Upcoming Pollock Theater Events | |
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CWC Global: Chronicles of the Absurd
Thursday, October 2 / 7:00 PM
In 2011, Lynn Cruz was an up-and-coming actress in the Cuban film industry. After she was cast by filmmaker Miguel Coyula in his film Corazón Azul, she became the subject of a campaign of social annihilation, trials, police raids, and state security interrogation. Their 2024 film Chronicles of the Absurd (Crónicas del absurdo) recounts this story through secret audio recordings, visualized through stop motion animation, still photographs, and paintings by Cuban expressionist artist Antonia Eiri.
Director Miguel Coyula and producer Lynn Cruz will join moderator Cristina Venegas (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Chronicles of the Absurd.
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Storytelling for the Screen: One Battle After Another
Saturday, October 4 / 7:00 PM
The latest action-thriller from filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (2025) follows the reunion of a band of former revolutionaries. Washed-up rebel Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter. When Bob’s evil nemesis resurfaces after sixteen years, father and daughter both battle the consequences of Bob’s past and the lingering scars of their past struggles. Shot in VistaVision format, the film is one of the year’s most ambitious releases.
Editor and alumnus of the UCSB Film and Media Studies program Andy Jurgensen will join moderator Miguel Penabella (Carsey-Wolf Center, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of One Battle After Another.
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Connectivity: Familiar Touch
Thursday, October 9 / 7:00 PM
Familiar Touch (2024), the debut feature from writer-director Sarah Friedland, is a sensitive coming-of-old-age film inspired by her experiences as a caregiver, choreographer, and dance filmmaker. The story follows Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant), a retired homemaker and cook, as she transitions into an assisted living facility she had once chosen for herself, but no longer remembers.
Filmmaker Sarah Friedland will join moderator Bhaskar Sarkar (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Familiar Touch.
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Connectivity: Severance
Tuesday, October 14 / 7:00 PM
The acclaimed psychological thriller / workplace satire Severance follows the employees of Lumon Industries, who undergo a surgical procedure to split their memories between work and home, in an attempt to achieve a perfect work-life balance. But as the severed workers begin questioning their confinement, they uncover the unsettling activities and hidden histories behind the company for which they work. As part of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s 2025-2026 programming series Connectivity, we are pleased to present the Season 2, Episode 4 standout “Woe’s Hollow."
Writer Anna Ouyang Moench will join moderator Miguel Penabella (Carsey Wolf-Center, UCSB) for a screening and discussion of her Severance episode “Woe’s Hollow."
Tickets for this event will be available Thursday, September 25 at 11:00 AM.
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Connectivity: vulture
Thursday, October 16 / 7:00 PM
Like many of Philip Hoffman’s films, vulture is a rumination on alternative ways of thinking, doing, and being together. Since 1994, Hoffman has led the Independent Imaging Retreat (colloquially known as Film Farm) in Ontario, guiding filmmakers to incorporate place-based methods and eco-processing in their work. By extensively using local plants in the processing of filmic material, the films themselves serve as a poetic expression of an ecosystem at work. In the images and the processes that allow for their emergence, Hoffman meditates on shared experience and how we can collectively care for the environments in which we live.
The Carsey-Wolf Center is proud to welcome filmmaker Philip Hoffman to the Pollock Theater for a presentation of three of his films: Deep 1 (2023, 15 minutes), vulture (2019, 57 minutes), and endings (2024, 9 minutes). After the screening, Hoffman will join moderator Alex Lilburn (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a discussion of his work.
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Connectivity:
All Light, Everywhere
Tuesday, October 21 / 7:00 PM
Through an exploration of the shared histories of cameras, weapons, policing, and justice, Theo Anthony’s 2021 documentary All Light, Everywhere probes the growing presence of surveillance technologies and their claim to objectivity. Anthony embeds himself in communities for whom this question is not theoretical: a company building a business in aerial surveillance of Baltimore protests; a police workshop on how to exploit the limits of the body camera; and the headquarters of Axon Enterprise, the largest manufacturer of body cameras in the United States. All Light, Everywhere exposes the fraying seams of photographic objectivity and argues that the struggle for truth is mainly a struggle for control.
Filmmaker Theo Anthony will join moderator Althea Wasow (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of All Light, Everywhere.
| | | | News from the Carsey-Wolf Center | |
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CWC Presents: Connectivity
Announcing our 2025-2026 feature series
The Carsey-Wolf Center’s 2025-26 feature series Connectivity examines the evolving meaning of connection in our contemporary moment. While the term "connectivity" often invokes our ever-increasing entanglement with digital infrastructure and social media networks, this series reimagines the term not only as a technical feature of media, but as a humanistic value and a condition of social and public life. This series embraces connectivity as a framework for thinking critically about the ways in which people use media to connect with ideas and with one another, from the shared experience of moviegoing to the collective bonds forged through storytelling and public dialogue.
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Carsey-Wolf Center
Internship Scholarship Program
Now accepting fall applications!
The Carsey-Wolf Center’s Internship Scholarship Program provides UCSB students with funding to pursue internships in media. Internships may be hosted by traditional media companies or nonprofit organizations. This highly competitive program is designed to provide talented and motivated students with financial assistance in exploring careers in media.
Up to $2500 in funding is available to help defray living expenses for interns who are taking part in paid or unpaid internships. Funding may be granted to students currently enrolled at UCSB or to UCSB graduates during the year following their graduation. Fall applications are due October 1, 2025.
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