Arts Events

Art

UCSC alums Eric Brown and Sam Imperatrice are collecting AOL Cds and plastic bags for the year-long “Accumulation Project.”

Brown, Imperatrice participate in ‘Accumulation Project’

Eric Brown (Porter College, Art, 1998) and Sam Imperatrice (Porter College, Art and Anthropology, 2000) are participants in the “Accumulation Project,” the flagship effort of Other Leading Brand. The endeavor has 19 accumulators collecting things such as voicemail messages, soap, mattresses, gum and post-it notes over the course of a year (September 1, 2005 to September 1, 2006). The accumulated items were used as source materials for a December exhibition at Lunarbase Gallery in Brooklyn. A second exhibition will take place after the end of the accumulation period.

Brown is hard at work collecting as many AOL CDs as possible. In this effort, he has enlisted the help of friends and strangers through word-of-mouth, emails, craigslist.com, freecycle.com and other social networks. He is using the CDs to build “Pillars of Decency” to highlight the wastefulness of this form of advertisement. If you would like to contribute to Brown’s CDs, send them to Eric Brown at 93 Bright Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302.

Meanwhile, Imperatrice is accumulating all the plastic shopping bags she finds on the street each time she goes outside. She is keeping a record of how many bags are accumulated each day.

Other Leading Brand was founded in 2005 by three New Yorkers with educational backgrounds in the fine arts and professional experience in production management, design and community organizing. For more information about the “Accumulation Project,” visit www.accumulationproject.org.


Film & Digital Media

Jacob Estes spent nearly a decade writing and producing the award-winning feature film “Mean Creek.”

Estes, Olds visit campus for public screenings

Last month Jacob Estes (Merrill College, 1994) and Ian Olds (Stevenson College, Film & Video, 1998) visited the UCSC campus for public screenings of their recent feature films.

Estes spent nearly a decade developing the script and producing "Mean Creek," which was released by Paramount Classics in 2004. The film follows a group of teenagers on a birthday boat trip that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Estes also won the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for the "Mean Creek" script. The film received the 2005 John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, a 2004 Humanitas Prize and an award for Best Directorial Debut at the 2004 Stockholm Film Festival.

Estes began writing and filmmaking while attending UCSC, where he was given The Dean's Award for the Arts for the script and production of his one-act play "Leigh's Outrunning Her Mefa and Pefa Tonight." He earned a master's degree in Film Directing at The American Film Institute.

He was selected twice to develop his scripts at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference under the artistic direction of Lloyd Richards. In 1997, he wrote, produced and directed a short film called "Positive" which premiered at The Frameline Film Festival and went on to play at festivals around the country and the world.

His recent projects include writing a script titled "Nearing Grace" for director Rick Rosenthal. He also has been working on an original script for director Rob Reiner with Castle Rock Films and Warner Brothers Independent.

Olds visited the UCSC campus days before "Occupation: Dreamland" won the Truer Than Fiction Award for emerging documentary directors at the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards on March 4. The film, a collaboration of director/producer Garrett Scott and director/editor Olds, follows a squad of American soldiers into the Iraq city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. During the filming of “Occupation: Dreamland,” Olds and Scott lived with the Army’s 82nd Airborne division.

Olds also edited and co-wrote “Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story,” which premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired for broadcast by The Sundance Channel in 2004 and ARTE-France in 2005. “Two Men,” a short narrative film directed by Olds, premiered at the 2005 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. He received his MFA from Columbia University’s film division in 2005.

Filmmaker Scott died two days before he and Olds were recognized with the Truer Than Fiction Award. He suffered a cardiac arrhythmia while swimming. Working Films, a 501(c)(3) has offered to collect tax-deductible donations to create a fund to honor Garrett Scott. For more information, visit www.occupationdreamland.com.


UCSC alum offers sneak peek of 'Nanny McPhee'

In January, the UCSC Alumni Association presented a free sneak preview of Universal Pictures' family movie, "Nanny McPhee," starring Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Angela Lansbury. The screening was made possible by the film's producer, Lindsay Doran (Merrill College, Creative Studies, 1970).

The UCSC Alumni Association presented a free sneak preview of “Nanny McPhee” in January.

"Nanny McPhee" is a dark and witty fable in which Thompson portrays a person of unsettling appearance and magical powers. She enters the household of the recently widowed Mr. Brown (Firth) and attempts to tame his seven exceedingly ill-behaved children. The children have managed to drive away 17 previous nannies and are certain that they will have no trouble with this one. But as Nanny McPhee takes control, they begin to notice that their vile behavior now leads swiftly and magically to rather startling consequences.

The film marks producer Doran’s third collaboration with Academy Award-winning actress Emma Thompson during a Hollywood career that has now spanned more than two decades. After graduating from UCSC in 1970, Doran lived in England before moving to Los Angeles in 1979. As vice president of creative affairs at Embassy Pictures, she served as the executive in charge of production on two films directed by Rob Reiner—"This is Spinal Tap" (her first film credit) and "The Sure Thing."

Doran joined Paramount Pictures in 1985, where she oversaw the development and production of such films as "Pretty in Pink;" "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off;" "Planes, Trains & Automobiles;” “The Naked Gun;” “Pet Sematary;” and “Ghost.” She left Paramount in 1989 to join Sydney Pollack’s Mirage Enterprises, where she produced “Sense and Sensibility,” written by Thompson and directed by Ang Lee.

“Sense and Sensibility” won the Golden Globe award for Best Picture and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay by Thompson. It was also nominated for six other Academy Awards, including Best Picture and received the Best Film award given by the British Academy of Film and Theater Arts (BAFTA). While at Mirage, Doran additionally served as executive producer on “The Firm” and “Sabrina,” both directed by Sydney Pollack.

In 1996, Doran became president and CEO of United Artists Pictures, where she presided over production of the James Bond movies “Tomorrow Never Dies” and “The World Is Not Enough.” She also oversaw the “Man in the Iron Mask” and “Ronin,” as well as the remake of the “Thomas Crown Affair.”

Doran left United Artists in 1999 and resumed her career as a producer. She is currently the president of Three Strange Angels Inc., a motion picture production company based at Sony Pictures.


History of Art & Visual Culture

HAVC grad studies archeological risk in Italy

Ainslie Harrison  (Porter College, History of Art & Visual Culture, 2004) is currently in Italy on a Fulbright grant. She is working with the Medieval Archaeology lab at the University of Venice on a project to produce a GIS-based map of archaeological risk for the Venetian lagoon. Harrison also is re-applying to the Master’s of Art Conservation Program at Queen's University, Ontario, Canada. She turned down a place in the program the previous year to continue her studies in Italy.


Music

Weintraub’s book documents 20 years of fieldwork

Andrew Weintraub (Porter, Music 1985) has written "Power Plays: Wayang Golek Puppet Theater of West Java" (Ohio University Press, 2004). Based on ethnographic fieldwork spanning 20 years, Power Plays is the first scholarly book in English on wayang golek, the Sundanese rod-puppet theater of West Java. It is a detailed account of the ways in which performers of this major Asian theatrical form have engaged with political discourses in Indonesia. In the book, Weintraub uses interviews with performers, musical transcriptions, translations of narrative and song texts, and archival materials to analyze the shifting and flexible nature of a set of performance practices called Padalangan, the art of the puppeteer. Power Plays includes an interactive multimedia CD-ROM of wayang golek.

Andrew Weintraub

Weintraub’s initial interest in Indonesian music and culture began as an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He earned his first advanced degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Hawaii in 1990, where he studied Asian music (Indonesia, Japan, Okinawa, China, and India) as well as music and dance of Hawaii. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1997. The dissertation field research in Indonesia was conducted in 1994-95 under the auspices of a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Grant.

Weintraub is a practitioner of Indonesian gamelan and martial arts and has performed in the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe. Weintraub joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 1997. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in ethnomusicology and popular music, and he directs the University of Pittsburgh gamelan program.


Theater Arts

Beem debuts as Pickle Circus Clown

Tavis Beem (Porter College, Anthropology, 2004) debuted as a Pickle Circus Clown in the show “High Water Radio” at the Palace of Fine Arts in December. Beem was a member of the first group of Theater Arts clown students, according to professor Patty Gallagher.


Attention UCSC Alumni

Reunion weekend is approaching quickly. Mark your calendar and plan to visit UC Santa Cruz on Saturday, April 22 for Banana Slug Spring Fair. All alumni are invited to join former classmates and professors for the:

  • All-Alumni Reunion Luncheon,
  • Annual Alumni Panel Discussion,
  • Distinguished Faculty Lecture, and the
  • 16th Annual UCSC Alumni Vintners Wine Tasting.
Special recognition will be given to 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, and 2001 grads. The day will be filled with college and departmental receptions, lectures, and more! Visit www.alumni.ucsc.edu/reunions/ for details on more than 30 events, and for R.S.V.P. information. Please call 800-933-SLUG with any questions.

HEADLINES

Class project transforms trash into public art
‘Land-Fill’ explores the relationship between discarded memory and waste. [more]

Indian Classical Concert Series continues
Sitar virtuoso Nishat Khan performs in Music Center Recital Hall. [more]

Painting exhibition at Sesnon features 9 art faculty
Faculty Works: 2006 Painting show runs April 5 to 29. [more]

Art prof has innovative sound installation in Fresno
Osborn composes four site-specific sound compositions for exhibition. [more]

Psychology professor, DANM chair heeds parents' pleas for help
Animated tutor helps children with language challenges. [more]

From UCSC to Amsterdam: Life after theater arts
Ratto finds rewards along an unusual career path. [more]

Award-winning grad student pursues music and community service
A talented musician uses her gift to help those at home and abroad. [more]

Top Hollywood script supervisor shares experiences with students
Quintana’s career includes work on more than 100 movies over three decades. [more]

Distinguished alumni to speak at Banana Slug Spring Fair
Panel will discuss the role of museums at universities. [more]

Digital Arts and New Media Festival Set for May
Three-day event will explore boundaries of technology and the arts. [more]

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