Presented by UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic the inaugural Oct. 2-3 Summit explores the past, present and future of social impact filmmaking, with this year’s program highlighting the legacy and continuing influence of TFT’s “Ripples of the L.A. Rebellion” initiative

LOS ANGELES, [September 2, 2026] — UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) and the Doc Film Legal Clinic (DFLC) in UCLA’s School of Law this fall convene a powerhouse group of filmmakers, scholars, alumni, students, attorneys and cultural leaders to examine the enduring impact of the L.A. Rebellion — and highlight its ongoing relevance to the future of socially engaged filmmaking.

In association with the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Social Impact Media Summit will be held October 2-3 at the James Bridges Theater. The program will pair the history and continuing influence of the L.A. Rebellion with conversations about social impact filmmaking today, including the changing documentary distribution landscape, impact campaigns, and the legal and practical structures that enable independent filmmakers to create and bring their work to audiences. The Summit will feature film screenings, Q&A sessions with filmmakers, presentations and panel discussions, as well as opportunities for networking and conversation across the filmmaking, legal and academic communities.

Featured speakers at the event include:

• Kimberlé Crenshaw, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Law and Promise Institute Chair in Human Rights
• Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Film, Television, and Digital Media, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
• Michael Waterstone, Dean and Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
• TFT Professors Kristy Guevara Flanagan, Juan Pablo Gonzalez, and Ellen Scott
• DFLC Professors Dale Cohen and Loralee Sundra
• Impact Investor and Philanthropist Sabrina Merage Naim
• Filmmakers Katja Esson and Benjamin Flaherty

The L.A. Rebellion was a social movement from the late 1960s through the early 1990s that emanated from the work of TFT faculty and students from UCLA’s Ethno-Communications Program. These visionaries invested in filmmaking that centered marginalized communities, challenged dominant representations and created new and needed forms of storytelling for Black, Asian American, Chicana/o and Native American artists.

“Over the last year at TFT, our community has been reflecting on the L.A. Rebellion, beyond a singular chapter in film history,” said Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Dean and Distinguished Professor of UCLA TFT. “It is an unfinished proposition about what cinema can do when marginalized artists have the freedom to author their own stories, informed by the responsibility to their communities. Its ripples are everywhere, including our extended campus community.”

The Summit will also explore how the L.A. Rebellion’s commitment to community-centered storytelling can inform a new generation of filmmakers working at the intersection of art, justice and social change. “This partnership between TFT and the DFLC, with support from the UCLA Film and Television Archive and its Director May Hong HaDuong, as well as UCLA Law’s Ziffren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law, acknowledges the necessity of a community coming together as we continue to travel the roadmap laid for us by L.A. Rebellion filmmakers.”

The Documentary Film Legal Clinic provides pro bono legal services to independent documentary filmmakers, including guidance on intellectual property, fair use, archival materials, contracts, privacy, defamation and First Amendment issues. Together, TFT and the DFLC, along with the featured speakers, will underscore a central principle of the social impact movement: meaningful transformation in cinema requires not only new stories and storytellers, but new structures for making, protecting, distributing and sustaining those stories.

“Legal considerations are an important part of independent filmmaking,” said Dale Cohen, Director of the UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic and Special Counsel at FRONTLINE. “The L.A. Rebellion reminds us that creative independence and community accountability are powerful forms of authorship. Our work is to help today’s filmmakers protect that authorship and bring their stories into the world.”

For TFT, honoring the L.A. Rebellion is ultimately an act of looking forward. The School’s documentary program continues to emphasize experimentation, collaboration, research and social impact, while its broader mission is to empower artists and scholars to create meaningful change through the dramatic and cinematic arts. Among the movement’s celebrated filmmakers are Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Haile Gerima, Billy Woodberry, Zeinabu Irene Davis, Sylvia Morales, Moctesuma Esparza, Duane Kubo and Robert Nakamura. Their films have become landmarks of American cinema, with several now preserved in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.

“We inherit a responsibility from the L.A. Rebellion to carry forward its courage, its generosity and its insistence that cinema can change the conditions under which people are seen and heard,” Shimizu said. “That is the work of the ripples: to recognize where the movement has traveled, and to ask where we will take it next in truly believing that better representations make better realities.”

Additional information about Ripples of the L.A. Rebellion, including upcoming programming and resources, is available on the UCLA TFT website.

About UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) is a premier global interdisciplinary professional school, dedicated to developing visionary creators, industry leaders and scholars whose diverse and innovative voices inspire change for a better world. Consistently ranked among the world’s top entertainment and performing arts institutions, TFT offers a dynamic curriculum advancing the study and creation of live performance, film, television, digital media, and emerging algorithmic technologies. Its distinguished bachelor’s and Master’s degrees span acting, directing, writing, producing, animation, cinematography, design (costume, lighting, set, and sound), and research-based professions in arts institutions and archives. TFT’s doctoral alumni in theater and performance studies, as well as cinema and media studies, teach at leading universities in the U.S. and around the world.

About the UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic

The UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic provides pro bono legal services to independent documentary filmmakers. Student practitioners work under the guidance of experienced media attorneys and assist filmmakers with intellectual property, fair use, archival materials, contracts, privacy, defamation, First Amendment and other legal matters essential to documentary production.

MEDIA CONTACTS

UCLA TFT: Jacquie Henderson | jhenderson@tft.ucla.edu 

UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic: Carra Greenberg | greenbergc@law.ucla.edu