June 14, 2005
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Summer Cinema 2005—
7 evenings of film from around the globe
Summary Facts:
- UCSB Arts & Lectures Summer Cinema 2005
- Seven evenings of international films, including 3 Santa Barbara premieres
- Wednesday, July 13 through Wednesday, August 24
- Series features a film and filmmaker evening with director Juan Carlos de Llaca and Dust to Dust—Por la Libre on July 13; The Animation Show 2005 presented by one of its curators Don Hertzfeldt on August 10; and a screening of Wings—The 1st Academy Award Winning Film with live piano accompaniment by Michael Mortilla
- All screenings at 7:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall, except The Animation Show 2005 has a second screening at 9:30 pm
- General public: $6 / UCSB students: $5; except for The Animation Show 2005, for which tickets are $10 for the general public / $8 for UCSB students
- 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, (805) 893-3535
- For tickets and information, phone UCSB Arts & Lectures: (805) 893-3535
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Summer Cinema 2005, a series of seven evenings of films, featuring three Santa Barbara area premieres and spanning both the globe and cinematic history.
The series begins on Wednesday, July 13 with a film and filmmaker evening featuring one of Mexico’s best young directors, Juan Carlos de Llaca and his film Dust to Dust—Por la Libre. The winner of the 2001 Chicago Latino Film Festival Audience Award, Dust to Dust is a humorous and sweet coming-of-age tale that brings together two cousins whose animosity transforms into trust and understanding through the course of an adventurous journey to Acapulco. De Llaca will answer questions after the screening. In Spanish, with English subtitles. (2000, 96 minutes)
The series continues on Wednesday, July 20 with the buoyant Bride and Prejudice. From the team behind international smash hit Bend It Like Beckham comes a Jane Austen adaptation like never before. Pride and Prejudice gets the Bollywood treatment, and the result is a spectacular fusion of East meets West. Austen’s classic love story unfolds in a riot of color and emotion, song and dance, that jet-sets from rural India via London to Los Angeles. The Philadelphia Inquirer calls the film “uniquely spirited, radiating the exuberance and sexual heat of an Elvis musical.” The film is directed by former UCSB Regents’ Lecturer Gurinder Chadha. In English, Hindi and Punjabi, with English subtitles, as necessary. (2004, 111 minutes)
The eloquent documentary Voices in Wartime takes the series to more sobering subjects on Wednesday, July 27. Voices in Wartime makes effective use of battle footage, commentary by soldiers, historians and war correspondents—including a particularly incisive Chris Hedges—and, above all, the words of poets in a stirring search for meaning. From Wilfred Owen’s unparalleled evocations of World War I to Vietnam vet David Connolly’s haunted remembrances to the anti-Iraq War charge led by Sam Hamill to the work of contemporary writers from Nigeria, Colombia, India and Iraq, Voices in Wartime is “a searing chronicle of the effects of armed conflict on humanity” (Los Angeles Times). (Rick King, 2005, 74 minutes)
The series next features one of the most lauded films from the first half of 2005, Kung Fu Hustle on Wednesday, August 3. The terrifying Ax Gang rumbles with the poor but surprisingly feisty denizens of Pig Sty Alley in this relentlessly entertaining, unflaggingly inventive Hong Kong martial arts comedy from Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer). The Chicago Tribune asserts, “Kung Fu Hustle not only is an endearing homage to a genre’s history, but an astonishing piece of cinema in its own right.” Time wrote, “Moviemaking doesn’t get much smarter, funnier, handsomer, better than this.” In Cantonese and Mandarin, with English subtitles. (2004, 95 minutes)
The area premiere of The Animation Festival 2005, presenting ten terrific animated shorts, will be introduced by Don Hertzfeldt, one of the collection’s curators and an Oscar-nominated filmmaker (and UCSB graduate) on Wednesday, August 10. Hertzfeldt and co-producer Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, Office Space) personally programmed this collection of ten of the world’s best award-winning and critically acclaimed animated short films that the Los Angeles Times calls “a dizzying array of visual treats that evoke stories and moods that are anything but conventional.” (various directors, 2005, 87 minutes)
A stunning pageant of imagery celebrating evolution and the wonders of the natural world, the remarkable documentary Genesis screens on Wednesday, August 17. The second opus from the directors of Microcosmos, Genesis is an eye-poppingly intimate look at all kinds of creatures, from sea horses to panther chameleons, gestating, eating, strolling, fighting and courting. Six years in the making, Genesis is a nature film to end all nature films. In French, with English subtitles. (Claude Nuridsany & Marie Pérennou, 2005, 80 minutes)
The series concludes on Wednesday, August 24 with a rare 35 mm screening of the landmark Wings—The 1st Academy Award Winning Film with live piano accompaniment by Michael Mortilla. This WW I tale features still-spectacular aerial and land battle sequences and a love triangle centered on Clara Bow, the famed It Girl of the 1920s. The film also stars Charles Rogers, Richard Arlen and a dashing Gary Cooper in one of his first roles. Acclaimed composer and pianist Mortilla returns to Campbell Hall, sure to once again wow the audience with his improvisational talents as he has on previous visits accompanying films like Sunrise, Son of the Sheik and Nosferatu. (William Wellman, 1927, 123 minutes)
All film screenings begin at 7:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall, except The Animation Show 2005, which has two screenings at 7:30 & 9:30 pm. Tickets for all films are available in advance at the UCSB Arts & Lectures Ticket Office (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. The A&L Ticket Office’s summer hours are Monday-Friday, 10 am-3 pm. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $5 for UCSB students, except for The Animation Show 2005, for which admission is $10 for the general public and $8 for UCSB students.
The series is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Santa Barbara Independent, KCSB Radio 91.9 FM, Blue Agave and the Daily Nexus. Dust to Dust is co-presented with the UCSB Summer Institute in Hispanic Languages and Culture. The final four films of the series are supported in part by UCSB Freshman Summer Start Program.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.