Dorothy Dandridge

Doris Berger, co-curator of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898-1971 at the Academy Museum, joins moderator Peter Bloom to discuss the film Carmen Jones and the legacy of actress Dorothy Dandridge. Berger explains the backstory of how the Regeneration exhibition was originally conceived and developed, detailing her experiences digging through archival materials and discovering materials from films with all-Black casts in the 1920s and 30s. She also discusses her perspective on Carmen Jones and its significance to film history, as well as on the career of Dorothy Dandridge, from early soundies like Cow Cow Boogie to late career works like Porgy and Bess. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38894]

Regeneration: Spotlight on Dorothy Dandridge

Writer/director Maysoon Pachachi joins moderator Mona Damluji for a discussion of her film "Our River...Our Sky," which tells the story of ordinary people living in Baghdad under occupation. Pachachi details the origin of the project and the film’s early development, including casting considerations and lessons learned from her documentary work. She also discusses the political contexts of the film and how life in Iraq changed as a result of civil war and occupation, and how real-world stories inspired the film. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38945]

Our River...Our Sky: Iraq 20 Years After the Invasion

Director Julia Mintz and executive producer Eva Haller engage in a post-screening discussion of their film Four Winters, where they provide insights into the making of the documentary. Mintz details the process of collecting and editing footage of countless interview subjects to tell the heroic story of Jewish partisans during the Second World War, and Haller emphasizes the importance of sharing those stories for posterity. They recount personal stories of loved ones and their experiences during the war, and reflect on the challenges and significance of revisiting and preserving history. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38895]

Four Winters: Heroic WWII Story of Jewish Partisans

Roman Koropeckyj, Professor in the Department of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages &amp; Cultures at UCLA, joins moderator Sasha Razor for a discussion of Sergei Parajanov’s film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, sharing insight into Ukrainian culture and history. Koropeckyj discusses the making of the film and details the complexities of Ukrainian culture and history, including the Hutsul ethnic group around which the film revolves. They contextualize the political volatility during the film’s production and broaden discussion to a longer history of Ukrainian oppression, all the way to contemporary struggles. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38876]

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

In this enlightening conversation, Ray Santisteban, director and producer of the documentary "Time of the Phoenix: The First Rainbow Coalition," shares his insights on activism, coalition politics, and social change. Santisteban delves into his journey of making the documentary and how it marked the beginning of his filmmaking career. He highlights the unique power of documentary filmmaking which enables him to address important social issues that Hollywood often overlooks. Exploring the historical context of revolutionary movements, including the influential role of the Black Panthers, Santisteban emphasizes the significance of building diverse and uncomfortable coalitions to achieve transformative progress. Don't miss this inspiring dialogue on realizing revolutionary possibilities and the untapped potential of documentary filmmaking. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38821]

The First Rainbow Coalition

Production designer Akin McKenzie joined moderator Mireille Miller-Young (Feminist Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of his work in visualizing the world of The Woman King. The discussion revolved around McKenzie’s extensive research from out-of-print books, photos, and other archival materials to disentangle complex historical events from colonial revisionism. McKenzie also detailed his collaboration process with director Gina Prince-Bythewood and shared thoughts on Black representation in Hollywood and the future of Black cinema. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38875]

Black Hollywood: The Woman King

Filmmakers Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández discuss the making of their autoethnographic documentary In a Whisper (A media voz) with Cristina Venegas. They discuss a lifelong search for optimism during difficult times, which informed the tone of their film. Patricia Pérez Fernández elaborates on creating the films’ letters, as well as how they both restructured their own archival footage to shape the film. Spanish w/ English subtitles. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38838]

In A Whisper (A media voz)

Writer/director Antonio Dikele Distefano and scholar/filmmaker Fred Kuwornu discuss the film Autumn Beat with Claudio Fogu. Distefano details his experiences writing books and magazines and his transition to cinematic work, as well as his experiences growing up as a young Black man in Italy. Kuwornu elaborates on the evolving Black cultural renaissance in Italy and the struggles involved with it. They reflect on the themes of the film, including disability, parenthood, self-expression, and legacies of colonialism, all of which center on a story about the Italian rap scene. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38820]

Autumn Beat

Moderator Peter Bloom is joined by Kim Knowles and Carrie Noland for a discussion of how contemporary experimental film represents multi-species relationships and dependencies. Together, they consider how experimental cinema can animate alternative understandings of the relations between human and non-human animals. Addressing questions of genre, style, narration, and performance, Knowles, Noland and Bloom highlight the political and aesthetic complexity of the cinematic representation of animals. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38777]

The Cinema of Multispecies Encounters

Patrice Petro and E. Ann Kaplan discuss Irving Rapper’s classic 1942 melodrama, Now, Voyager. Together, Petro and Kaplan situate the film historically in the context of the Second World War and the changing dynamics of the domestic and public spheres. They also address the film’s unique depiction of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and consider its complex representation of mother-daughter relationships. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38776]

Big Screen: Now Voyager

Go behind-the-scenes to learn more about the story-telling process as producers, directors, writers and actors discuss their craft.

Lol, How can you call yourselves a television university when your interviewer is key lit by a prompter screen and your talent’s lapel mic cord is carelessly hung on the front of her shirt?

University of TV?

Film and Television (Video)

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]

New Waves: Hiroshima Mon Amour

Editor Maryann Brandon joins Pollock Theater Director Matt Ryan for a conversation about the process of editing Star Trek (2009). The Star Trek franchise has captured the imagination of audiences for over fifty years using a blend of spacefaring high-adventure and futuristic, utopian themes. In 2009, J.J. Abrams refreshed and extended the series with the series’ eleventh film. Brandon explains what is was like to edit a film that was part of such a beloved franchise, as well as how she maintained her own editing style while staying true to the original series. She discusses the process of manipulating footage and cutting on set, as well as how she shapes each scene around an actor’s performance while maintaining a delicate balance between exposition and effects. She also discusses her professional relationship with Abrams, sharing anecdotes from the sets of both Star Trek and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, which she is currently editing under his direction. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34953]

Star Trek - Script to Screen

The film Still Alice explores early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This panel at UCSB discusses the film and the troubling issues it explores. Donna Beal - Alzheimer’s Association, Patricia Cline Cohen - Department of History at UCSB, Kenneth Kosik - Neuroscience Research Institute at UCSB. Moderator - Laury Oaks - Feminist Studies at UCSB. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Health and Medicine] [Humanities] [Show ID: 30803]

Still Alice - Focus On: Humanities and the Brain 

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]

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. <br> Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34339]

First Man - Script to Screen

Rebecca was Alfred Hitchcock’s first American film.  It has long been considered to be the director’s most “feminine” project, given its subject matter and appeal to female audiences. Tania Modleski, author of the groundbreaking book The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Film Theory discusses both the history and continuing legacy of Rebecca, now regarded as a film that not only explores women’s fears but also women’s desire for other women. The discussion was moderated by Professor Patrice Petro, director of the Carsey-Wolf Center. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32132]

Expanded Hitchcock: Rebecca

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]

Beatles Revolutions - Let It Be

Miss Israel Linor Abargil was abducted, stabbed, and raped in Milan, Italy at age 18. She won the Miss World competition only six weeks later. The new documentary, “Brave Miss World” follows her from the rape, to her crowning and through to her crusade to fight for justice for victims of rape. Panelists: “Brave Miss World” Director Cecilia Peck; Jill Dunlap, Director of Campus Advocacy Resources &amp; Education &amp; Women's Center Programs at UCSB; Cassie Pasquariello, UCSB Counseling and UCSB Psychological Services; Elisa Bonora, Co-Producer/ Additional Editor of the documentary. Constance Penley, Co-Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, moderates. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 28369]

Brave Miss World Discussion

Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow, Oscar-, Golden Globe-, and Emmy-winning actress, appeared in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001. After a recent screening at UC Santa Barbara, she discussed the film and more.  Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33950]

Royal Tenenbaums with Gwyneth Paltrow - Script to Screen

UCSB Script to Screen interviewed this year's Emmy-nominated writers before the 2019 Sublime Primetime panel discussion at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles.  Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35180]

2019 Emmy-nominated Writers: Script to Screen

UCSB Script to Screen was invited to the 2017 Writers Guild Awards and 2017 WGA Beyond Words. The interviews include many Oscar nominees. The "Script to Screen" series is hosted by Matt Ryan.  Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32215]

Script to Screen: 2017 On The Red Carpet

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]

Shoah: Four Sisters

Screenwriter Michael Miner sits down with UCSB Department of Film &amp; Media Studies professor Joshua Moss to discuss Robocop’s B-Movie influences, the role of political humor in science fiction, and the economic model of Orion Pictures and other genre picture studios in the 1980s. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 30631]

Inside Robocop

A conversation with Tamer El Said, Director of In the Last Days of the City (2016), and UCSB Film and Media Studies Professor, Laila Shereen Sakr. Discussion covers El Saids work filming In the Last Days of the City. Shot between 2006 and 2008, the years leading up to the Egyptian Revolution, the film reflects a growing tension in Ciaro. El Siad comments on trying to capture his sense of the city on film in a way that seeks to express the feeling of being on the brink of changeespecially when this change hasn't happened yet. This conversation emphasizes the difficulty of capturing and representing a city on film, and particularly of producing a film that represents a feeling of impending social upheaval. El Said discusses the significance of his film and his experience and influences that shaped the process of producing beforeand editing afterthe events of the Arab Spring. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34289]

A conversation with Tamer El Said, Director of In the Last Days of the City (2016), and UCSB Film and Media Studies Professor, Laila Shereen Sakr. Discussion covers El Saids work filming In the Last Days of the City. Shot between 2006 and 2008, the years leading up to the Egyptian Revolution, the film reflects a growing tension in Ciaro. El Siad comments on trying to capture his sense of the city on film in a way that seeks to express the feeling of being on the brink of changeespecially when this change hasn't happened yet. This conversation emphasizes the difficulty of capturing and representing a city on film, and particularly of producing a film that represents a feeling of impending social upheaval. El Said discusses the significance of his film and his experience and influences that shaped the process of producing beforeand editing afterthe events of the Arab Spring.<br> Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34289]

In The Last Days of the City Director Tamer El Said 

Released in the summer of 1975, "Jaws" was seen by over 67 million Americans, essentially creating the “summer blockbuster.” Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb talks about that experience and his other screenplays. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 30890]

Jaws - Script to Screen

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]

Short Films from Viet Film Festival

UCSB Pollock Theater Director Matt Ryan and crew meet Comic-Con 2018 participants in San Diego.  Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33951]

Comic-Con: 2018 - Script to Screen

Mary Shelley

In the opening conversation within the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Frankenstein: Afterlives film series, CWC director Patrice Petro and English professor Julie Carlson (UC Santa Barbara) discuss the life of Mary Shelley and the representation of her views and career in director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s new biopic, Mary Shelley. During the discussion, professors Petro and Carlson cover the film’s feminist elements and the historical connections Mary Shelley had with literature, science, and philosophy. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34291]

In the opening conversation within the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Frankenstein: Afterlives film series, CWC director Patrice Petro and English professor Julie Carlson (UC Santa Barbara) discuss the life of Mary Shelley and the representation of her views and career in director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s new biopic, Mary Shelley. During the discussion, professors Petro and Carlson cover the film’s feminist elements and the historical connections Mary Shelley had with literature, science, and philosophy.<br> Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34291]

Frankenstein: Afterlives - Mary Shelley

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]

Frankenstein: Afterlives - Flesh for Frankenstein

Don Hertzfeldt

Don Hertzfeldt is a two time Oscar-nominated American independent filmmaker whose animated films include It's Such a Beautiful Day, The Meaning of Life, Billy's Balloon, and Rejected. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 30805]

Don Hertzfeldt and World of Tomorrow - Script to Screen

Julie Cohen

Betsy West

A Q&amp;A session with Co-Directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen of the documentary RGB (2018). Cohen and West discuss their work researching and producing RBG, which profiles the career of Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The session, moderated by UCSB English Professor Jeannine DeLombard, covers the production and reception of the film, its significance in the current political climate, and Ginsburgs Legacy as a Justice. Betsy West is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker, journalist, and educator, known for her work on Nightline, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours. She is a professor of journalism at Columbia University. Julie Cohen is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and producer. She has also worked as a producer for NBC News and is Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Columbia University. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34288]

RBG Filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen

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