| 2009
Fall 2008 Winter 2008 Winter 2007 2006 2005 Additional Projects |
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Bite Me |
With all the movies and television shows that are created, it is a rare phenomenon when one hits the mainstream with such force and influence, but such was the case for the movie "Twilight". Our goal in filming a documentary about this societal mania was to look deeper in terms of why the notions of eternal life, love and commitment were so powerful to people (mostly females) of all ages. This is a documentary that depicts an aspect of our society that perhaps we as a whole do not often look into; what is missing, what are we all yearning for and what do people really hope for in the grand scheme of things. Ironically, the fantasy of vampire culture, as we found, was a very relevant mirror that reflects the pulse of our modern culture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Undocumented Stories |
Undocumented Stories is a short documentary on media portrayals of undocumented migrants in the U.S. In it we explore the use of the term illegal alien, the criminalizing of undocumented migrants and the reasons behind these migration flows. |
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Inside the Digital Closet |
Inside the Digital Closet is a documentary that examines the way in which current popular media links the queer community with negative characteristics, such as promiscuity. As a result, current media engages in an influential relationship with its audience that creates harmful stereotypes that are essentially oppressive to the community.
We integrated reality television clips as well as scripted shows to exemplify this stereotypical portrayal, and incorporated interviews that help define, analyze and solve this problem. |
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Promoting Access, Equity, Academics, and Educational Excellence: |
The Center for Community College Partnerships is responsible for developing and strengthening academic partnerships between UCLA and California Community Colleges, particularly those in the UCLA service area. CCCP works with community college administrators and faculty to develop a campus wide transfer culture for all students, to strengthen and diversify the curriculum, to improve teaching pedagogy, to develop strong academic support programs, to increase the number of transfer-eligible community college students, to increase the diversity and academic competitiveness of the transfer applicant pool, and, ultimately, to increase the diversity of transfer students admitted to UCLA. |
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Red, White, and Black |
This documentary is a satire about the media's portrayal of the candidates in the 2008 Presidential Election. We incorporated clips from popular media and the internet along with interviews to get the view of the general public. |
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The Merit-ocracy of Education: |
Five high school seniors from the Los Angeles school system share their struggles, their successes and their aspirations for getting into a university that will accept them based on more than just their grades and test scores. Meanwhile, a professor at UCLA challenges the new Holistic Review admissions process that just may be taking race into consideration when looking at applicants, a factor that became illegal with Proposition 209 in 1996. |
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A Generation of Change: The Historic 2008 Presidential Election |
This short documentary explores the 2008 Presidential Election of Barack Obama through the eyes of four interviewees from different generations. It highlights the historic nature of the election as it relates to change made possible by the struggles of previous generations by engaging the past and present in dialogue. Interviewees discuss aspects of personal importance as well as their opinions of media coverage. The main message is that a change has occurred and, with the recognition that there is more to be done, will continue. Viewers are purposefully left to interpret the meaning and aspects of change for themselves. |
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Sanctity of Marriage |
The purpose of this film is to present the multiple dimensions of ideology and resistance regarding same sex marriages. The use of critical media literacy is used in this film as a tool to illustrate the hypocrisy and absurdity of those that argue that same sex marriages threaten the "sanctity of marriage". This film will demonstrate the flaws with this argument and visually articulate the complexities regarding this issue. |
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Muslim Women: Constructed Representations (2006) |
The documentary depicts how images are used to perpetuate a one-dimensional infantilized view of Muslim women, and then expands the perspectives multi-dimensionally. |
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Are You Black Enuf? The Politics of the Black Female Identity (2007) |
Societal constructs and implicit stereotypes of black women have created a definition of "blackness" far removed from reality. What does it mean to be "Black Enuf" in the 21st century? And what are the assumptions placed upon black women? Our film seeks to explore the meaning of "blackness" in regards to the black female experience and examine the intersectional identity of black women who face multiple oppressions due to race, sex and class and culture. Another theme that is visited is the impact of the media on how black men have been conditioned to view black women in negative ways and how this internalization has been perpetuated. We hope that our film eradicates myths and stereotypes circulated by the media and causes us all to think about the politics of the black female identity. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Terror ON the Air: Muslim Misrepresentation in the Media. |
Following the events of September 11, 2001, a media onslaught ensued aimed at an entire religion. Terror ON the Air analyzes the Nation of Islam and the politics of how that group is represented in the media, especially post 9/11. The video discusses how people of color have been historically represented in the media, the dangers of certain representations and how important language and critical media literacy are. This video is small effort to highlight these issues while we continue waiting on the world to change. |
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Girl Geek ? |
There is a prevalent stereotype of "geek" within our society and media. While a diverse and complex set of individuals, both men and women, self identify as geeks in real life, media portrayals are usually focused on the male geek. This short documentary explores the lives and media portrayals of female geeks. |
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Now Showing Gender |
Now Showing Gender will explore the role media plays in the socialization of femininity and masculinity. Media, more specifically advertisements and reality TV shows, have limiting definitions of masculinity and femininity. They promote societal ideals of masculinity by portraying males as dominant and agressive and cultivate ideals of femininity by depicting females as passive and subservient among other things. This counter hegemonic short-video montage will not only expose how media promotes these cultural ideas but will also reveal how individuals are socialized to take on certain roles. Similiar to other activist media, this video will shed light on the prevalent themes and messages hidden within advertisements and reality tv shows. |
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Modelize Me |
Modelize Me takes a critical look at the danger of the fad diet, the "Master Cleanse." We also look into the affects that the recent growth in blogs and real-life images of overly skinny celebrities can influence people's perception of what is a healthy way to loose weight. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Hey: Where'd all my Money Go? |
This film takes a look at the widespread outrage over escalating textbook prices for college students. For any student who has ever wondered where their hundreds of dollars go every quarter, this film is not to be missed. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
VOTING IN BLACK & WHITE: Politics of Race & Gender in |
Historically, the political power and landscape in America which covers the past 200 years has been ruled by white men. How much has really changed over the past 200 years in regard to race and gender in American Politics? Our film will explore the division of race and gender and portray the political discourse including the Post Re-Construction Era and the Suffrage Movement to the 2008 Presidential Election. We hope our film will categorize historic political change as well as capture how the media's hegemonic culture influences Voters, Candidates and American Politics. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
The Great Imbalance |
"The Great Imbalance" is a short documentary that explores America's unhealthy relationship with food. In particular, we focus on two groups – anorexic women and the homeless – in order to juxtapose how both suffer from extreme malnutrition and serious health problems for two very different reasons: while the former chooses not to eat, the latter cannot choose the kinds of foods that they can eat. With this film, we want to explore the reasons behind the existence of these problems that will hopefully spark action for America to tackle these issues, and, in the end, have a much healthier relationship with food. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Color of Invisible- Latinas in the American Media
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The Color of Invisible- Latinas in the American Media examines the invisibility and misrepresentation of Latinas in television and movies. It focuses on Eurocentric standards of beauty and body image as well as the essentialized, stereotypical imagery of those Latinas who are portrayed. The film looks at the effects of these pervasive images on identity formation in young Latina women. |
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'Staging Resistance' |
'Staging Resistance' is a video documentary that examines the current impact of women in the counter-culture music scene in Los Angeles. The video addresses the importance of having a space within which to challenge traditional, mainstream ideals of music and performance, which historically, have been male-dominated. Using the stage as a site of resistance to heterosexist, patriarchal norms and expectations, we look to two Los Angeles-based bands and one DJ who all have a particular approach to artistic and musical expression. The video aims to highlight the social significance of female artists specifically, who contribute to counter-hegemonic resistance by subverting gender role expectations and create a sense of community among musicians and audiences alike. |
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The Continuum: Hip Hop |
Hip Hop is a continuum of a movement evolving from the civil rights era. It is continuously evolving with each generation as a voice narrating their realities. It is an emerging culture that will never die just simply evolve with the new generation of hip hoppers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hair Peace |
An alternative media project exposing the realities of women's hair issues, questioning the stereotypical images presented in the media and the related societal expectations. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Deconstructing the Superhero: American Idols in Film |
This film offers insights into the superhero genre including the reasons people like them, their relationship to religious iconography, the importance of the dual identity and direct political themes. These include the anti-democratic narrative structure of many of the films, their proximity to social anxiety and desire and transgressive and utopian traces in the films. We use a combination of interviews, images and movie clips to deconstruct the films. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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[projected masc] |
For most, secondary sources define our "experience" of war. Technically, it is often secondary sources from other secondary sources (for example, a person creating a first-person shooter video game when their only experience of war is through a fictional movie depicting war). With each added filter, we become exponentially detached from war as anything but an ideological fad.
We did not attempt to deconstruct these filters. Rather, the interviews were done through an added filter of projected war images. Projecting images of war onto four men, we asked them to project back to us their relationship to war, militarism, politics, and masculinity. [projected masc] did not begin with an ideological goal. We didn't set out to prove or disprove a theory, merely to explore a process. |
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Has The Media Killed Feminism? |
The purpose of our film is to juxtapose current understandings of feminism within the media and see if that correlates with ordinary peoples understanding of the topic. Because feminism is often misunderstood or portrayed negatively, it was our goal to see how much of this negativity comes from pop-culture (read: mass media’s) portrayal of it.
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My Crown and Glory This satirical project juxtoposes "minorities' hair and non-traditional white hairstyles , hair color and hair texture to mainstream white America's standards of beauty with regards to hair. This production also includes cameos by celebrities and political figures.
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Commodifying Lolita:
Commodifying Lolita: The Hypersexualization of "Tweens" in America by highlighting the influence of celebrities, entertainers and fashion marketing, "Commodifying Lolita" examines the hypersexualization of young, American girls between the ages of 8 and 12. The film investigates media and advertisers and raises the idea of the connection between the hypersexualization of young girls and the prevalence of pedophilia in America. Our film questions why a society that claims to oppose pedophilia and child pornography seems to market images that promote the sexual exploitation of young girls. |
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A Question of Voice: Moving from Object to Subject Los Angeles, a bustling metropolis of over ten million people, is currently composed of almost 50% Latinos and Latinas. Yet despite comprising nearly half the population, their voices are seldom heard in the mainstream media, and their lives are often absent or stereotypically portrayed. In downtown Los Angeles, a group of mothers at Leo Politi Elementary School are meeting each week for an autobiography-writing class called the Family Album Writing Workshop. While learning elements of the writing process—such as prewriting, editing, and revision—the women also have the opportunity to share their stories with each other, and to gain strength from their collective experiences |
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Illuminations Website The Illuminations Web page is an effort to politicize and disseminate the thought of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt school and to point to new trajectories that have taken place in this tradition. The Illuminations web page has retained all of the valuable resources of the former Illuminations web site while also enhancing the original intent of the Illuminations web site by providing new information and resources on the so called Third Generation of the Critical Theory tradition. This new mapping of Critical Theory highlights its advances in fields such as Feminist Theory, Critical Theory of Race, Critical Prison Studies, Postcolonial studies, and education. Moreover, the illuminations web site offers a multimedia archive that will have important and interesting discussions and interviews with critical theorists and educational theorists such as Herbert Marcuse, Ivan Illich, and Paulo Freire. Students and researchers will be able to access essays and multimedia archives from a site that situates Critical Theory in a historical framework that allows visitors to view a genealogy of the thought of Critical Theory. Illuminations will thus serve as an indispensable resource for researchers and students who are working in the field of social theory. (2004)
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Thinking From Women Lives: Sandra Harding, Standpoint & Science "In one sense all feminist work uses standpoint; it all starts from the lives of women. That's what makes it feminist." Sandra Harding is a Professor of Social Sciences and Comparative Education in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences. Harding, Standpoint Theory, and her contributions to it are taught in women's studies and philosophy courses around the world. Harding work in feminist philosophy and science studies has been groundbreaking and her substantial body of published work includes The Science Question In Feminism (1986), Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking From Women’s Lives (1991), Is Science Multicultural?: Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies (1998), and Science and Social Inequality: Feminist and Postcolonial Issues (Race and Gender in Science) (2006). Thinking from Women's Lives: Sandra Harding, Standpoint, and Science is an educational video designed for the undergraduate classroom. This video frames standpoint epistemology with broader connections to multiple feminist concepts making it not only a portrayal of Sandra Harding's work but an informative introduction to the field of women's studies as well. Featuring interviews with and a lecture by Sandra Harding, this video gives an overview of how Standpoint Theory came about, its history and applications, its relation to science, and how it is still useful today. Says feminist theorist and critical media literacy expert, Dr. Rhonda Hammer of the project, As Professor Harding explains it in this video: "To do research that's for women is to make women subjects of history and knowledge." Interviewing her was an amazing experience, says video creator Loran Marsan, who was immediately captivated by Harding's charisma and ability to explain not only complex feminist theory and her own work within it but also concepts about the philosophy of science and the field of science studies. Indeed, according PhD graduate student Saru Matambanadzo, who employs Harding's ideas and writings in her own research and is interviewed in this video "She is truly one of the rock stars of feminist theory." Loran Marsan is a doctoral student in UCLA's Women's Studies Department. Her research interests include cultural studies, film theory, queer theory, and postcolonial studies, as well as film production. She produced this video under the advisement of Professor Rhonda Hammer with funds from the Graduate Summer Mentorship Program and the Department of Women's Studies |