The Departments of Feminist Studies and Film + Digital Media and the Graduate Program in Social Documentation Present:

WILDNESS

a film by Wu Tsang

Screening and Discussion with director Wu Tsang and co-writer Roya Rastegar

Reception to follow screening and discussion
ABOUT THE FILM

Rooted in the tropical underground of Los Angeles nightlife, WILDNESS is a documentary portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic bar in the MacArthur Park area that has been home for Latin/LGBT immigrant communities since 1963. With a magical realist flourish, the bar itself becomes a character, narrating what happens when a group of young artists create a weekly performance art/dance party (organized by director Wu Tsang and DJs NGUZUNGUZU & Total Freedom) called Wildness, which explodes into creativity and conflict.

What does “safe space” mean, and who needs it? And how does it differ among us? At the Silver Platter, the search for answers to these questions creates coalitions across generations.

The film will be screened in conjunction with Prof. Marcia Ochoa’s courses FMST 41 and Soc Doc 204, and to foster campus dialogue on Transgender Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.

Feminist Studies wishes to make this program accessible to people with disabilities. If you have disability-related needs, please contact Marti Stanton at (831) 459-3981.

This event is free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

WU TSANG is a filmmaker, artist, and performer based in Los Angeles. As a transgendered second-generation Chinese American, he explores human stories at at the intersection of complex identities. He was named one of 2012’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine. His first feature WILDNESS won the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary at Outfest 2012 [World Premiere: MoMA Documentary Fortnight (New York, NY), SXSW (Austin, TX), Hot Docs (Toronto, Canada), SANFIC8 (Santiago, Chile)]. WILDNESS was also featured with a companion multi-channel video installation called /GREEN ROOM at the 2012 Whitney Biennial.

ROYA RASTEGAR is a writer and curator living in Los Angeles. She received a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness, from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Through the guidance of advisors Angela Y. Davis and B. Ruby Rich, her scholarship traces the productive conflicts and coalitions that flourish within cultural spaces. She has curated within both film and art contexts. She was a Curatorial Fellow at the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program in 2008-9, a Director of the Santa Cruz Women of Color Film & Video Festival, and has participated in the programming of a number of film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and as a Programmer at the Tribeca Film Festival from 2008-2011. She has served on the juries of Outfest and the Santiago Festival International de Cine. Rastegar is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Women at UCLA, and writes about film and performance for various publications. Her current book project offers a critical study of American film festivals and the radical possibilities of film and new media curatorial practices. WILDNESS is her feature film writing debut.
Cosponsored by the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Arts Division; the Office of Campus Life and Dean of Students; El Centro – Chicano Latino Resource Center; the Cantú Queer Center; Kresge College; the UC Presidential Chair in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies; and the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies.