UC Santa Barbara (Audio)

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]

The initial popularity, enduring legacy, and creative fan cultures surrounding The Sound of Music all arise in this discussion between Carsey-Wolf Center director Patrice Petro and Film and Media Studies professor Caryl Flinn (University of Michigan). Describing the film as about the joy of singing, Prof. Flinn positions The Sound of Music and its songs within the twilight of a golden era of film musicals. When discussing the legacy of the film, Prof. Flinn details the growth of sing-a-long The Sound of Music screening events and reveals her favorite fan revival, a Jewish communitys The Sound of Purim. Also covered in this talk are Christopher Plummers notorious distaste for the film and attacks on the film by cultural elites like Pauline Kael.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34287]

Race, gender, and union-busting violence all arise in this discussion of Debra Kopple’s iconic Harlan County, USA. Documentarian Betsy Taylor and historian Alice O’Connor (UC Santa Barbara) offer expert perspectives into connections between events and figures in Kopple’s film and broader environmental justice and labor struggles unfolding across the US in the early 1970s. In addition, Taylor’s intimate knowledge of this mining area enables her to offer rich detail about the local landscape, corporate land ownership, and crooked politics that form the foundation of this classic documentary. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 34290]

Shake On It, the musical, is a collaborative piece by students in UC Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies. Over the course of two quarters students from a variety of majors worked together to bring this concept to life. Collectively creating the music, script, and the set, undergraduates from across the UCSB campus gained valuable experience of the workshopping and play production process. Series: "Soundscape" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34064]

Author, Tova Mirvis reads from her memoir, The Book of Separation, which describes a woman who leaves her Orthodox Jewish faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain of a newly mapless world. She is the author of three novels and her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34065]

Author, Tova Mirvis reads from her memoir, The Book of Separation, which describes a woman who leaves her Orthodox Jewish faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain of a newly mapless world. She is the author of three novels and her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers. Series: "Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Show ID: 34065]

Overcoming gridlock to achieve solutions to society’s pressing problems usually requires compromise but around a quarter of legislators reject compromise proposals if they perceive that their voters – especially their primary voters - are likely to punish them for compromising. But political scientist Sarah Anderson shows that only a small slice of primary voters who oppose a particular policy really do punish compromise. Solutions that insulate legislators from the small groups of legislators who punish for compromise may allow legislators to more easily support a beneficial compromise. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 33940]

Across the tree of life, we can trace cancer vulnerabilities back to the origins of multicellularity. Cancer is observed in almost all multicellular phyla, including lineages leading to plants, fungi, and animals. However, species vary remarkably in their susceptibility to cancer. Amy Boddy (UCSB Integrated Anthropological Sciences Unit) discusses how this variation in cancer susceptibility is characterized by life history trade-offs, as cancer defense mechanisms are a major component of a body's maintenance. She also looks at how understanding these trade-offs in the context of evolution may help explain the variability we see in cancer susceptibility across human populations. Series: "Women in Science" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 34028]