UC Santa Barbara (Video)

Bernard-Henri Levy visited the UCSB campus to discuss his new book The Genius of Judaism. In this provocative book he demonstrates that anti-Semitism, constitutes the greatest danger to Jews and non-Jews alike, and to liberal democracies. And, at the same time he offers a challenging argument that the nature or essence of Judaism is located in Talmud and its interpreters, not as an on-going discourse about norms of behavior and structures of belief, but of critical engagement, on-going inquiry, of intellectual, philosophical, and moral challenges, in which Judaism and Jewish identity is to be realized in an obligation to the other, to the dispossessed, to the marginalized. Series: "Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 31923]

Film preservationist James Katz and Tom Pollock, former Executive Vice President of MCA and Chairman of Universal Pictures, discuss the restoration of "Vertigo" with Charles Wolfe, UCSB Professor of Film & Media Studies. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32131]

The Last Aristocrats is a film based on a short story by Kenneth Pai, UCSB Professor Emeritus. It follows four young Chinese women from elite Shanghai families who become stranded in the US when the communists take over Shanghai in 1948. Professor Pai, is joined by Professor Michael Berry of UCLA's Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 31925]

Writer/producer/director Theodore Melfi, actor Kevin Costner and president of Fox 2000 Pictures, Elizabeth Gabler discuss the Oscar-nominated film based on the true story about three brilliant African-American women working on John Glenn's launch into orbit at NASA. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 31924]

Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. In addition to his investing efforts, Feld has been active with several non-profit organizations. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 31659]

Arrival screenwriter and executive producer Eric Heisserer talks about adapting the the award-winning short story by Ted Chiang to the big screen. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 31914]

Director Madhusree Dutta and UCSB Department of Film and Media Studies Professor Bhaskar Sarkar discuss the film "7 Islands and a Metro," a fascinating documentary on Bom Bahia / Bombay / Mumbai. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 31806]

Short films often rely on film festivals for a larger audience. Learn about film festival shorts programming and curation with Tribeca Film Festival's vice president of filmmaker relations and long-time head of shorts programming Sharon Badal. Sharon is joined on the panel by Greg Goggin (Director) and Joe Toronto (Producer). Cynthia Felando, UCSB Professor of Film and Media Studies, moderates. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 31805]

How did Zionist immigrants to early 20th century Palestine conceive of their new Arab neighbors, and how did the Arab natives make sense of the Jews arriving on Palestine’s shores? Drawing on his book Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter, Jonathan Marc Gribetz argues that this fateful encounter was initially imagined very differently from the way it ultimately developed. The Late Ottoman period in Palestine was no utopia, but exploring this moment reveals that today’s hardened dividing lines are far from timeless; they have a fascinating history. Series: "Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 31660]

Anna Lappé looks at the hidden cost of our food system: the climate crisis. Our web of global food production and distribution is connected to as much as one third of total greenhouse-gas emissions. She offers a vision of a food system that can be part of healing the planet. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 31713]