All was quiet on the UCLA campus at 6 a.m. Barry Yang sought a filming location that would capture the essence of the university that has become his home over the last three years. He opted for an iconic shot to open his short drone film: a sweeping view of the lone flagpole that opens […]
Category Archives: Film & TV
Documentary short film screening highlights Native American stories
Most of the time of the time that Sky Hopinka is on a road trip, he says he has a camera with him. He used his latest footage of beautiful landscapes to help him create his most recent documentary short, “Jáaji Approx.” The UCLA American Indian Studies Center, in collaboration with the Sundance Institute, is […]
Movie review: Arrival
Amy Adams’ performance in “Arrival” is out of this world, but the film’s antiquated gender ideals are less than alien. In the new military space thriller “Arrival,” Adams delivers a stunning portrayal of Louise Banks, a linguist employed by the military to translate alien language. Banks’ own unraveling – offset by recurrent flashbacks of her […]
Second Take: Recent space films shouldn’t lose sight of human emotion
Cinema recently revived its search for success across the final frontier. In the next two months, an influx of movies either in or about outer space will be released, including the military-thriller “Arrival,” the Christmas-slated melodrama “Passengers” and the teen romance “The Space Between Us,” in which a boy from Mars falls in love with […]
Q&A: Alumna discusses the power of editing in new sci-fi drama ‘Arrival’
Mary Lukasiewicz has seen the new film “Arrival” about 50 times – sometimes four times in the same day. She knows about 80 percent of the dialogue. Lukasiewicz, a UCLA alumna, worked as the first assistant editor on the science fiction drama. Her job on the film consisted of organizing screenings, coordinating between different departments […]
Bruins for Israel and Hillel partner with Jerusalem U for Israeli event
The Hebrew word Aliyah means “ascent,” but it can also refer to immigrating to Israel. Filmmaker Rebecca Shore directed the short documentary “Mekonen: The Journey of an African Jew” about African-Israeli man Mekonen Abebe to highlight Israel’s diversity. Just one day before Abebe and his family were set to make Aliyah to Israel, his father […]
UCLA students create database for African-American silent films
Seven digital humanities students found 759 entertainment industry professionals involved in early silent race films and compiled them into a centralized database for the first time. The students, as well as the digital humanities program coordinator Miriam Posner used the information they collected at the Charles E. Young Research Library to create what is now […]