Upcoming Pollock Theater Events | |
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Connectivity: Storming Caesars Palace
Tuesday, April 28 / 7:00 PM
Directed by Hazel Gurland-Pooler, Storming Caesars Palace (2022) chronicles the life of Ruby Duncan, who rose from hotel maid to prominent protester, movement organizer, and White House advisor while fighting to defend and expand welfare rights in Las Vegas. To combat unjust accusations of fraud, Duncan organized a feminist civil rights movement led by low-income mothers demanding dignity, democratic participation, and a guaranteed basic income.
Following the screening, director Hazel Gurland-Pooler will join moderator Chelsea Kai Roesch (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a discussion of Storming Caesars Palace.
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Connectivity: Star Wars:
A New Hope
Monday, May 4 / 7:00 PM
Luke Skywalker begins a journey that will change the galaxy in Star Wars: A New Hope. The Carsey-Wolf Center is proud to present a special May the Fourth screening of Star Wars: A New Hope, accompanied by 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.
Please note: All available reservations for this event have now been claimed. A standby line will be formed at the door of the theater for any available seats.
© & TM Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.
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Connectivity: An Evening with Rea Tajiri
Tuesday, May 12 / 7:00 PM
The Carsey-Wolf Center is honored to welcome filmmaker Rea Tajiri for a one-night retrospective of her work on ancestral time and the Japanese American experience. The event will open with History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige (1991), Tajiri’s experimental mediation on her family’s forced incarceration during the Second World War. Following this will be Wisdom Gone Wild (2022), which centers on Tajiri’s mother, Rose, and her gradual descent into the dream logic of dementia.
Following the screenings, filmmaker Rea Tajiri will join moderator Kelsey Moore (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a discussion of her films.
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Storytelling for the Screen: Hamnet
Thursday, May 14 / 7:00 PM
Director Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet (2025) revolves around Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a singular woman sensitive to the natural world around her. She finds a home and starts a family with William (Paul Mescal), a local tutor and aspiring playwright, before tragedy transforms their lives.
The Carsey-Wolf Center presents a screening of Hamnet in conjunction with the UCSB Library exhibition Infinite Variety: The Many Lives of Shakespeare’s Texts. Jean Feerick (English, John Carroll University) will join moderator Jim Kearney (English, UCSB) for pre- and post-screening discussions of Hamnet and its relationship to Shakespeare’s life and work.
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CWC Docs: John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office
Thursday, May 21 / 7:00 PM
John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office (2025) uncovers the story of daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly, a scientist who dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. The film traces Lilly’s innovative career, from his groundbreaking neurobiological research of cetaceans (dolphins and whales) to the more speculative realms of mysticism and countercultural experimentation.
Filmmaker Courtney Stephens will join moderator Joshua Baldelomar (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a discussion of John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office.
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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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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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Connectivity:
Blade Runner 2049
Video now available!
In January, Miguel Penabella, Associate Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, introduced a screening of Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed Blade Runner 2049, presented as part of the center’s Connectivity series. In his remarks, he explored the film’s themes of technological and human connection, memory, and corporate power. He also highlighted its engagement with issues such as AI, surveillance, and modern loneliness, ultimately framing cinema itself as a form of shared memory and collective experience.
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CWC Global: Scenes of Extraction
Video now available!
Last quarter, filmmaker and artist Sanaz Sohrabi sat down with moderator Mona Damluji (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) to discuss Scenes of Extraction, her second entry in a film trilogy exploring political histories of oil in Iran. Together, they trace Sohrabi’s training as an artist, examine her archival and installation-based methods, and explore how her exhibitions interrogate colonial extraction. The conversation also considers the film’s contemporary resonances with the 2026 Iran War.
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CWC Internship Scholarship Program
Summer internships: applications due May 15
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 during the summer or the academic year to help defray living expenses for interns who are taking part in paid or unpaid internships.
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