UCLA Film & Television Archive announces free fall programs

This fall, the UCLA Film & Television Archive brings together Hollywood classics, international cinema, landmark television, live performances and conversations with actors, filmmakers and scholars. With works spanning from 1919 to the present day, highlights include rarely screened early works by Oscar-winning Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, a Dorothy Dandridge retrospective and new Archive restorations, plus the return of "The Art of the Benshi" following its 2024 national tour and a Halloween weekend devoted to cinematic ghosts.

Running Oct. 7 to Dec. 20, all screenings are free and presented at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum at UCLA. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit the Archive website for the full schedule and program details.

Archive restorations and film and television collections

Oct. 7-Dec. 12
Archive Television Treasures
The fall television programs open Oct. 7 with "Cagney & Lacey" star Sharon Gless and executive producer Barney Rosenzweig in person. On Nov. 21, actors Ruta Lee, Rich Little and Jo Anne Worley will join a 60th anniversary screening of "Hollywood Squares," featuring two preserved episodes and an archival clip reel. On Dec. 12, producer-director Stan Lathan and writer-director Reginald Hudlin will appear for a screening of Lathan's acclaimed 1985 adaptation of James Baldwin's "Go Tell It on the Mountain," introduced by NYU Associate Professor Josslyn Luckett.

Oct. 14
Archive Treasures
The Archive celebrates the North American premieres of two new Archive restorations starring Dorothy Mackaill: Berthold Viertel's "Man Trouble" (1930) and Emmett Flynn's "The Man Who Came Back" (1924), one of the few surviving Fox Film Corp. silent films. The latter will feature live musical accompaniment.

Filmmaker retrospectives

Oct. 17-Nov. 22
Ryusuke Hamaguchi: Early Works
Long before the international success of "Drive My Car," Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi developed his distinctive approach to performance, conversation and cinematic duration through shorts, features and documentaries rarely screened outside Japan. Presented with the Yanai Initiative, the six-program retrospective includes "Passion" (2008), "The Depths" (2010), "Intimacies" (2012), "Happy Hour" (2015), and Hamaguchi and Ko Sakai's complete Tōhoku Documentary Trilogy (2012-2013).

Dec. 2-20
Dorothy Dandridge
A five-program retrospective celebrates the career of Dorothy Dandridge, whose performance in Otto Preminger's "Carmen Jones" (1954) made her the first Black woman nominated for the Academy Award for best actress. Selections include "The Harlem Globetrotters" (1951), "Bright Road" (1953), "Tamango" (1958), "Malaga" (1960) and other films, including "Carmen Jones," co-starring Harry Belafonte and Pearl Bailey.

Halloween weekend

Oct. 31-Nov. 1
The Trouble With Ghosts
On Halloween night, Jayro Bustamante's haunting "La Llorona" (2019) screens with Kiyoshi Kurosawa's techno-horror classic "Pulse" (2001), opening a two-night exploration of ghosts, technology, memory and history. The series continues Nov. 1 with Marusya Syroechkovskaya's "How to Save a Dead Friend" (2022) and David Lowery's "A Ghost Story" (2017).

Anniversary screenings

Oct. 24
The Battle of Algiers - 60th Anniversary
Six decades after its international premiere, Gillo Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers" (1966) remains a landmark of political cinema. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with UCLA cinema and media studies professor Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli and UCLA comparative literature professor Nouri Gana.

Dec. 5-6
The Art of the Benshi 2026
The Archive and Yanai Initiative welcome Japanese benshi Ichirō Kataoka and composer and pianist Makia Matsumura for a weekend of silent films with live narration and musical performances. Highlights include early Japanese animation, the North American premiere of the National Film Archive of Japan's new restoration of Teinosuke Kinugasa's "A Page of Madness" (1926) on its centennial, and Richard Oswald's landmark queer silent film "Different From Others" (1919).

Archive Talks

Nov. 15
Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds
Scholar Laura Horak presents a program inspired by her book "Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds," followed by a selection of works by trans artists and a Q&A. The program is part of the Archive's Legacy Project Screening Series.

Nov. 18
"Trouble in Paradise"
A restored 35mm print of Ernst Lubitsch's sophisticated comedy "Trouble in Paradise" (1932) screens as part of a program on influential costume designer Travis Banton, featuring Howard Gutner, author of "Banton of Paramount: Haute Couture in Hollywood's Golden Age," and Deborah Nadoolman Landis, founding director and chair of the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design at UCLA.

Additional programs

Oct. 23
"Her Wedding Night"
A rare 35mm screening of the Clara Bow Pre-Code comedy "Her Wedding Night" (1930) will feature David Stenn, author of "Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild," in person. The program is presented with the Hugh M. Hefner Classic American Film Program and the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.

Nov. 7
Food and Film: "Babette's Feast"
The Archive and Hammer Museum present Gabriel Axel's Academy Award-winning Danish classic, "Babette's Feast" (1987), to mark the fifth anniversary of Lulu restaurant at the Hammer Museum.

Nov. 14
Borders That Flower
"The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing" (2024) and "Women Beyond Borders" (2004) explore memory, displacement and place across Palestine and Lebanon. UCLA Asian American studies assistant professors Loubna Qutami and Nour Joudah will participate in a Q&A moderated by UCLA comparative literature Ph.D. student Aciah Abdulsater.

Dec. 16
"A War on Women"
Presented with the Farhang Foundation, Raha Shirazi's 2026 documentary traces generations of Iranian women's struggles for basic human rights through the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Shirazi will appear in person.

Program details are subject to change. Please check the Archive website for current information.