because we not only get close to these "treasures" but also to their guardians: the restorers who express their obsessive (and sometimes weird) love through a cosmic patience most of us will never understand. We get close literally. Some fine cinematography places us just inches from a restorer as she uses her SHE'S A DOLL! Washburn wants to devote more time to his real job Choir to perform in China By SUSAN MERTENS Good Friday Jon Washburn will be on stage at the Orpheum in black tie and tails conducting the combined forces of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Vancouver Chorale, CBC Vancouver Orchestra and half-a-dozen soloists in a performance of Handel's biblical and choral epic, Israel in Egypt. Last Saturday night Washburn, rather less glamorously, was at Vancouver Community College directing the community Healey Wil Later this year, the Vancouver Chamber Choir will become the first professional Canadian choir to perform in the People's Republic of China. The 19-day, 10-concert tour takes in six major centres including Vancouver's sister-city Guangzhou plus Hong Kong, and is scheduled for October and November.

In announcing the official invitation from the China International Culture Exchange Centre on Tuesday, VCC director Jon Washburn said it was appropriate, because of British Columbia's strong interests in the Orient, that the west coast choir's first tour outside North America should be in the Pacific Rim. The choir, he said, will be doing its part in developing China's awareness of a distinctive Canadian culture Indian, Inuit and Canadian folksongs and works by such contemporary Canadians as R. Murray Schafer, Jean Coulthard and Steve Chatman make up the bulk of the tour program. The 20-voice choir is also taking along Vancouver percussionist Salvador Ferreras "to spice things up a bit," Washburn said. The tour is expected to cost $165,000.

The VCC hopes to secure $125,000 from the three levels of government and raise $40,000 from corporate sponsorship. Susan Mertens If hi I lan Choir and college Madrigal Singers in a program that, however, was equally ambitious given the amateur status of the performers. Over tists to live in industrial zones. He said the Planning Department report will offer two other options to council to follow current guidelines, or to allow live-in artist's studios in commercial and residential zones, but not industrial zones. Alderman Carole Taylor, chairman of council's neighbourhood, culture and community services committee, supports the idea of artists living and working in industrial zones.

"I know of no real world-class city that doesn't have a strong appreciation of its cultural community," she said. "I'm anxious for this report to come forward, and I'll support it. I can't, for the life of me, see any argument against it." Contribution to the arts earns reward Canadian Press TORONTO Celia Franca, founder and longtime artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, has been named winner of the St. George's Society of Toronto award for her outstanding contribution to the arts. The award, an unusual and rare Royal Doulton figurine of St.

George slaying the dragon, will be presented at the society's Red Rose Ball April 23. Previous winners included former ambassador Kenneth Taylor, who helped free American hostages In Iran, and businessman Ed Mirvish, owner of the Royal Alexandra Theatre here and the Old Vic in London. Memorial service Canadian Press STRATFORD, Ont. A memorial service for Max Helpmann, "to celebrate his life in the theatre," will be held in the Stratford Festival Theatre April 22. Australian-born Helpmann was rehearsing for his 25th Stratford season when he became ill.

He died of cancer last week in Stratford General Ilospital. J. Mii yi ft A Mil if i i Si -w'. WASHBURN years, Washburn's work with Western Canada's only professional choir, the award-winning Vancouver Chamber Choir, has earned him a highly respected national profile. A choral program he hosted for several years on CBC brought him a personal following across the country.

And he's well-regarded through his work with the International Federation of Choral Musicians. But Washburn has never lost touch with the grassroots of the choral world with people, untrained but willing, who want to sing just for the joy of it. And that made last weekend's concert his last with the two community college choirs a bit poignant. After helping start the music program -at the college 13 years ago, Washburn has resigned from his position to devote more time to preparing for his professional performances. A consolation, he said, is that Washburn continued with the college choirs, he said, because "it's a part of my personality.

I'm a teacher-type person." Membership in the 125-130-voice Willan choir was "always open to anybody without audition and with no previous musical experience One Willan choir member, Graham Jeckway, who says he was "cajoled" into joining two years ago after 30 years without any choral singing experience, described a typical Washburn rehearsal: "He shouts. He cajoles. He's nice to us and tells us jokes. He has us in the palm of his hand. What he can make us do as raw, rough amateurs is quite amazing." And what Washburn can make professionals do is best appreciated first-hand.

Tickets for Israel in Egypt are on sale at VTC and CBO outlets. Concert time is 8 p.m. there are well-qualified applicants for his job several of them his former choral conducting students. "I was hired at the college because of not in spite of the fact that I was an active professional musician," he recalled this week. At that time, in the mid 1970s, he held down what he jokingly called "five part-time jobs" in addition to teaching, he directed or co-directed the VCC, Victoria's Amity Singers and the Vancouver Bach Choir, did regular broadcasting and performed as an instrumentalist with the early music group Hor-tulani Musicae.

One by one these things dropped away as the Chamber Choir's success grew. Now with about 60 performances, 135 rehearsals, two recordings and one, two or even three tours in a year, the VCC is coming close to being a fulltime job for all concerned. ASSOCIATED PRESS UPLIFTING EXPERIENCE: Plaster mould makers at Madame Tussauds waxworks museum in London moved a wax model of Marilyn Monroe from the museum to Its new home at the Legends Cafe next door..