Upcoming Pollock Theater Events | |
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American Direct Cinema Revisited: An Afternoon with Gordon Quinn
Saturday, May 30 / 2:00 PM
The Carsey-Wolf Center is delighted to welcome documentary filmmaker Gordon Quinn to the Pollock Theater for a discussion of his lifelong commitment to the direct cinema movement. We will open with a screening of Richard Leacock and Joyce Chopra’s short documentary Happy Mother’s Day (1963), which centers on the family of the first surviving quintuplets born in the US. To conclude, we will screen Quinn’s first film Home for Life (1966), depicting the experiences of two elderly people in their first month at a home for the aged.
Filmmaker Gordon Quinn will join moderator Naoki Yamamoto (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of these two films, the direct cinema movement, and Quinn’s historic career.
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Connectivity: Cinema Paradiso (Director's Cut)
Saturday, June 6 / 2:00 PM
In Cinema Paradiso (1988), filmmaker Salvatore “Totò” Di Vita (Jacques Perrin) returns to his small Sicilian community of Giancaldo to attend the funeral of Alfredo (Philipe Noiret), the town’s longtime film projectionist, who had served as Salvatore’s mentor during his childhood. We will show Giuseppe Tornatore’s rarely-screened 2002 director’s cut of Cinema Paradiso. In this more complex version, Salvatore returns home to discover what he left behind, including a secret that was excised from the theatrical version of the film.
This event will begin with a critical and historical introduction by Ross Melnick (Interim Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center), who will discuss the film’s relationship to our yearlong programming series Connectivity. A reception in the Michael Douglas Lobby will follow the screening.
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GreenScreen 2026 Student Film Premiere
Friday, June 12 / 7:00 PM
The 2026 GreenScreen premiere will showcase four student-produced films focused on eco-consciousness. GreenScreen is a hands-on, project-based environmental media production program where students work in teams to leverage their collective production skills and environmental knowledge. The goal of the program is not only to increase awareness about the environment, but to expand the ways that these issues are represented and communicated. The event will be followed by a reception in the Michael Douglas Lobby.
For more information about GreenScreen, visit this page.
| | | | News from the Carsey-Wolf Center | |
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Storytelling for the Screen Summer Institute: Advanced Television Writing Workshop
Applications now being accepted on a rolling basis.
The Carsey-Wolf Center’s Storytelling for the Screen summer institute is a six-week, eight-credit intensive capstone TV writing workshop. The program will teach students how to develop a show bible for an original scripted series and how to plan and write a pilot script. It will strongly emphasize story and model the industry-standard TV development process, with pitches, simulated writers’ rooms, and weekly talks from distinguished industry guests.
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CWC Global: The Burning: The Untold Story of Africa’s Refugee Crisis
Video now available!
Earlier in spring quarter, filmmaker Isabella Alexander-Nathani joined moderator Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky (Global Studies, UCSB) to discuss her new film, The Burning: The Untold Story of Africa’s Refugee Crisis. Together, they examined today’s Mediterranean border policies, the politics of asylum, and the role of race in migration. They also explored the connection between Alexander-Nathani’s research and filmmaking, highlighting the power of documentary film to capture the sacrifice and resilience of refugee journeys.
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