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Send us your news... Support the Arts Any Questions? © UC Santa Cruz |
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 Loren Steck, Julia Burke, Sebastian Burke, and faculty advisor Larry Andrews |
Burke said he pursued his project because nobody is his film classes had heard of Feynman—a Nobel prize-winning scientist, renowned for his maverick lifestyle and popular books on mathematics and physics. Feynman assisted in the development of the atomic bomb and was a prominent member of the panel that investigated the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
“The film is about Feynman's view of science and his relation to the atomic bomb,” said Burke. “I thought it was interesting that after the atomic bomb was created, Feynman thought the world was going to end in the near future. Going into the project I wanted to know why he thought that way.”
Burke’s 10-minute film weaves several of Feynman’s short stories and anecdotes together as it portrays the physicist’s time at Los Alamos National Laboratory. To view the film online go to:
http://fdmsoftserve.ucsc.edu/videoarchive/showvideo.php?film=404
For more information about the Film and Digital Media department, please contact [email protected].
Renowned Moroccan filmmaker visits UCSC
Renowned Moroccan film director Moumen Smihi presented his film A Muslim Childhood (Le gosse de Tanger) in a special 35mm screening in the Media Theater on Oct. 23. Smihi was a guest in the Film and Digital Media course, Film 20A, and the program was co-sponsored by the Arab Film Festival, which just finished its run in San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose. The festival has a history of programming events with schools and universities in the Bay Area, but this year was the first time it had offered a film screening in conjunction with UC Santa Cruz.
 A still from Moumen Smihi’s A Muslim Childhood |
Smihi’s career as a director spans more than 30 years, making him one of the most eminent figures in Moroccan cinema. Educated in Morocco and France, Smihi studied cinema at the influential IDHEC (Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques) in Paris, and took seminars with Roland Barthes. In his highly influential films, beginning in the 1970s, Smihi was instrumental in creating a new cinema in Northern Africa in the wake of decolonization. His film A Muslim Childhood is a nostalgic vision of Tangiers in the 1950s, and follows a young Arab boy’s formative years in the multicultural milieu of French, Spanish, and North African peoples.
Smihi introduced his film by talking about directors and writers who had inspired him, growing up in Tangiers. Among the major influences he cited was the work of Alfred Hitchcock, and particularly his film Vertigo (1958), which was shot in San Francisco and in the Santa Cruz mountains. He was thrilled to discover the “Hitchcockian” redwoods on campus.
Film and digital media professor Peter Limbrick, who hosted Smihi on campus, said he was the ideal guest for Film 20A, because of his strong knowledge of film history and forms and his pivotal role in Arab and North African film. He added that Smihi was delighted to discover so many students passionate to learn about film.
The Film and Digital Media department hosted another international visitor the week following Smihi’s visit. Mark Williams, New Zealand Film Archive curator, presented a collection of works by influential New Zealand filmmaker Len Lye at the department’s colloquium.
Please contact Peter Limbrick at [email protected] for more information about his work with Moumen Smihi.
Lynn to attend 2008 Beijing International Congress on Women in Music
Music graduate student Monica Lynn has been invited to attend the 2008 Beijing International Congress on Women in Music in April at The China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China. In addition, her musical composition Han-ji, for Korean gayageum, has been chosen for performance, at the event. The composition was previously performed at the UCSC April in Santa Cruz Festival (April 14-29, 2007) and at the Festival for Korean Gayageum and Western Instruments in Seoul, South Korea (June 16-23, 2007).
Recent performances of works by Monica Lynn include premieres by the New York Miniaturist Ensemble at the Brooklyn Center for Contemporary Music in New York, the Monterey County Composers Forum in Salinas, Calif., and the Composers Performance Ensemble of the National Association of Composers USA at the Palo Alto Arts Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
For information about how you can support students like Monica Lynn within the Music department, please contact Matt Henry at [email protected].
Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
Sesnon featured Guantanamo exhibit
“Guantanamo: Pictures from Home,” which featured the work of Margot Herster, ran from from Sept. 27 to Dec. 1 at the Sesnon Gallery.
A professional photographer, installation artist and graduate of the School of Visual Art in New York, Herster created the presentation of images, text, video and audio that “offers a visual history of an unseen place.”
Herster’s show chronicled the journey that Guantanomo Bay detainees’ lawyers went on in order to gain the trust of their clients. These lawyers traveled throughout the Middle East, photographing detainees’ families, as well as bringing notes and photographs of the detainees to their families.
In addition to the show, Herster presented and lectured to Kresge’s core class of 390 students in October.
The exhibition and lecture were sponsored by Kresge College, Porter College, the Charles Griffin Farr Fund, and the UCSC Alumni Association Distinguished Visiting Professor Program.
The Distinguished Visiting Professor program is designed to enrich undergraduate education at UCSC by providing financial support to enable the campus to bring a person of academic distinction for a quarter in each academic year.
For more information about the Sesnon Gallery, please contact Shelby Graham at [email protected].
