Andrles Delnum 'THE BLEAK PROFESSOR' Andries Deinum on the decline of individuality by Clarence Hein ndries Deinum is a quiet man who makes a gwd A deal of noise. Deinum, professor of fllm and director of PSU's Center for the Movtna Imaae, says. "The main thi a teacher has to do is to awaken people . . . So many of them are asleep or halt asleep." HIS speech, whether in the classroom, a televis~ondiscussion show. or simple conversation, is sprinkled with pithy, SOmetlmeS outrageous remarks. It IS not to make people aware of Andries Deinum, but to make them aware c the~rexistence as ~ndinduals. "Basically," he says. "at the root il is my notion that people are just 'taking things,' and not fighting back. I believe we have to be conscious consumersof existence. We should be critical of what we consume,and we consume everythingfrom ~roductsto ideas and philosophies." His critical, often pungent mmments on the latest social. political and techralogical trends have moved some students to characterize him as "The Bleak Professor." Whtle disdaining that particular label. Deinum admits to a growing concern over what he sees as the demise of the individual. A natlve of Fr~eslandT.he Nether anas. Oeln~marrlvca In the pro-WorldWar I Unlted Slates When came lo Amerca - the land of the free and the home of the brave - Ihad never been in a country where the people were so afraidof head waiters and theater ushers. People were cowed, hesitant about speaking out." "I believe we have to be conscious consumers of existence. We should be critical of what we consume, and we consume everything from products to ideas to philosophies." In 1948, he says, the lesson was brought home to him In resounding fash~onfollowing the war, when the nation found itself in near hysteria over "the Red menace." In ~ollywood,where Oelnum was trying to establish himself in the motion picture business, the hysteria resulted in the infamous Blacklist, a list on which the name Andrie? Deinum eventually appeared. "Irefer to myself as a refugi from occupted Hollywood," he acknowledgingthat the passln more than two decades has n easier to joke about it. Unable film work because of the Blacklist, and "thrown out of USC for refusing to answer questions from the House Un-AmericanActivities Committee." Deinum eventually found employment in the Oregon State System of Higher Educatton. "It was sald that Oregon's u only university system that wo .hire someone with my past, a1 always been grateful for that." says. "My function as a teacher, ir teach, is t students; enthusiasi subiect as I am. or ro for it as rr Then, I sf their own. In Portland i all the fielc o ignite my t o make the tic about a . -- -. *- ~uch as I do !nd them ofl ee says, g Of lade it to get ras the uld ~d I've he care relevlslon programof persona opinion on Channel 10. The p was as manv-facetedas the r hwnself, ano'he approacnea at tne same sng eness of pJrpo wh cn gu des n s c,assroom I€ today. Deinum characterizes his philosophy on teaching as giving students momentum but not direction. "My function as a teacher, in all the fields I teach, is to ignite my students; to make them as enthusiastic about a subject as I am, or to care for it as much as I do. Then. I send them ofl on their own. They may end up disagreeing with me completely, and I'm very happy abut that." I rogram nan with se !aching -. .. -. Wh~lehls primary Reld of teaching is film and the moving image, Deinum also leads various special classes and seminars. He taught a ciass on the Hollywood Blackl~sthis past summer. One semlnar which has continued regularly over the past 15 years is a direct outgrowth of Oeinum's concern with what he believes to be the dally assaults on our sensibilities and our individuality. He calls the class ''The Threatened Individual." He was urged to begin il by a group of women who were regular viewers of his television program in the mid-1960's. They said he had CMhnmd an page I5
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