About 135,000 people descended on the San Diego Convention Center this weekend to celebrate the 50th annual Comic-Con. San Diego Comic-Con celebrates a wide array of pop culture media over four days every July. Like many conventions, panels were hosted by industry professionals either in celebration or with an aim to educate fans about different […]
Author Archives: Jordan Wilson
‘Mas’ bands to reflect multicultural themes at upcoming Carnival celebration
A parade of masked, costumed performers will roll through Hollywood to celebrate international cultures. The Hollywood Carnival Parade is part of the Los Angeles Cultural Festival, a four-day celebration of LA’s worldwide cultures taking place from June 27-30. The Carnival performances are arranged and choreographed by “mas” bands, groups that wear specific masquerade costumes as […]
33rd JazzReggae Fest brings community together to celebrate music under the sun
The May gray subsided just in time to shine sun down upon the 33rd Annual JazzReggae Fest over the Memorial Day weekend. The music event, held Monday at the Sunset Recreation Center, featured performances from a motley of seven artists, including two jazz groups from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Despite the previous […]
Reading of Whitman poem to honor his bicentennial before UCLA centennial kickoff
On a small stage near the top of Janss Steps, a group of students, professors and alumni will recite all 54 pages of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Participants will celebrate the poet’s 200th birthday alongside UCLA’s centennial anniversary Saturday. Event organizer Amber West, a lecturer for UCLA Writing Programs, said she hopes bystanders on […]
Alumnae produce absurdist rom-com to reflect queer experiences in dating
This post was updated May 8 at 11:27 a.m. Graduate acting student Chelsea Giles directed the kind of short film that hasn’t really been produced, she said: an absurd, feel-good romantic comedy about queer women. “Grapefruit,” her absurdist comedy, attempts to subvert typical romantic comedy tropes. Giles said her aim was to portray a romance […]
Annual celebration of Iranian cinema analyzes socio-cultural issues through film
A number of new films will show Westwood audiences the latest in Persian cinematic trends. The UCLA Film & Television Archive began its annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema on Saturday with a screening of “Tehran: City of Love,” followed by a Q&A with writer and director Ali Jaberansari. This year’s selection features a number of […]
Movie review: ‘La Llorona’ proves to be just another horror movie with jump scares, simple plot
“The Curse of La Llorona” is the quintessential modern horror film: simple, frightening and tedious. Director Michael Chaves’ first foray into a big Hollywood horror franchise gives writing teachers the umpteenth example of a formulaic horror film to teach their students story structure. In a genre that often relies on stale tropes and derivative plots, […]