Film And Television (audio)

Lucy Fischer (English and Film Studies, University of Pittsburgh) joins Carsey-Wolf Center Director Patrice Petro for a post-screening discussion of Alain Resnais’ 1959 film Hiroshima Mon Amour. Fischer places the film, which features a screenplay by the French novelist Marguerite Duras, in the context of other French New Wave cinema; drawing attention in particular to the juxtaposition of images that are simultaneously fictional and documentary, and to the ways in which Duras’s influence is felt throughout the finished film. Fischer and Petro discuss the critical reaction to the film, as well as its meditation on the nature of memory as one of the first major post-WW II art films. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34843]

Archivist Regina Longo (Brown University) joins UCSB’s Harold Marcuse (Department of History) for a discussion of Claude Lanzmann’s final film Shoah: Four Sisters (2018), a four-part miniseries that was screened over two days at the Pollock Theater. Longo’s work includes extensive restoration of Claude Lanzmann’s landmark documentary footage of testimonials from the Holocaust, and in conversation with Marcuse she offers deeper insight into the history of the film and the women it concerns. Longo explains how Lanzmann’s Shoah was initially funded and produced, how hundreds of hours of footage is being carefully restored from original prints and made available online, and how Four Sisters both influences and is situated in a legacy of film, legal testimony, memoir, and other post-war efforts to represent the un-representable horror of the Shoah. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34842]

Ecologist Rudo Sanyanga and filmmakers R. Lane Clark and Stephan Miescher join moderator Janet Walker (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Clark and Miescher’s documentary film Ghana’s Electric Dreams. The film concerns the history of Ghana’s Akosombo Dam, and its complex legacy as a strategic modernization project launched during the presidency of Kwame Nkrumah. The panel conversation highlights the impetus for the film and its multi-stage development, the importance of the availability of archival footage and the filmmakers’ personal familiarity with this region of Ghana, and the far-reaching human and ecological impacts of large hydroelectric infrastructure projects. This event was hosted by the Carsey-Wolf Center in collaboration with the Mellon-Sawyer Seminar for Energy Justice in Global Perspective. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 34883]

Filmmakers Kady Le, Lan Nguyen, and Quyên Nguyen-Le join moderator erin Khuê Ninh (Asian American Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of their short films “Like Mother, Like Daughter,” “Bị Kẹt,” and “Nước (Water/Homeland).” The directors each speak to their creative process and how they each worked to articulate subtle and often complex themes with their differing narrative, documentary, and experimental approaches. They explain how personal questions of family, home, community, history, and identity shaped their work, as well as the influence of other Vietnamese-American authors, activists, and filmmakers. This event was co-curated by the Viet Film Fest and presented in conjunction with UCSB Reads 2019. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34770]

Director Leilah Weinraub joins Mireille Miller-Young (Feminist Studies, UCSB) for a conversation about Weinraub’s 2018 documentary Shakedown, a film that documents the L.A.-based underground black-lesbian strip club of the same name. Weinraub explains how she discovered the club and her decade-long project of capturing the experience of Shakedown on film. The talk also includes discussion of black ownership and labor, the visibility of black identities and sexualities, gentrification in the aftermath of historic riots, and the fragility of contingent cultural spaces under the dual pressures of over-policing and the politics of respectability. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 34769]

What makes us human is a question that not only science asks, but all disciplines of mind from philosophy to religion to sociology and ethics, and even to storytelling and the arts. Tim Disney's new movie "William", about a Neanderthal living in the modern world forces us to ask that and many other questions. Director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program Alysson Muotri brought together a panel of experts from across a spectrum of disciplines to discuss those issues in a lively and engaging forum with the movie's creator. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 34803]

The film Blade Runner was set in a dystopian 2019 Los Angeles. A timely gathering is in order. Three futurists sit down for a conversation on the film’s legacy and its relevance to Southern California. The guest speakers are David Brin, Paul Sammon and Mike Davis. They discuss the film’s influence and compare its vision with today’s 2019. Blade Runner initially underperformed in theaters when it was first released in 1982; some praised its thematic complexity and visuals, while others were displeased with its slow-paced narrative and unconventional plot. However, by 1992 it had become a cult classic and was re-released in newly edited versions. Why did it take a decade to find — or create — its audience? Series: "Library Channel" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34684]

New inflections given to old lyrics, the casting of non-professional singers in Across the Universe, and the impact of relocating Beatles tunes to American settings are topics covered in this wide-ranging discussion between acclaimed music journalist Greil Marcus and Carsey-Wolf Center director Patrice Petro. The two delve into the stylistic decisions of director Julie Taymor and the spectatorial pleasures that arise when song lyrics are unexpectedly connected to historical events. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34640]

Documentary filmmaking risks, the technical challenges of solar-powered flight, and attuning to the human struggle behind a quest to fly around the world without a drop of fuel are all central topics in this discussion between UCSB instructor Chris Jenkins and Point of No Return co--directors Quinn Kanaly and Noel Dockstader. The three talk frankly about the difficulty of earning trust as documentarians and how the crew adjusted filming plans when the Solar Impulse 2 mission began to falter.   Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34593]

Bill Morrison, comic book writer and artist, and colorist Nathan Kane join moderator Joe Paladino in a Q&A about Yellow Submarine (1968). Kane and Morrison discuss their collaborative work on the 2018 graphic novel adaptation of the film, as well as their careers and the wider significance of the film. The conversation covers Morrison's work with Matt Groening as an illustrator for The Simpsons and as art director for Futurama, and the influence Yellow Submarine had on the art styles of these shows. Kane discusses his career in the comics industry and his work as creative director of Bongo Comics. Together, Morrison and Kane, reflect on the legacy of Yellow Submarine fifty years later, in terms of their comic adaptation, but also in terms of its pop-cultural significance and influence on directors from Terry Gilliam to John Lasseter. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34641]

John Caldwell, UCLA media studies professor, ethnographer and filmmaker discusses his film Land Hacks: Masculine Media Anxiety Disorder (2018). Caldwell is joined by moderator, Jennifer Holt of the Department of Film and Studies at UCSB. Their conversation covers the inspiration and significance of the film which sets out to explore white male victimization in the Trump era. Caldwell’s film uses advertisements, excerpts from Hollywood films, and documentary footage to highlight a series of masculine anxieties for the modern era, and particular to California’s Central Valley. The Q&A contextualizes Caldwell’s development of the film, which explores the politics of industry and labor in the Central Valley, the birthplace of the UFW, and a bastion for California conservatism through the lens of Caldwell’s own health concerns during the filmmaking process. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34591]

UCSB Script to Screen, hosted by Pollock Theater Director Matt Ryan, was invited to the 2019 Writers Guild Awards and 2019 WGA Beyond Words. On the red carpet, directors and screenwriters alike were able to reflect and shed light on the creative process of writing their vision on a page and then translating it to the screen. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34590]

Song rights, first time directors, female comedians, and a critical intervention by Steven Spielberg all arise in this discussion between Beatles: Revolutions co-curator Joe Palladino and I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) writer/producer Bob Gale and lead actress Nancy Allen. The three speakers discuss the origins of this film, the screenplay structure, and the joy of a young cast/crew building a nostalgic coming-of-age story celebrating a moment of early Beatles’ fandom. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34592]

Visual storytelling and genre blending are central topics in this wide-ranging discussion between Quiet Place screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and Pollock Theater director Matt Ryan. Beck and Woods reflect on and explain their desire to build a monster/sci-fi/horror/silent film that paid homage to classic television and cinema creators like Rod Serling, Alfred Hitchcock, and Charlie Chaplin while fashioning a new experience for contemporary viewers. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34569]

Screaming girls, overwhelmed security, and segregated auditoriums all arise in musicology Professor David Novak (UC Santa Barbara) and rock journalist Ivor Davis’ discussion about Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and the Beatles’ American audience reception. Part of a small cadre of British journalists invited, Davis accompanied the Beatles for the entirety of their astonishing first US tour. The two discuss the Beatles’ connections to earlier musicians and the unprecedented passion they were showered with by young American fans. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34473]

A Q&A session with Writer/Director/Producer Miguel Coyula and Actor/Co-Producer Lynn Cruz of the documentary Nadie (2017). Coyula and Cruz discuss the production of the film and their work with the subject of the documentary, the reclusive Cuban poet, Rafael Alcides. The Q&A session, moderated by UCSB FIlm and Media Studies Professor, Cristina Venegas, covers the banning of the film in Cuba, the effect that making an “Anti-Revolutionary Film” has had on Coyula and Cruz, and the reception of the film in light of the deaths of both Fidel Castro and Alcides. This is Coyula’s first documentary feature, he was previously awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for the production of Memories of Overdevelopment (2010). Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34472]

The Beatles' final concert, their late-era conflicts, and the complicated history of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be documentary all arise in this discussion between musician Alan Parsons and Music Professor David Novak (UC Santa Barbara). Parsons was a teenage sound engineer at Abbey Road studios when he was assigned to record audio for the Beatles as they worked through this iconic album. Novak draws Parsons into dialogue about recording equipment, studio layouts, and the musical personalities of each member of the band. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34489]

With its extreme sex, violence, and gore, Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein has alternately excited, disgusted, and baffled audiences for decades. In this conversation, media Professor Bliss Cua Lim (UC Irvine) and film and media graduate student Rachael Ball (UC Santa Barbara) unpack and celebrate this exceptional movie. Lim and Ball describe the production, release, and response to Flesh for Frankenstein, noting its connections to Italy’s Cinecitta studios, Andy Warhol’s Factory, and the mainstream success of X-rated films in the mid-1970s. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34362]

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Josh Singer (Spotlight, The Post) discusses First Man (2018) with Matt Ryan as part of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Script to Screen series. Singer talks about the depth of research necessary to write the screenplay for First Man, including the creative challenges involved in portraying Neil Armstrong who was known for being a man of few words in a film that also has long stretches of minimalistic dialogue, much of which was taken directly from Apollo 11 mission transcripts. Singer comments on his shared desire with director Damien Chazelle for maximum historical accuracy, and the challenges this presented when accounts and recollections of the events sometimes differed in detail. Singer mentions his extensive work consulting with those who were actually present during the mission and depicted in the film, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the family of Neil Armstrong, and other members of NASA. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34339]

Marsha Kinder, Professor of Cinematic Arts at USC, joins moderator Cristina Venegas, Professor of Film and Media Studies at UCSB, for a discussion of Víctor Erice’s 1973 directorial debut, The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena). Their conversation addresses the significance of Spirit of the Beehive in terms of the history of Spanish cinema, and particularly its production at the end of the Franco Era in Spain and its setting at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Part of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Frankenstein: Afterlives series, Kinder also addresses the significance of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as an influence for the film, as well as Whale’s 1931 film Frankenstein, which appears and motivates characters in Erice’s Film. This discussion situates Spirit of the Beehive in the history of Spanish dictatorship and as an allegory for life under fascism. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34296]