10-29-15

The Pitt News T h e in de p e n d e n t st ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh

LIVING, AGING WITH HIV

Kennywood’s petrified playground Page 8

Pitt football faces its biggest test tonight.

Page 12

October 29, 2015 | Issue 52 | Volume 106

Dylan Shaffer

For The Pitt News With a new study, a Pitt researcher will begin to look at ways people with HIV can live healthy lives well into old age — a prognosis that was unthinkable when the epidemic began in the 1980s.

“Because HIV was such bad medical news, nobody really prepared for the question of HIV and aging,” Ronald Stall, the lead researcher from Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, said.

But with the life expectancy of HIV-positive individuals nearing national averages of uninfected people, Stall has announced a study that will examine how to promote health among aging gay and bisexual men living with and without HIV. The study will specifically be focusing on gay and bisexual men because they represent 57 percent of all individuals living in the United States with HIV and are the highest risk group for contracting the disease, according to the CDC. The three-year “Aging with HIV” study, beginning later this year, will focus on protective factors, called resiliencies, that are keeping some HIV-positive men healthy. At the end of the study, Stall hopes to identify key resiliencies that can teach younger HIV-positive men how to age more comfortably with the disease.

See HIV on page 2

John Lora of The John Trumaine Show performs at Monster Bash in Nordy’s Place Wednesday evening. Kate Koenig | Staff Photographer

VOICING THE TRUTH Casey Schmauder Staff Writer

In 2010, David Thorpe was anxious about his “gay voice,” so he began seeing a vocal coach to make his voice sound more masculine.

By 2014, he realized his voice was fine the way it was — Thorpe had just

finished filming a documentary about the process. Now, because of his own struggle, he works to bust the stereotype of the gay voice.

Thorpe, a journalist and director of the 2014 documentary “Do I Sound Gay?” led a Q&A for Pitt students after the showing of his movie in the Frick

Fine Arts Building 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28. Along with Pitt professor Scott Kiesling, who mediated the event, the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies department hosted the showing, which about 200 students attended.

Starting Nov. 3, the documentary will See Thorpe on page 4

News

PITT PROFESSOR TO HEAD HIV, RESEARCH JOURNAL

pg. 1

Pitt Professor Aníbal Pérez-Liñán will be editor-in-chief of the Latin American Research Review beginning in 2016. | by Elizabeth Lepro Pitt professor Aníbal Pérez-Liñán’s new position will make Pitt a focal point of Latin American studies in 2016.

The Latin American Research Review announced on Wednesday that PérezLiñán, a professor in Pitt’s political science department, will be the new editorin-chief of the journal beginning in 2016.

LARR, an interdisciplinary journal, publishes research on Latin America and the Caribbean that will be of use to a multidisciplinary audience. The Latin American Studies Association houses the almost 50-year-old journal, which will transition to an open access, online-only publication in 2016.

Pérez-Liñán’s new position will bring LARR to the University for the first time and will be an immense asset at Pitt, according to Ariel Armony, director of the University Center for International Studies.

“Dr. Pérez-Liñán’s new role as editorin-chief of LARR will further the role of the University of Pittsburgh as a leader in exceptional research initiatives that are sure to make a global impact,” Armony said in a University release.

Pérez-Liñán conducts research primarily on democratization in Latin America.

He has been a faculty member at Pitt since 2011 and has a doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. Pérez-Liñán, who’s originally from Argentina, obtained his undergraduate degree in political science from Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1993.

Pérez-Liñán published one of his own

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articles, “Interbranch Conflict and Governability” in LARR in 2003, so he has “a special affection for [LARR],” according to Pérez-Liñán.

Pérez-Liñán said the journal’s new open access format will make it more accessible to students and expand opportunities for social media and technology integration.

“There are immense possibilities,” he said. “Currently, most online journals you can access only if your library pays for them.”

Under his leadership, Pérez-Liñán said the journal will also feature more work from the humanities, including poetry and literature. As part of its multidisciplinary approach, a diverse range of people have a role in the journal’s creation, according to Pérez-Liñán.

Almost 60 percent of LASA’s members reside outside the United States, according to a University release.

Professors in the humanities field from across the world write and edit for the journal already. In 2016, Pérez-Liñán said having Pitt at the epicenter of LARR’s publication will shine a spotlight on the work Latin American scholars are doing at the University.

“Pitt is a focal point for Latin American studies worldwide and is a natural home for this journal,” Pérez-Liñán said in the release. “The new editorial team is committed to preserving LARR as the top interdisciplinary journal for studies of Latin America and to taking LARR into a new era marked by digital technology and open access publications.”

Roy Ferguson, 63, who has lived with HIV for 18 years, at his Illinois home in 2015. | TNS

The National Institutes of Health awarded a $2.1 million grant for the study, which will consist of a voluntary survey of 1,850 HIV-positive and negative men who are participants in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, a 30-year study with participants in Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. The “Aging with HIV” study will issue surveys to participants twice a year, resulting in six different sets of data to compare.

Stall said the study will focus on resiliencies, or protective factors, that are keeping some men with HIV healthy. Among these resiliencies, Stall said the dyadic relationships, those between partners, families, friends and community organizations, play an important role in understanding how these men are staying healthy.

October 30, 2015

When the study is complete, Stall said he expects to find similarities across the types of relationships in the data and will interpret it for individuals who are struggling with their illness.

“Wouldn’t it be smarter to understand strategies that men [with HIV] are using to age into happy old age and learn how to do that?” Stall said. “And then translate some of these lessons learned to guys who are having a harder time?”

With modern research, therapy and drugs, people who are HIV-positive can live into their 60s. In the United States, data shows HIV-positive men and women can live until they’re at least 62 and 64, respectively, compared to negative men and women living to 77 and 82.

More than half of the HIV-positive populaSee HIV on page 5

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Thorpe, pg. 1 be available on Netflix.

The movie, which premiered in Toronto in the fall of 2014, features celebrities such as comedian Margaret Cho, fashion icon Tim Gunn and comedic writer David Sedaris and explores the stereotype of gay men having a lisp, exaggerating enunciations, holding vowels too long and speaking in a singsong voice.

Thorpe said the bottom line is that this stereotype is simply untrue and problematic.

“There is no such thing as a gay voice,” Thorpe said. “There are voices that sound more or less stereotypically gay, which is to say more or less effeminate, so I do want to break down the notion that there is an inherently gay voice.”

Thorpe said he wants his documentary to be a conversation starter about anti-gay sentiment for people within and outside of the LBGTQ+ community.

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“The stereotype of the gay voice isn’t the same thing as homophobia, but the stereotype of the gay voice has been used for homophobic purposes,” Thorpe said. “The film makes it clear that misogyny and homophobia are closely related in that the gay voice is a tool to belittle gay people because they have a resemblance to women.”

Marcus Robinson, president of Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance, said the gay voice trope can lead to harassment.

“The notion of a gay voice, whether real or not, has negatively impacted many people’s lives,” Robinson said, “whether that be people who identify as straight being bullied for appearing to have a gay voice or people who are gay with a gay voice being bullied.”

As a sociolinguist, Kiesling studies how social identity affects language. He has also found that the gay voice is a social construction. It is not something inherent to a gay man’s speech patterns or something that all gay men use, he said.

“Speaking with a gay voice is not

a direct effect of being gay,” Kiesling said.

“It’s because gay voice is a particular identity that has been cre ated in a culture t o signal somet h i n g through language.”

Sociolinguists such as Kiesling have found that people will change their speech patterns, whether consciously or unconsciously, to portray their identities. The film presents the idea of code-switching, suggesting that peo-

October 30, 2015

Christine Lim | Staff Photographer ple switch their way of speaking in different situations.

See Thorpe on page 5

4

Thorpe, pg. 4 Often code-switching is unintentional, but it can also be done purposefully, according to Kiesling.

“We have found that people change the way they speak because of how they want to be perceived,” Kiesling said. “For example, in studies we have found that people will use different aspects of the gay voice in different situations. It kind of shows how we choose certain aspects of identity as important and then those come out through language.”

Thorpe said he hid the effeminate qualities of his voice growing up to avoid bullying, but changed his speaking patterns in college when he came out.

“When I came out, how I talked started to change,” Thorpe said. “That included kind of an unconscious shift in how I spoke as I was trying to find my gay identity.”

Though initially Thorpe worked to change his voice to something more

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“normal,” in the end he decided it was more about what he was saying than how he sounded.

One person at the screening, Kaysie Strickland, a Pittsburgh local, watched the documentary from the point of view of a documentary student and the point of view of a gay person.

“I’m always interested in documentaries but to have an elephant in the room addressed, something like this that we all know is there, was great,” Strickland said. “To have the director go so far into it, making it his own personal experience and then to bring it big picture — it was just a really well-rounded documentary.”

In explaining how there is a grain of truth to the gay voice stereotypes, as there is with many stereotypes, Thorpe said it doesn’t matter — it should not be an excuse for harassment.

“There’s some truth in a stereotype, but you never want to reduce people to a stereotype or to a dimension,” Thorpe said. “People get along best when they treat each other like human beings.”

HIV, pg. 2 tion is over the age of 50, according to AIDS.gov, yet each year in the United States, one in four new cases of HIV are between the ages of 13 and 24.

“Any young people who are getting infected now with HIV can expect to live to ripe old age,” Stall said.

Marcus Robinson, president of Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance, hopes his organization can help those living with HIV in the gay community.

Rainbow Alliance is Pitt’s LGBTQ+ undergraduate student organization that provides for the needs and interests of the community through advocacy, education and social opportunities.

As Stall said, a community organization, like Rainbow Alliance, can be a dyadic relationship that can help those living with HIV. “A lot of our community is affected by it [HIV],” Robinson said. “It’s important that we make sure we provide support and a welcoming environment.”

To help those without HIV, the Rainbow Alliance offers events throughout the year, including two smaller events each week to discuss vari-

October 30, 2015

ous topics involving the gay community, such as STD prevention and accepting everyone in the gay community. Additionally, the club offers free condoms to reduce the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

According to Alan Jones, a certified HIV tester with Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, one of the easiest ways to prevent HIV, aside from abstinence, is to use a condom. Jones said proper condom use is essential to maintaining safe, healthy sexual relations, especially early on in a relationship.

Jones, a prevention specialist for the past 20 years, has seen the effect of medication for HIV-positive individuals first-hand. Though the medicine has vastly improved, Jones said, “[The medication] does take a physical wear and tear on the body.”

At the conclusion of the study, Stall anticipates that the dyadic relationships among gay and bisexual men, in addition to the medication, will help younger HIV-positive individuals transition smoothly into old age.

“At one point in the game, being diagnosed with HIV was tantamount to a death sentence.

It’s not anymore,” Stall said. “HIV-positive people are going to be able to live normal life spans.”

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

Wolf must compromise to pass budget, save schools Our state has been without a budget since July, meaning public services — like education — have been without funding for more than 100 days.

This lack of a budget exemplifies the Harrisburg’s inability to compromise, but the time for partisan debate has long been over — Pennsylvania’s representatives need to ditch their political motives and pass a budget.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has to help lead this effort. He must work with the Republican-controlled congress in Harrisburg to craft a bipartisan budget as soon as possible. As the Pennsylvania budget crisis continues to grind on, state funding is drying up for the very people Wolf campaigned for — our educators.

“Pennsylvania public schools are now at Defcon 1,” writes Mareesa Nicosia for The Atlantic. “[They’re] borrowing millions of dollars to keep the lights on, starting to ask teachers to work without pay and even voting to shut the schoolhouse doors and send the kids home.”

The budget impasse affects poorer public school districts the most. The situation in school districts of Erie, Pennsylvania, for instance, is dire. Seventy percent of the district’s budget comes from state funding and 80 percent of its students are from lowerincome families.

“Nobody anticipated the budget would come in on time ... we knew that this impasse would happen, but as it drags on and the effects become more real, it takes on the sense of a crisis,” the superintendent of public schools in Erie, Jay Badams, told The

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Atlantic.

The impasse forces school districts like Erie’s to borrow money from banks just to stay open. In total, school districts are already borrowing more than $400 million, forcing them into debts that will last well after the state passes a budget, according to the state auditor general. These debts will affect the education of thousands of students, as schools will have to redirect funds toward paying off loans, rather than to teachers and textbooks.

When Wolf came into office, he proposed to increase education funding by about $2 billion over four years. Wolf argued that increasing the state’s income and sales taxes, as well as by initiating a severance tax on natural gas drilling, could achieve this.

Republicans have agreed to fund schools more, but not by as much as Wolf wants or through the same means. Rather, they believe they can fund schools through decreasing the funding for statewide liquor stores and for social benefits, such as welfare subsidies.

If either side wants to fund schools anytime soon, though, both Wolf and the Republicans need to start making some concessions. For instance, Wolf can concede to scale back the operations of state liquor, if the Republicans allow for a severance tax on frackers.

Neither side is going to get everything it wants — Wolf and the Republicans need to swallow their pride and find some common ground.

If they can’t, many schools, like those in Erie, will be forced to close their doors.

FOOD DESERTS REQUIRE ACTION, NOT SHAME Alyssa Lieberman Columnist

As Pitt students fill out the lines at Chipotle and Einstein’s, they might fail to realize that access to food is an issue playing out in our own backyards.

Pittsburgh is riddled with food deserts — areas where residents struggle to purchase affordable or good quality fresh food. According to a 2012 federal report, among cities with populations ranging from 250,000 to 500,000, Pittsburgh has 71 percent, the largest percentage, of lower-income people living in food deserts.

F o o d stamps can give lowerincome people the means to gain access to more affordable food and can help them overcome the effects of food deserts. Yet, the stigma American culture places on the people who rely on food stamps only allows food deserts to grow.

According to a Pew Research poll, 72 percent of Americans think underprivileged people have become too reliant on the government, demonstrating that

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“

many don’t realize how imperative food stamps are to those who are struggling to put food on the table.

In view of the sheer prevalence of food insecurity, this stigma is extremely harmful. It undermines the need to make food stamps a better tool for those who use them.

Last Thursday, I attended a global studies event on the right to food — or the right to unrestricted access to food.

Dawn Plummer, director of the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, spoke on the right to food in Pittsburgh.

As Plummer’s presentation outlined, our city has made strides in the right direction, with the U n i v e r s i t y ’s creation of the Pitt Pantry and PFPC’s projects building up to Food Day on Oct. 24, — which involved informational film screenings and community building events. Still, it’s clear our city still has a long way to go.

Food deserts are expanded because some areas, like Oakland, have grocery stores that do not accept food stamps,

Pittsburgh is riddled with food deserts — areas where residents struggle to purchase affordable ... fresh food

See Lieberman on page 7

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Lieberman, pg. 6 rendering them largely too expensive for low-income residents.

In April 2013, more than 160,000 individuals received benefits from the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This constituted a 63 percent increase from three years prior. Yet, while more and more Pittsburghers require better access to food, the stigma surrounding SNAP benefits persists.

Americans tend to view reliance on SNAP benefits, often referred to as food stamps, as a personal failure. According to SNAP’s outreach coordinators in the south, this stigma persists among those who struggle to get by and are eligible for SNAP benefits.

“There are families that will kind of preface their conversation with you with about how they never thought they would be in this situation and how embarrassed they are,” P.J. Cowan, a SNAP and government advocacy manager in Alabama, said of people signing up for benefits in The Guardian.

Our culture perpetuates the belief that financial stability is a reflection of work ethic. Capitalist bootstrap values that equate hard work with social mobility tell us that financial problems stem from laziness — framing poverty as a choice, when, in reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Poverty is often systemic. It acts as a vicious cycle, rooted in political disenfranchisement and discriminatory economic policies, that is very difficult to escape — it’s why one’s race is a reliable indicator of socioeconomic status.

We need to stop shaming low-income residents for their poverty when it often stems from factors outside of their control.

To eradicate the stigma surrounding food stamps, we need to make them more effective.

Just Harvest, a nonprofit organization working to expand food access to lowerincome people, is providing the model to do just that. In May 2013, Just Harvest, as

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well as CitiParks, the city of Pittsburgh’s department of parks and recreation, and local farmers launched Fresh Access in East Liberty and North Side farmers markets. The initiative enables SNAP recipients to swipe their electronic benefit transf e r cards to purchase food at farmers m a r kets. The program has since expanded to include a total of 15 farmers markets in Allegheny County.

Recently, the Fresh Access food mar-

kets implemented Fresh Access Food Bucks, which give customers who use food stamps an extra $2 to spend for every $5 they spend at the farmers market.

Programs like Fresh Access are essential in working to decrease f o o d deserts in Pittsburgh.

Along with efforts to build m o r e affordable grocery stores in areas with higher populations of low-income residents, expanding the reach of food stamps is a key step.

Grocery stores need to make sure their food is accessible to all, regardless of their income

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Illustration of Aby Sobotka We need to push vendors in our neighborhoods to accept food stamps.

For example, though many consider IGA on Forbes Avenue to be the main grocery store in Oakland, it does not accept SNAP benefits. Oakland is not just populated by students with meal plans — in reality, the blocks surrounding Pitt has poverty rates that range from 21 percent to 64 percent, according to City Data.

Grocery stores need to make sure their food is accessible to all, regardless of their income. If more places accept food stamps, more people will have access to food.

The ability to put food on the table is dependent on the pursuit of happiness — if you don’t have the right to one, you can’t obtain the other.

Alyssa primarily writes on social justice and political issues for The Pitt News.

Write to her at aal43@pitt.edu.

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Culture

Courtesy of Kurt Miller

A spirited affair Ian Flanagan Staff Writer

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For some people, Halloween doesn’t end with childhood.

Every fall season for the past 14 years, local amusement park Kennywood has drawn actors with varying experience to dress up and scare visitors during its Halloween-themed events, Phantom Fright Nights, which spooks visitors every Friday and Saturday in October.

“Fright Nights are a unique time of the year as far as who comes out to apply,” said Scott Sypien, one of the managers who oversees the haunted attractions during this season.

Though high school and college

nior chemical engineering major at Pitt, who has worked at Fright Nights for six straight years.

“It’s really something that I can’t miss, it’s honestly the only thing that makes me consider staying in Pittsburgh when I graduate,” she said.

Despite earning a managerial position after her first two years scaring visitors, Velan’s primary Fright Nights occupation is still performing, particularly as two characters — a Predator-like creature with fangs and Pinky, an insane asylum escapee who rides a scooter and carries an umbrella.

Velan said Pinky draws the most

and experience, according to Sypien, who conducts the auditions for scarer positions.

“We have 16-year-olds where it’s their first job ever ... we have young adults who just love Halloween ... and then we actually have some older retirees who have worked here for a number of years and have awesome characters,” he said.

Applicants submit an interview and audition before going through training to prepare to interact with the few thousand people who attend any given Fright Night.

In the weeks before October, new-

students dominate the staff during the summer, Fright Nights attract a smattering of enthusiastic performers.

One of them is Eilaina Velan, a se-

violent reactions, sometimes causing visitors to break out into a frightened sprint.

Fright Nights lure actors of all ages

bie scarers prepare in a classroomstyle orientation to learn the expectations and appropriate behavior, such as

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See Kennywood on page 10

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Thursday night, Dan McCoy will explain how he became a Paralympic gold medalist before graduating college.

McCoy, a junior communications major, earned his spot on the U.S. men’s Paralympic sled hockey team when he was 16 — he’ll speak at ReelAbilities, a national film festival focused on raising awareness about disabilities. The festival began in Shadyside on Thursday, Oct. 22, and closes Thursday, Oct. 29. The festival is national, but this was Pittsburgh’s third annual ReelAbilities. JFilm, a Jewish-based film organization, hosted the festival at Rodef Shalom Congregation, a venue that’s completely accessible to handicapped guests. The festival features five films and documentaries, and audiences are welcome to sit in on a discussion with McCoy after tonight’s film, “The Finishers.”

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As part of the men’s Paralympic sled hockey team, McCoy brought home a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. McCoy embodies the resiliency ReelAbilities aims to highlight in its films.

“People look at other individuals with disabilities and see them as fragile, maybe weaker than the average able bodied individual,” McCoy said. “The festival itself reinforces the fact that that’s not really the case.”

JFilm presents international and independent films, which are not always associated with religion.

“We feel that [ReelAbilities] falls within our mission, despite the fact that the films might not be necessarily Jewish in nature,” Kathryn Spitz Cohan, executive director of JFilm, said.

ReelAbilities was established at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, New See ReelAbilities on page 11

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Kennywood, pg. 8 how to engage visitors without touching them , as well as types of scares and how to apply them effectively.

The scarers then perform a dress rehearsal, where inexperienced actors pair with veterans to learn their specific station’s workings and props.

Once they learn the ropes, employees tend to stick around.

“We’ve had people who have been coming back as a specific character, some for [the] 14 years that Fright Nights has been in existence,” said Nick Paradise, a Kennywood spokesperson.

“We have about 250 actors this year, and a large number of those are returning.”

One of them is Sypien, a 2001 Pitt graduate, who worked as a Kennywood ride operator in the summer during his college years.

He joined the Fright Nights team for fun and extra cash, but is now one of its three highest managers. Fright Nights

has developed a loyal employee base, like Sypien and Velan, which Sypien credits to the visitors’ reactions.

“It’s a kind of adrenaline rush,” Sypien said. “When you get a good scare, when you see somebody jump up in the air, or grab onto their boyfriend or girlfriend, or yell out some kind of exclamation, it’s rewarding. I think people enjoy it just for the reactions that they get.”

Applicants’ auditions and personalities mainly determine their position within the park. Kennywood also assigns actors based on their comfort as an inside or outside scarer — the latter involving much more public interaction walking around the park as opposed to

Not all actors come into the job ready to out-scare Freddy Krueger, however.

“It’s amazing how someone can get hired — and they may not be the most outgoing or loud or boisterous,” Sypien said. “But once they get into this and they find their niche, they really develop a character. So if they do come back later, that person has this whole identity for Fright Nights as opposed to who they are the other 350 days out of the year.”

Velan, who lives a self-described “under-a-rock” academic lifestyle studying chemical engineering, said Fright Nights are the “one thing I look forward to every year.”

said.

After visiting the 10 haunted attractions at least twice per night — to check on the actors and offer them feedback — Sypien uses his spare time to slip into some of his favorite characters.

The first character is what he approximates to a dead Willie Nelson, where he uses the strumming of a guitar as a way to startle guests. The other is a giant angry ear of corn, which he often uses to scare people in the corn stalks.

“I actually have regular ears of corn that I use for my hands,” he said. “I hold the end of an ear and let it stick out of my jacket.”

Velan finds a similar joy in her work.

a single spot performers keep inside pop-up booths.

According to Kennywood spokesperson Nick Paradise, previous experience is hardly required to be part of Fright Nights — there’s only one universal trait.

“Above all, it’s passion,” he said.

Fright Nights’ Halloween spirit doesn’t escape even the top bosses, however. Despite his bigger responsibilities, Sypien enjoys donning the makeup and costume whenever he gets the chance.

“On nights that go smooth I do like to get in character for a little while — it’s certainly an exhilarating time,” he

Aside from the “family” she has found in her coworkers, the best parts for her are the interactions with patrons.

“I know it might sound a little sadistic or weird wanting to go in and scare people,” she said, “But it’s really for the laughs that people get when they get scared.”

The Pitt News SuDoku 10/29/15 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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ReelAbilities, pg. 9 York, in 2007, and now more than a dozen cities across the country hold the event every year.

The festival educates guests about disability, but also accommodates a considerable number of disabled guests. ReelAbilities incorporates subtitles under their films, brings in sign language interpreters and provides headsets for the visually impaired that describe to listeners what’s happening onscreen.

“The goal is to celebrate those with differences and spread the dialogue around disability awareness to a larger audience,” Candace Opper, a spokesperson from JFilm, said.

Cohan knew of Manhattan’s success and was interested in bringing the festival to Pittsburgh. The FISA Foundation, an organization that provides grants to nonprofits for the betterment of women, children and the disabled, shared her interest. Representatives from the foundation contacted Cohan in 2011 and proposed they join forces to bring ReelAbilities to Pittsburgh.

“When the FISA Foundation — an orga-

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nization that is at the heart of the disability community — approached me, I felt that it would be a perfect match,” Cohan said.

While the Manhattan festival may show nearly 20 films, Pittsburgh’s only shows five.

According to Cohan, JFilm selects each year’s films based on specific content and genre. “[We try] to put together complementary subjects, so it’s not all about one thing,” Cohan said.

ReelAbilities at Rodef Shalom kicked off with “On Beauty,” a documentary that follows fashion photographer Rick Guidotti as he questions conventional definitions of beauty. A reception for guests followed the film, as well as a discussion with Guidotti himself.

Rodef Shalom displayed two photography installations over the week of ReelAbilities. Photographers Rick Guidotti and Pittsburgh’s Martha Rial featured disabled people in a positive way, aligning with the festival’s theme.

“The Case of the Three Sided Dream,” a documentary about blind jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk, screened on Saturday.

Remembered for playing multiple woodwind

instruments at once, Kirk reached the height of his career in the early 1970s. He made music in a frantic, persistent style, and musicians that played with him during his career attributed that style to his desire to be understood.

Kirk died of a stroke in 1977 at age 42.

Rodef Shalom’s Levy Hall was nearly full when Cohan stepped onstage to introduce the film.

“Just by a show of hands, who’s here [at ReelAbilities] for the first time?” Cohan asked the audience. Nearly two-thirds of the room raised their hands.

“I have goosebumps now,” she said.

Unlike most independent film festivals, ReelAbilities’ content may not interest many people, because they don’t think they can relate to the films’ themes, according to Cohan.

“People hear ‘disabilities,’ and if they themselves don’t have one, or don’t know someone with one, then they’re like to say, ‘Oh, well, this isn’t for me,’” Cohan said.

“That’s the challenge: to attract independent cinema lovers. The films are all quality films by quality filmmakers that would most likely never be seen here except for ReelAbilities.”

The RH Factor Band performed after

October 30, 2015

“The Three Sided Dream,” featuring Pittsburgh jazz drummer Roger Humphries, who met Kirk in high school.

Monday’s and Wednesday’s films, “Mimi and Dona” and “Gabriel,” covered intellectual disability and mental illness. Both of the films’ directors spoke after the screenings.

Thursday’s finale, “The Finishers,” is a French film that tells the tale of a young man with cerebral palsy and his father who compete in a triathlon together. McCoy and his father, Mark McCoy, will speak after the film.

Dan McCoy was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. His vertebrae didn’t develop correctly and there was an accumulation of fluid in his brain at birth. He has partial paralysis in his knees and lower legs and can only walk short distances. Despite his disability, he became a successful athlete.

McCoy hopes to see ReelAbilities encourage other disabled people to push their limits and abilities further than they would have thought possible.

“People with disabilities have just as much strength, willpower and determination as those with able bodies,” he said.

11

Sports

Pitt prepped for up-tempo Tar Heels Jeremy Tepper

Senior Staff Writer

Pitt News File Photo With a tough opponent, a national audience on ESPN and prime-time slot at 7 p.m., Pitt football’s Thursday night game against North Carolina has all the markings of a crucial matchup.

Still, Pitt defensive line coach Tom Sims plays it coy. To him, it’s just another game.

“It is a big game. It’s the game this week,” Sims said. “That’s coach speak, but it truly is. It is a big game because it’s the next game.”

After losing their opener against South Carolina, the Tar Heels have put together a six-game winning streak, overwhelming teams with their explosive, up-tempo spread offense. Compiling 38.4 points per game, North Carolina’s attack ranks 16th in the country.

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Though Pitt is familiar with spread offenses, it hasn’t yet matched up with a team that runs an offense as fast as the Tar Heels’. They only average 63.7 plays per game and rank 121st out of 128 teams in total plays. However, they average 38.4 points per game, as their quick offense is functioning extremely efficiently.

Pitt has worked on adjusting to that pace, junior linebacker Matt Galambos said.

“The biggest difference versus other teams is the tempo. Just a lot more uptempo, and we’ve been practicing that,” Galambos said.

Fueling the Tar Heels’ offense is senior quarterback Marquise Williams. Williams is a dual-threat playmaker, having thrown for 1,353 yards and 9 touchdowns and

rushing for 476 yards and five touchdowns this season. Neutralizing Williams will be important, Narduzzi said, as he’s the engine that runs the offense.

“Marquise is a great player, a big dude, makes great decisions,” Narduzzi said.

“He’s a guy who’s not easy to get down on the ground. He operates the no-huddle tempo offense, that’s why they’re number one in the ACC in scoring offense, because he does a good job.”

Staying true to its techniques and responsibilities is key for Pitt’s defense, Sims said, otherwise Williams will take advantage.

“You have to do your job. You have to be very sound in your technique and on your assignments, because if you make a mistake, he will make you pay,” Sims said.

October 30, 2015

North Carolina’s offense also features talented sophomore running back Elijah Hood, who’s rushed for 646 yards and eight touchdowns. On the passing end, its receiving attack is balanced, with four receivers with at least 300 yards each.

For Pitt, the importance of slowing North Carolina’s offense is twofold, because if they can’t, the offense will be forced to press.

“Offensively, they get to the point where they get up on you on offense and then, what’s the other team do? They’ve got to chuck it to get back in the game,” Narduzzi said. “And they got a good pass defense. Then what do you do? You throw three incomplete passes and then you put that offense back on the field. We got to See Football on page 14

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WRESTLING READIES FOR OPENING SLATE Logan Hitchcock Staff Writer

Sophomore Dom Forys is expected to shine for Pitt. Pitt News File Photo

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Eight months after watching Tyler Wilps climb down from the podium at nationals following his devastating NCAA championship loss, the Pitt wrestling team is primed to start another season.

The Panthers open action this Sunday at the Terrapin Duals in College Park at the University of Maryland, where they will take on Kutztown, Maryland and West Liberty in three individual duals. Despite a disappointing finish for the team last season, the success of former wrestlers Tyler Wilps and Max Thomusseit at the national level last season has Pitt eager to get back on the mat.

“You get the chills and butterflies thinking about it still to this day,” said sophomore 133-pounder Dom Forys of Wilps’ secondplace finish at nationals. “It’s motivation, it makes you want to work even harder.”

The team has responded accordingly and is working hard in preparation for the upcoming season, with a little added help from

October 30, 2015

Wilps, who has returned to the team as a volunteer assistant coach.

“It’s a good group,” head coach Jason Peters said. “They’ve worked hard in the preseason. We have a lot of new faces in the lineup, a lot of young guys are competing, but I’m excited to go out and watch them compete.”

The first collegiate competition for many of the wrestlers was the annual Blue vs. Gold scrimmage that the Panthers held last Friday in the Fitzgerald Field House. Although the outcomes have no official bearing, the intrasquad scrimmage is another chance for an individual to impress the coaches and prove his worth heading into the season — and perhaps even earn a starting spot.

“There weren’t a lot of surprises, but I’m glad that the guys were aggressive,” Peters said.

Returning starter Dom Forys dominated in his match, upending freshman Eli Seipel via technical fall, a win of a 15-point margin.

See Wrestling on page 14

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Football, pg. 12 be leery of that and stick to our game plan.”

On the defensive end, North Carolina has surrendered only 16.7 points per game this season, good for 16th in the country. Its passing defense ranks 2nd in the country, while its running defense ranks 112th.

Mikey Bart, a junior defensive end, leads the teams in sacks with three, while sophomore cornerback M.J. Stewart tops the Tar Heels with three interceptions.

Pitt quarterback Nathan Peterman praised North Carolina’s defensive talent.

“I think they’ve got great players. They’ve got a real big, strong defensive front, great players in the back end and they’ve got athletic linebackers also,” Peterman said.

Although the Tar Heels rushing defense has lagged behind statistically, running back coach and special teams coordinator Andre Powell was complimentary of the unit.

“What’s on the tape doesn’t match what’s on paper. They’re talented on defense,” Powell said.

Still, with what might seem like a sore

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spot in North Carolina’s defense, Pitt’s will look to attack it with a rushing attack that utilizes three running backs, as well as wide receiver Tyler Boyd.

Qadree Ollison has seemed to separate himself as the primary back, coming off a 103-yard performance against Syracuse last weekend. He leads the team with 662 rushing yards.

“He makes the fewest mistakes,” Powell said. “One of the things with winning is eliminating things that cause you to lose.

Ollison does that.”

Having lost to North Carolina by a combined 12 points the past two seasons, Pitt will hope to break that streak. Though Sims cautions that Pitt isn’t looking at this as a revenge game.

“Revenge factor, how long does that last?

You get hit in the mouth and you’ve got to play,” Sims said.

What the game represents, though, is Pitt’s biggest test this season. Asked if he thinks his team is for real, Narduzzi had a concise response.

“We’ll find out this [week] I guess, right?” Narduzzi said.

Wrestling, pg. 13 “It was a good way to start the season,” Forys said. “It shows that I’m ready and that if I can keep transitioning what I’m doing in the room to the mat, it’ll be a successful season for me, and I’ll do my part for the team.”

Overall, the Panthers are particularly young, having only four returning upperclassmen who have seen any significant time on the mat and just seven upperclassmen all together.

The coaching staff plans to announce the captains later this week, but it won’t just be older wrestlers they rely on to be leaders this year. Forys, a sophomore, feels responsible for helping in that area.

“There’s a role that needs to be filled. I’m trying to show the younger guys what it really takes even though I’m a sophomore,” Forys said.

Regardless of youth and experience, the outlook and expectations for the team aren’t changing.

“Whenever you start a season, you want to win a conference championship and that’s

October 30, 2015

always the goal. Even though there are young guys, that’s the expectation we put on them.

It’s their job to rise to that expectation and hopefully we can help them to,” Peters said.

The coaching staff isn’t the only group of people feeling optimistic.

“We’re pretty young all the way around, we have only one or two seniors. Some of the guys are going to need to step up, and I think they’ll do that,” returning redshirt sophomore Ryan Solomon said.

As for his own performance, Solomon expects nothing but the best.

“I want an ACC title, and I want to be on the [NCAA] podium — and stand on top of it as a national champ,” he said.

Getting to the national championship is months down the road, but the preparation and fine-tuning starts now. This weekend, Pitt will first take on Kutztown at 10 a.m., followed by Maryland at 11:45 a.m. and will finish with West Liberty at 1:30 p.m.

As for the weekend, Solomon just wants to build momentum.

“We’re hopefully going to hit the ground running, get three wins and go from there,” he said.

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The Pitt news crossword 10/29/15

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October 29, 2015

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October 29, 2015

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