Released at the height of Hollywood’s love affair with the grand sword-and-sandal epic, Spartacus (1960) follows the quasi-mythic figure of Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), a Thracian laborer born into Roman slavery. After escaping bondage while being trained for gladiatorial combat, Spartacus raises an army of the enslaved that stages a number of dramatic revolts against the […]

Reflecting on the twenty years that have passed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Carsey-Wolf Center presents Our River . . . Our Sky (2021), a stunning portrait of an Iraqi writer and her daughter navigating everyday life in Baghdad under the extraordinary conditions of occupation and the onset of civil war. Sara is […]

Reflecting on the twenty years that have passed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Carsey-Wolf Center presents Our River . . . Our Sky (2021), a stunning portrait of an Iraqi writer and her daughter navigating everyday life in Baghdad under the extraordinary conditions of occupation and the onset of civil war. Sara is […]

In Does Your House Have Lions (2021), a film by Delhi-based poet vqueeram and LA-based artist Vishal Jugdeo, a queer household of activists and academics in New Delhi lives under the shadow of increasing authoritarianism. Shot in a cinéma vérité style, the film dwells among the friends and lovers vqueeram lived with in the years […]

Adapted from the 1960 novel by Henry Farrell, Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a fever-pitched melodrama that centers on feuding sisters Jane (Bette Davis) and Blanche (Joan Crawford). Jane, a former child actress, has become a bitter alcoholic after spending her whole life in the shadow of her more successful movie-star […]

The sixtieth film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Encanto tells the story of the Madrigals, a multigenerational family blessed with magical powers generated by their enchanted home. Life in their rural community, hidden in the mountains of Colombia, seems perfect until young Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz) discovers that her family members are secretly losing […]

Based on a popular play by Alfredo Ramos, The Last Brown Beret follows a group of 1960s East LA activists as they reunite for a funeral for one of their former comrades. At the afterparty, one of the old “brown berets” gathers the others in the garage where they used to meet as young revolutionaries. […]

Based on the bestselling biography by Jeanne Theoharis and executive produced by award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks dives into the often overlooked breadth of Rosa Parks’ accomplishments and the impact of her fight to overcome racial injustice. Detailing Parks’ achievements beyond the fraction of her life most often taught […]

In 2022, internet searches for the term ‘gaslighting’ spiked by nearly 2000 percent, prompting dictionary company Merriam-Webster to declare it Word of the Year. A form of psychological abuse wherein a victim is manipulated into doubting their own experiences, the now commonplace notion of gaslighting derives from George Cukor’s classic 1944 drama, Gaslight. The film […]

Created by David Jenkins and Taika Waititi, Our Flag Means Death is a loose adaptation of the true adventures of aristocrat turned would-be pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby). The series follows Bonnet and his eccentric crew as they sail the high seas in search of adventure and treasure in the early eighteenth century. As the […]

Presented in collaboration with UC Press journal Film Quarterly, this timely event examines the growing phenomenon of “Big Tech TV.” Professors France Winddance Twine (Sociology, UCSB) and Lisa Parks (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) discuss the ways Big Tech TV shows such as WeCrashed (starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway) and Super Pumped (starring Joseph […]