December 10, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu

UCSB Arts & Lectures Winter Cinema 2003
features 15 films from around the globe

Summary Facts:

• UCSB Arts & Lectures Winter Cinema 2003
• A series of 15 international films, including 14 Santa Barbara premieres
• Friday, January 10 through Thursday, March 6
• All screenings at 7:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public: $6, UCSB students: $5
• Ticket prices for Tosca: General public $10, UCSB students: $8
• Tickets may be purchased in advance at the UCSB Arts & Lectures Ticket Office and at the door, if available, beginning at 6:30 pm
• Charge by phone, 893-3535, or by fax, 893-8637
• For tickets and information, phone UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

UCSB Arts & Lectures Winter Cinema 2003, a series of fifteen films, features fourteen Santa Barbara area premieres and spans the globe, from Japan to Iran.

The series begins on Friday, January 10 with 2002 Sundance Film Festival favorite Biggie & Tupac, a documentary that, according to Time Out, London, plays like a murder mystery and a cold-hearted “LA story worthy of Chandler or Ellroy.” In order to examine the unsolved murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (AKA Biggie Smalls or The Notorious B.I.G.), provocative director Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney) fleshes out interviews of childhood friends and family members with rarely seen home movies and behind-the-scenes footage. Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times calls the film “one of the better documentaries I’d seen in years...bristling with passion and bold purpose.” (2002, 107 minutes)

The series segues from rappers to their DJ counterparts with Scratch, a film that screens on Sunday, January 12. This exhilarating documentary explores the world of DJs from the birth of hip-hop, when pioneering DJs began manipulating vinyl to extend musical interludes (thereby helping inspire breakdancing and rap) to the development of scratching and the musical movement called “turntablism.” This film captures a revolution in the way we hear, play and create music. It features such charismatic figures as Qbert, DJ Shadow, Mix Master Mike, Cut Chemist, and many others sharing their skills. The Austin Chronicle insists the film is “as arresting to watch as it is to listen to.” (Doug Pray, 2002, 88 minutes)

On Thursday, January 16 the series leaves the hip-hop world behind for the gentle Iranian comedy Secret Ballot. Babak Payami won the Best Director Prize at the 2001 Venice Film Festival for this film that traces the prickly relationship between an idealistic woman collecting votes during the Iranian national election and the gruff soldier assigned to be her chauffeur. Garnering critical comparisons to the work of Samuel Beckett, Jim Jarmusch and John Sayles, the film slyly examines the value of democracy and the roles of women in the Middle East. The San Francisco Examiner hails the film as “ineffably amusing and affecting.” In Farsi with English subtitles. (2001, 105 minutes)

Moving from Iran to Japan, the series makes a dramatic shift with a revival of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai on Tuesday, January 21. Called “the greatest action movie ever made” by the Washington Post, Seven Samurai is the epic tale of a village that reluctantly hires samurai in an attempt to stave off marauding bandits. Since 1954, Kurosawa’s masterpiece has served as a primer for filmmakers studying how to make a humanist action film, not to mention how to shoot pulse-quickening battle scenes with horses in the rain. A new print will show off the B&W cinematography and newly translated subtitles that capture the rawness of the film’s language for the first time. In Japanese with English subtitles. (1954, 203 minutes)

“Possibly the most riveting and vital historical document ever put on celluloid, Patricio Guzmán’s three-part 1975-79 guerrilla epic The Battle of Chile is an unforgettable experience,” claims Michael Atkinson of the Village Voice. Guzman has returned to the material of his earlier masterpiece to make The Pinochet Case, which screens on Thursday, January 23. The Pinochet Case is a meticulous look at the dramatic 1998 arrest of Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, detailing the precedent-setting legal efforts to make the tyrant answer for his crimes. The film gives an eloquent voice to the hundreds of torture victims under his dictatorship and their dignified quest for justice. In Spanish and English with English subtitles as needed. (2001, 105 minutes)

The series continues with Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary, A&L’s debut screening from maverick Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin (Tales from Gimli Hospital, “Heart of the World”) on Wednesday, January 29. A striking hybrid of choreographer Mark Godden’s ravishing Royal Winnipeg Ballet (who will perform Sleeping Beauty at the Arlington Theatre on February 5) hit and Maddin’s quirky vision, Dracula is a concoction of silent, black-and-white manic melodrama infused with fluid motion, music by Mahler and ambient color tints. Upon its screening at the London Film Festival, website Shadows on the Wall called Dracula “strange and bold and unlike anything you’ve ever seen...It’s romantic and unforgettable.” (2002, 75 minutes)

On Sunday, February 2 the artistic focus of the series shifts from dance to opera with a screening of Tosca—whose most famous arias and duets are recognizable to aficionado and amateur alike. This imaginative re-telling of Giacomo Puccini’s 1899 love triangle, set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, stars diva Angela Gheorghiu and her real-life husband Roberto Alagna. “The ardent vulnerability of the lovers is breathtaking,” the Los Angeles Times asserts. “Gheorghiu and Alagna flirt and smooch with utter credibility and their singing is an aural feast.” In Italian with English subtitles. (Benoît Jacquot, 2001, 120 minutes)

On Tuesday, February 4, Arts & Lectures presents Russian Ark, which Roger Ebert of the Chicago Tribune calls “one of the most astonishing films ever made.” The first entirely unedited, single take, full-length feature, Russian Ark was filmed after months of rehearsals with 867 actors, hundreds of extras and three live orchestras. Its nameless protagonist, a 19th century diplomat, guides us through the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the museum a stunning representation of Russian history. Alexander Sokurov has directed a sumptuous dream of the Enlightenment. In Russian with English subtitles. (2002, 96 minutes)

On Sunday, February 9 the authoritative and beautiful documentary In the Mirror of Maya Deren screens. Deren, the avant-garde director of the classic Meshes of the Afternoon and other films, virtually created the US independent film scene in the 1940s. In the Mirror chronicles her tireless experimentation in many fields, including dance, writing and pioneering research into Haitian voodoo. The film features archival interviews with Deren plus observances from her contemporaries such as Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage. (Martina Kudlácek, 2002, 103 minutes)

The series screens Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday and The World According to John Coltrane, an enthralling jazz double bill, on Tuesday, February 18. Lady Day lets us see and hear the miracle that was Billie Holiday through rare TV and movie clips, interviews with her musical associates, and readings by actress Ruby Dee from Holiday’s autobiography Lady Sings the Blues. John Coltrane celebrates the innovative and revered jazz saxophonist, making clear his wide-ranging influence and musical prowess. The documentary, written and co-directed by esteemed New York Times writer Robert Palmer with Toby Byron, is the only film biography of the saxophone giant authorized by his widow Alice. (Matthew Seig, 1991, 58 minutes; 1992, 59 minutes)

The series concludes with A Tribute to Flying “A” Films on Monday, March 3. This program, co-presented with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, celebrates Santa Barbara’s famed film studio of the silent era. From 1910 to 1921, before the motion picture industry centralized in Hollywood, the American Film Company operated out of the Flying “A” Studio on Mission Street, between State and Chapala Streets in Santa Barbara. The evening begins with the premiere of UCSB lecturer Dana Driskel’s documentary An American Film Company (2003, 60 min.), which describes how a studio that once rivaled Paramount and Universal could be out of business by 1921 and a mere historical afterthought today. Two rarely screened silent shorts from the studio, offering views of early Santa Barbara—“With a Life at Stake” and “Matching Dreams”—will follow the documentary. These shorts will be accompanied on piano by composer and regular Arts & Lectures’ guest Michael Mortilla. (both shorts: 1916, 22 minutes)

Arts & Lectures’ winter calendar also includes two film and filmmaker events. On January 9 Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky will attend the screening of Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. On March 6 Aradhana Seth will be present at the screening of DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy. At both events the filmmakers will hold a question and answer session after the film. Separate press releases closer to these dates will describe each event in detail.

All film screenings begin at 7:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Tickets for all films are available in advance at the UCSB Arts & Lectures Ticket Office (805-893-3535) and may be purchased in person or charged by phone. Tickets can also be bought at the door, if available, starting at 6:30 pm. All tickets are $6 for the general public and $5 for UCSB students, except for Tosca, which cost $10 for the general public and $8 for UCSB students.

Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, these films are sponsored by The Santa Barbara Independent, KCSB Radio 91.9 FM, Blue Agave and The Daily Nexus. Secret Ballot is co-sponsored by the UCSB Center for Middle East Studies. Russian Ark is co-sponsored by the Eastern & Central Europe Focus Group at UCSB.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.