As the academic year gets under way... ...we're excited to welcome new faculty and spotlight the work of others, to applaud the talent of our students and the ingenuity of our alumni. How are you doing? Be sure to let us know. Drop us a line at communications@tft.ucla.edu.
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Welcome, Professors!
Award-winning lighting designer Lap Chi Chu and esteemed scholars Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli and Amy Villarejohave joined the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television as tenured faculty. [Read more]
Strange Coincidence
Writer, director and professor Gina Kim's latest VR film, Tearless, is a story she's been thinking about for years. Set in South Korea and recently filmed there (yes, during COVID-19), there are unexpected parallels between her project and the pandemic. [Read more]
Audiobooks to the Rescue
In the early days of the pandemic, like so many others around the U.S., TFT alum Michael Bauer (MFA ’20) was faced with the prospect of being without a job. That all changed when he started narrating audiobooks for Amazon's Audible. [Read more]
Writing Science Fact
Six graduate screenwriters have been named winners in the latest round of Sloan Foundation Awards, which reward feature screenplays that contain real or plausible science in their storylines. [Read more]
City at the Edge of Forever: Los Angeles Reimagined (Viking 2020), an engaging account of the uniquely creative spirit and bustling cultural ecology of contemporary Los Angeles, comes from author and UCLA Design Media Arts professor Peter Lunenfeld (PhD ’94).
Publishers Weekly says the novel The Mighty Oak (Blackstone Publishing, 2020), written by Jeff Bens (MFA ’92) is “filled with memorable characters, pungent dialogue, and a lean, hard-bitten writing style.”
Charles Domokos (MFA ’71) has worked with indie publisher Black Rose Writing to put out his L.A.-based legal thriller Walking With the Dead (June 2020).
Felicia D. Henderson (MFA ’04, CPH ’08) is the showrunner and co-writer for Netflix’s new young adult vampire series First Kill.
Reina Higashitani (MFA ’19, Frog Catcher) and graduate filmmaker Greg Armstrong (The Art of Survival) were finalists in the KCET Fine Cut Festival of Films.
Professor Teri Schwartz (BA ’71) and Executive Board Member Eric Esrailian (MPH ’06) are executive producers of the documentary Francesco.
Stolen at Birth?
In Where She Lies,the first feature documentary from Zach Marion (MFA '16) and Emma Kragen’s (MFA '15) Zemma Prods., a deathbed confession leads a Tennesee woman on a quest to find the daughter she was told had died at birth. The film starts streaming Tuesday, Nov. 10.
What Is Humor?
Theater Professor Dominic Taylor contemplates the question “What Is Humor?” on Monday, Nov. 16 as UCLA Arts' 10 Questions: Reckoning series continues. Prior to his presentation, listen to Taylor in conversation on the UCLA Arts podcast Works in Progress, Wednesday, Nov. 11.
