Humanities (Audio)

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Josh Singer (Spotlight, The Post) discusses First Man (2018) with Matt Ryan as part of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Script to Screen series. Singer talks about the depth of research necessary to write the screenplay for First Man, including the creative challenges involved in portraying Neil Armstrong who was known for being a man of few words in a film that also has long stretches of minimalistic dialogue, much of which was taken directly from Apollo 11 mission transcripts. Singer comments on his shared desire with director Damien Chazelle for maximum historical accuracy, and the challenges this presented when accounts and recollections of the events sometimes differed in detail. Singer mentions his extensive work consulting with those who were actually present during the mission and depicted in the film, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the family of Neil Armstrong, and other members of NASA.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34339]

With its extreme sex, violence, and gore, Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein has alternately excited, disgusted, and baffled audiences for decades. In this conversation, media Professor Bliss Cua Lim (UC Irvine) and film and media graduate student Rachael Ball (UC Santa Barbara) unpack and celebrate this exceptional movie. Lim and Ball describe the production, release, and response to Flesh for Frankenstein, noting its connections to Italy’s Cinecitta studios, Andy Warhol’s Factory, and the mainstream success of X-rated films in the mid-1970s. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34362]

Lester Friedman, Professor of Media and Society at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, joins moderator Patrice Petro in a Q&A discussion of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974). They cover the production, style, and influences at work in Brooks’ adaptation. Part of the Frankenstein: Afterlives series, this Q&A emphasizes the ways Brook’s film references James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and Mary Shelley's original novel. Young Frankenstein is faithful to the form and production technology of Whale’s version, while seeking to return more closely to the themes developed by Shelly’s original work. Friedman discusses the way Brooks’ adaptation, through comedy, returns to questions of science, ethics, and sexuality in ways that reference Shelly but update them for 1970s audiences—speaking to the politics of marginality and social change. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34295]

Marsha Kinder, Professor of Cinematic Arts at USC, joins moderator Cristina Venegas, Professor of Film and Media Studies at UCSB, for a discussion of Víctor Erice’s 1973 directorial debut, The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena). Their conversation addresses the significance of Spirit of the Beehive in terms of the history of Spanish cinema, and particularly its production at the end of the Franco Era in Spain and its setting at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Part of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Frankenstein: Afterlives series, Kinder also addresses the significance of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as an influence for the film, as well as Whale’s 1931 film Frankenstein, which appears and motivates characters in Erice’s Film. This discussion situates Spirit of the Beehive in the history of Spanish dictatorship and as an allegory for life under fascism.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34296]

In the opening conversation within the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Frankenstein: Afterlives film series, CWC director Patrice Petro and English professor Julie Carlson (UC Santa Barbara) discuss the life of Mary Shelley and the representation of her views and career in director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s new biopic, Mary Shelley. During the discussion, professors Petro and Carlson cover the film’s feminist elements and the historical connections Mary Shelley had with literature, science, and philosophy.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34291]

Science and humanities professor Colin Milburn (UC Davis) and graduate student Wesley Jacks (UC Santa Barbara) explore the legacy of James Whale’s iconic Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Their talk touches on key similarities and differences between Bride, Whale’s earlier Frankenstein (1931) film, and the original Mary Shelley novel. In addition to exploring the narrative and formal components of each, Milburn and Jacks draw out the ethical conflicts that span and separate each text. Their discussion touches on the legacy of the film within the sci-fi genre, its still-compelling queer components, and the film’s position within the sub-genre of gothic horror. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34292]

Our lifespans are ever-increasing, but our healthspans are not, leading to long periods of unpleasant and expensive suffering with chronic conditions. Many of these conditions have recently been linked to the microbiome. We are constantly shaping our microbiomes through the foods we eat, the environments we experience, even the people we live and work with. Through the American Gut Project, the largest crowdsourced and crowdfunded citizen-science project yet conducted, we now know about the microbiomes of many types of people, from the healthiest to the sickest. Potentially real-time analysis of our microbiomes could guide our daily decisions in a way that optimizes our microbiomes for extending our healthspan. Although the potential benefits of such research are clear, what are the risks (e.g., privacy concerns) that need to be identified and addressed? Rob Knight, PhD explains. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Health and Medicine] [Humanities] [Show ID: 33713]

A conversation with Tamer El Said, Director of In the Last Days of the City (2016), and UCSB Film and Media Studies Professor, Laila Shereen Sakr. Discussion covers El Saids work filming In the Last Days of the City. Shot between 2006 and 2008, the years leading up to the Egyptian Revolution, the film reflects a growing tension in Ciaro. El Siad comments on trying to capture his sense of the city on film in a way that seeks to express the feeling of being on the brink of changeespecially when this change hasn't happened yet. This conversation emphasizes the difficulty of capturing and representing a city on film, and particularly of producing a film that represents a feeling of impending social upheaval. El Said discusses the significance of his film and his experience and influences that shaped the process of producing beforeand editing afterthe events of the Arab Spring.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34289]

In this Q&A conversation Debra Granik, director and co-writer of Leave No Trace (2018), is joined by moderator and Pollock Theater Director Matt Ryan. The event is part of the Carsey-Wolf Centers Script to Screen series and covers the development of the film and its adaptation from Mindy Mejias novel of the same name. Granik discusses how characters and story were reworked for the film, the research that she did in preparation, and the ways the film seeks to represent family relationships and post-traumatic stress disorder. The conversation also covers the production process, the significance of the films setting in Oregon, and the actors preparations for their roles. Granik is also the director of Winters Bone (2010) and this Q&A draws comparisons between her work on these two films. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34294]

A Q&A session with Co-Directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen of the documentary RGB (2018). Cohen and West discuss their work researching and producing RBG, which profiles the career of Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The session, moderated by UCSB English Professor Jeannine DeLombard, covers the production and reception of the film, its significance in the current political climate, and Ginsburgs Legacy as a Justice. Betsy West is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker, journalist, and educator, known for her work on Nightline, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours. She is a professor of journalism at Columbia University. Julie Cohen is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and producer. She has also worked as a producer for NBC News and is Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Columbia University. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34288]