Films & Media

Forever We Are Young by Patty Ahn
Grace Lee

From Seoul to Los Angeles, Texas to Mexico City, BTS ARMY is everywhere. FOREVER WE ARE YOUNG dives into the passionate fandom that catapulted the K-pop band BTS into a global household name. We meet fans at a BTS-focused ReactorCon in Lewisville, Texas, a dance teacher in Seoul that only teaches BTS choreography, and fans who’ve been organizing since 2013 to help BTS conquer the charts. Defying the stereotypes of pop fans, ARMY has evolved into an intergenerational, culturally savvy, and politically active movement that is as diverse as the world itself. FWAY captures the powerful spirit of activism and collectivity that make ARMY a symbol of hope and unity in our ever-fractured world.

31st San Diego Latino Film Festival

On Thursday, February 29, 2024, from 5:00pm to 7:30pm, attendees were treated to lite bites, drinks, and music as they gathered for a sneak peek of this year's film lineup and exciting celebrations, marking the 31st edition of the event. The occasion also offered press availability for media present, providing them with the opportunity to be among the first to interview directors, producers, guest artists, and the team behind the San Diego Latino Film Festival.

Pandemic Bread by Zeinabu Davis
Produced by Nicoletta Vangelisti

Pandemic Bread is a short dramatic film By Professor Zeinabu irene Davis about a Filipino interpreter taking an end-of-life call with a doctor and an elderly woman diagnosed with COVID in her quarantined hospital room. This is a story of resilience, agency, and hope told through the eyes of the interpreter who bakes bread during the call. The film involves a unique collaboration with the San Diego Filipino community, UCSD students, and film professionals. By coming together to creatively express COVID-related experiences, this film offers an artistic vehicle of catharsis to aid in collective healing. 

Limbo by Alex Fattal

Limbo (Cinema Guild 2019) profiles a guerrilla fighter who deserted from the FARC. The entire film takes place in the payload of truck transformed into a giant camera obscura, an oneiric, psychoanalytic space where up and down are unmoored and the protagonist must wrestle with his dueling identities as a perpetrator and a victim, conflicts that manifest in his devilish dreams and can only find some resolution with the help of indigenous medicine from Putumayo. The film has screened at Cinema du Reel, Sheffield DocFest, among other festivals, and has won awards and honorable mentions at the Latin American Studies Association Film Festival, BOGOShorts, and Panorama du Cinema Colombien.

Compensation by Zeinabu David inducted into National Film Registry

The UC San Diego Communication Department proudly celebrates Professor Zeinabu irene Davis as her groundbreaking film Compensation (1999) has been officially added to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. This prestigious recognition honors Compensation as a film of cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance, cementing its place in the canon of American cinema.

Compensation is a powerful and visually striking film that tells parallel love stories across two different time periods in Chicago—one set in the early 20th century and the other in the late 20th century. Through a unique storytelling approach inspired by silent-era Black filmmakers, the film follows the relationships between a deaf woman and a hearing man in each era, exploring themes of love, loss, accessibility, and the intersection of race and disability. By blending poetic intertitles with evocative imagery, Compensation offers a rare and vital perspective on the experiences of the Black Deaf community.

Chicano Park by Communication alums Raymond Velasquez, Aldo Sandoval, and Melissa Hernandez featured at San Diego Latino Film and Arts Festival

The film entitled, Chicano Park: From the Mind of a Conceptual Artist has already won Best Documentary in our Annual Media Production Showcase 2019 prompting them to share their work on a wider scale.

Raymond Velasquez, Aldo Sandoval, and Melissa Hernandez were inspired in part by the 1988 Chicano Park documentary directed by Marilyn Mulford and the famous artwork displayed in this San Diego landmark. They presented a history of the park from the perspective of muralist Salvador Torres and screened the film on Aug. 18 at La Bodega Gallery in Barrio Logan.

We Are Not Strangers Here: African American Histories in Rural California by Caroline Collins

Alumna and Bylo Chacon Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Caroline Collins premiered the first episode of a six-part Cal Ag Roots podcast which she wrote and produced, We Are Not Strangers Here: African American Histories in Rural California, on February 9th, 2021. This series highlights hidden histories of African Americans who have shaped California’s food and farming culture from early statehood to the present. Dr. Collins is not an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UCSD. 

Professor Zeinabu Davis' Films Premier on the Criterion Channel

Professor Zeinabu Davis’ collection of narrative films will premiered on January 20, 2021 on the Criterion Channel as well as an interview filmed by Communication graduate student Nikki Turner and undergraduate Moriah Hayes. Included in the new collection are the following films:

Features A Powerful Thang (1991), Compensation (1999)

Shorts Crocodile Conspiracy (1986), Cycles (1989), Mother of the River (1995)