Tue, Jan 1, 2019
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.
Mon, Feb 18, 2019
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.
Wed, Feb 20, 2019
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.
Wed, Feb 20, 2019
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).
Sun, Mar 17, 2019
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.
Sun, Apr 7, 2019
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.
Wed, Apr 17, 2019
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.
Sun, Apr 21, 2019
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.
Mon, Apr 29, 2019
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 pleasures that arise when song lyrics are unexpectedly connected to historical events.
Fri, Jun 14, 2019
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.
Sat, Jun 22, 2019
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.
Sat, Jun 22, 2019
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.
Mon, Jun 24, 2019
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.
Sun, Jun 30, 2019
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.
Wed, Jul 3, 2019
Director Nishtha Jain joins UCSB's Bishnupriya Ghosh (English and Global Studies) for a post-screening discussion of her 2012 film Gulabi Gang. The conversation includes Jain's early career as a documentary filmmaker, the film's examination of violence against women in India both as a result of the dowry system and a general social devaluation of women, and how she worked with Gulabi Gang leader Sampat Pal on location with individuals that were sometimes reluctant to speak on their own behalf or who felt conflicting familial loyalties. Jain addresses the film's unusual three-part structure and her desire to let the complexities of the film's subject shape the structure, rather than the reverse.
Fri, Jul 5, 2019
Professor Michael Berry (Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA) joins PhD candidate Wesley Jacks (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening conversation about Zhang Yimou's 1987 film adaptation of Mo Yan's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Red Sorghum. Berry explains the legacy of the so-called "Fifth Generation" of Chinese filmmakers including Yimou, and how Red Sorghum's production during the era following Deng Xiaoping's 1978 shift to an open door policy resulted in a film that was both uniquely a product of its own time, and subject to less censorship and thematic restriction than other eras of Chinese filmmaking. A milestone adaptation of an important literary text, Berry describes some of the history of Yimou's work on the project, and how many of the cast and crew involved in Red Sorghum have since gone on to have celebrated careers.
Sun, Jul 21, 2019
Scholars Cristina Venegas (UC Santa Barbara) and María Caridad Cumaná (Miami Dade College) discuss the political, literary, and biographical backgrounds of Tomás Guitiérrez Alea's 1968 classic film Memories of Underdevelopment. While examining the style of the film, Venegas and Cumaná analyze Alea's skillful adaptation of the plot of Edmundo Desnoes' original 1965 novel as well as the film's position within Alea's filmography. They also treat Memories of Underdevelopment's place within the late-60s era of Cuban cultural production and the early-60s era of political tumult.
Wed, Jul 24, 2019
A Q&A featuring director and producer David Elfick, and author and environmentalist Garth Murphy. They are joined by moderator Alexander Champlin in a conversation that covers the production and legacy of the classic surf film Crystal Voyager (1973). Elfick played an instrumental part in the establishment of the New Wave of Australian cinema internationally. Garth Murphy worked with Elfick on the post-production of Crystal Voyager. The Q&A addresses Elfick and Murphy's work with George Greenough, a legendary surfboard designer and the subject of the documentary. They discuss the production of the film, including acquiring the rights to use Pink Floyd's "Echoes" in the closing segment of the film. Their conversation also addresses the legacy of Crystal Voyager, in terms of both its historical significance and its groundbreaking style of surf cinematography.
Mon, Nov 11, 2019
Composited digital and physical special effects, mechanical post-apocalyptic design, and the battle for limited resources are all touched on in this wide-ranging conversation between UC Berkeley professor and special effects scholar Kristen Whissel, and Carsey-Wolf Center director Patrice Petro. The two explore the films depiction of bodies and landscapes, masculinity and femininity.
Tue, Nov 19, 2019
The benefits of set fires, the strenuous work of puppetry on film, and the magic of practical film effects are all explored in this energetic discussion between The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance director Louis Leterrier and Carsey-Wolf Center associate director Emily Zinn. The two explore the strengths and challenges of working with puppets and practical effects while reviving the magical world of Jim Henson's classic.
Wed, Nov 20, 2019
The difficulties of low-budget documentary filmmaking, strategies for first-time political candidates, and the importance of new voices in Congress all arise in this inspiring conversation between producer Sarah Olson, documentary subject (and Missouri congressional candidate) Cori Bush, and Emily Zinn (UC Santa Barbara). In the video, Olsen and Bush share the remarkable energy that arose from a group of insurgents who ran for US Congress against incumbents in 2018.
Wed, Nov 20, 2019
The isolation of house arrest, film as a tool for political expression, and the serpentine nature of Iranian cinema all arise in this thoughtful conversation about Jafar Panahi's documentary, This is Not a Film (2011) between Anna Brusutti (UCSB) and Hamid Naficy (Northwestern University). Naficy and Brusutti's wide-ranging discussion explores the wit and creativity of the film, the state of Iranian filmmaking, and the importance of cinema to engage entrenched political power.
Wed, Nov 27, 2019
The pursuit of fame, changes in China's youth culture, and the gift economies of live-streaming are explored in this lively conversation between director Hao Wu and Hangping Xu (UC Santa Barbara). Hao vividly compares internet fandom in the US and China and reveals how the lives of the documentary subjects' has changed since the release of the film.
Mon, Nov 18, 2019
Dangerous stunts, actor injuries, how to build a twister, and the technicolor production process all arise in this bright and deep conversation about The Wizard of Oz (1939) between UW Milwaukee professor Jocelyn Sczepaniak-Gillece and graduate student Hannah Garibaldi. Professor Sczepaniak-Gillece introduces and describes the gradual formation of the film's enduring legacy as a nostalgic, family television tradition after its initial box-office disappointment.
Wed, Dec 11, 2019
Preproduction collaboration on spatial design and character development, the value of bending rules in a supernatural narrative, and the potential for on-set innovation all arise in this freewheeling discussion about the critically-acclaimed Netflix series Russian Doll between production designer Michael Bricker and Carsey-Wolf Center assistant director Wesley Jacks. In the video,
Wed, Dec 11, 2019
Advances in film restoration technology, the challenges of matching black and white footage with shades of military khaki, and the depth of Peter Jackson's passion for all things World War I arise in this conversation about They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) between assistant editor Elliot Travers and Ross Melnick (Film and Media Studies, UCSB). Travers describes the convoluted path the film took from its initial conception as a 30-minute museum commission for England's Imperial War Museum to an internationally-distributed feature-length film.
Tue, Dec 17, 2019
Contextualizing the fight for health care reform, honoring the connection between nurses and patients, and personalizing the struggles with the US health care system all arise in this conversation between activist Ady Barkan, Uncovered: Health care Conversations with Ady Barkan series creator Liz Jaff, director Nick Bruckman, and Carsey-Wolf Center Associate Director Emily Zinn. This powerful discussion explores the complex challenges of navigating health care in the US and the urgency of political reform.
Mon, Dec 30, 2019
America's Pre-WWII anxieties, Depression-era economic disparity, and the potential for positive social movements arise in this conversation about Frank Capra (director) and Robert Riskin's (screenwriter) film Meet John Doe (1941) between author Victoria Riskin (Robert Riskin and Fay Wray: A Hollywood Memoir) and film scholar Charles Wolfe. Riskin and Wolfe discuss the multiple endings shot for the film, and Riskin reads passages from her father's England-based radio broadcast.