This fall, the UCLA Film & Television Archive features a broad assortment of cinematic and television offerings, including a celebration of Silent Movie Day, Archive Talks, short and feature-length films from around the world, classic and contemporary television episodes, special in-person guests and much more.
The season begins Oct. 6 with a screening of “Soundies,” short musical films produced in the 1940s for video jukeboxes in bars and restaurants that showcase musical talents from the big band era into the emergence of early rock-and-roll. The world premiere of the Archive’s new restoration of the classic 13-chapter 1936 serial “Flash Gordon” on Nov. 19 — a one-night binge session — will feature in-person guest Ryan Linkof, curator at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
Other special in-person guests will attend the Archive’s classic and current TV and film programs, including actor and writer Michael McGreevey at the Oct. 15 screening of “Noir Television: Naked City”; producers-writers-directors Sterlin Harjo and Tazbah Rose Chavez at “Reservation Dogs” on Nov. 4; writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton on Nov. 12 at the 10th anniversary screening of “Short Term 12”; author and UC Irvine associate professor Bambi Haggins at “East Side/West Side: ‘Who Do You Kill?’” on Nov. 18; and author Anne Serling at the Dec. 16 screening of her father Rod Serling’s “Carol for Another Christmas” — a chilling 1964 predecessor to this year’s “Oppenheimer” that reunites “Dr. Strangelove” stars Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers in an impassioned plea to prevent nuclear war through international cooperation.
“The Archive’s fall programs will continue to connect modern day storytelling with historical moving images and generate engaging discussions that we hope inspire scholars, filmmakers and the communities we serve,” said May Hong HaDuong, director of the Archive, a division of UCLA Library.
On Oct. 12 and 13, “A String of Pearls” highlights new restorations of the work of Camille Billops and James Hatch, whose films tell personal and provocative stories about race, gender, class and the human experience.
On Oct. 28, in partnership with Sefira, the Archive hosts “An Evening with Tassos Boulmetis” with the celebrated Greek writer-director and UCLA alumnus, and on Dec. 1, “UCLA Student Film Restorations: Preserving the Past” features three student films made between 1960s to the 1980s that have been restored by graduate student interns.
“Time: It’s of the Essence” (Oct. 20–Dec. 17) is an eight-evening series of films international in scope that play with the representation of real time and elevate its passage to their explicit subject, ranging from Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” to Michael Snow’s “La Région Centrale.”
And this Veterans Day, Nov. 11, in honor of all LGBTQ service members, the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project series presents “Thank You for Your Queerness,” a screening of cinematic representations of queerness in the military that includes two surreal, erotic shorts and an underseen, delightfully camp arthouse short feature.
On Dec. 2, the Archive presents the 1919 silent adventure film “Male and Female” with live musical accompaniment, followed by a conversation between Deborah Nadoolman Landis, director of UCLA’s Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design, and fashion and design historian, curator and author Michelle Tolini Finamore, on the uncredited costume designers for the film, including Clare West, Mitchell Leisen and Paul Iribe.
In-person screenings take place at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. (map). All programs are free through June 2024, thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor.
To view the full fall 2023 schedule, including additional programs and details, visit the UCLA Film & Television Archive events page.
