Voices rising: UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television inaugurates Convocation with Celine Parreñas Shimizu’s vision

Celine Parreñas Shimizu laid out her leadership vision at the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television's first-ever Convocation ceremony September 25, exhorting her community to embrace the notion that their voices, when raised together, can tell a powerful story of innovation and inclusion.

Addressing several hundred students, faculty, staff, supporters and alumni gathered in Freud Playhouse, the new dean pledged to uplift others and embrace a courageous spirit in times of challenge in a ceremony rife with moments of joyful levity and bold promises.

"I lead with the joy of an alumna and the responsibility of a steward," she said. "I return 30 years later with a clear vision: to ensure UCLA TFT continues to transform lives and set the standard for how universities lead the arts, scholarship and innovation."

Parreñas Shimizu outlined new initiatives already underway for UCLA TFT. Picture Start, an annual intensive launching this fall, will pair students with nonprofits to create narrative work, Olympic trailers, language preservation videos and more. This year, the initiative will take the shape of a collaboratively created vertical micro-drama series about disability access titled "Melnitz and Macgowan."

Other initiatives include the Next Generation Speaker Series, which will bring alumni and industry leaders to campus, and Ripples of the L.A. Rebellion, a monthly screening series set to connect pioneering alumni of the 1970s ethno-communications program with today's rising stars. The dean also promised to expand scholarships, wellness and mentorship programs, and launch concerted efforts to revitalize learning spaces and expand technology access.

Convocation introduced TFT's new Advocate Awards, which honored UCLA TFT alumna and actor Elizabeth Reiko Kubota Whitney ("MacGyver," "T.J. Hooker"), Ana-Christina Ramón, director of the Entertainment and Media Research Initiative at UCLA (EMRI), Darnell Hunt, UCLA Vice Chancellor and Provost, and screenwriter Josslyn Luckett ("Queen Sugar"), an assistant professor in the department of cinema studies at NYU and author of "Toward a More Perfect Rebellion," which highlights the efforts of faculty and students in the TFT ethno-communications program from 1969-1973.

Remarks from creative luminaries highlighted Parreñas Shimizu's career as both filmmaker and scholar, echoing the school's new tagline: Your Voice, Our Story.

Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Sympathizer" and holder of the Aerol Arnold Chair in English and professor of English, American studies and ethnicity, and comparative literature at USC, recalled their days as UC Berkeley undergrads.

"UCLA is lucky to have Dean Shimizu, because she is very aware of the challenges facing artists and scholars, teachers and students, as they face an environment that can be and often is hostile to the arts, to diversity, to ideas and certainly to narrative plenitude," Nguyen said.

Read the full story at Goarts.ucla.edu.