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L.A. Rebellion
Ashes & Embers (1982)
Image from UCLA Film & Television Archive
Killer of Sheep (1977)
Image from UCLA Film & Television Archive
Several Friends (1969)
Image from UCLA Film & Television Archive
Rich (1983)
Image from UCLA Film & Television Archive
L.A. Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement (KCET Artbound)
Episode 3, season 14 (2023) of the KCET series Artbound
"Following the Watts Uprising, UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television enacted affirmative action policies to increase enrollment of students of color in its film program—a group historically underrepresented in the student population. The “ethno-communications” initiative to recruit students from Black, Asian, Chicano and Native American communities became a movement known as 'LA Rebellion.'"
See also: Artbound Episode 5, season 14:
Angel City Press: L.A. through the Pages (featuring filmmaker Ben Caldwell)
About the L.A. Rebellion
The L.A. Rebellion was a Black cinema movement led by African and African American filmmakers who studied at UCLA from the late-1960s to the late-1980s.
This guide was originally created in Fall 2020 by Library Student Research Assistant Stefanie Williams, an MLIS student in UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Content on oral histories and film & video provided by UCLA Film & Television Archive staff.
- The Story of L.A. RebellionShort history and related documents from the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
- Defending Black Imagination: The “L.A. Rebellion” School of Black FilmmakersBy Jacqueline Stewart, from the digital archive of the exhibition Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980 at the Hammer Museum.
- The L.A. Rebellion: A Turning Point in Black CinemaThis article discusses the black independent film movement called the 'L.A. Rebellion,' particularly the works of Haile Gerima (Child of Resistance & Bush Mama), Larry Clark (Passing Through), and Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep). The author, Clyde Taylor was guest curator of the January 1986 film series 'The L.A. Rebellion: A Turning Point in Black Cinema' at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
- L.A. Rebellion FilmmakersBios and filmographies of the filmmakers from the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
- L.A. Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement (KCET Artbound)Season 14, episode 3 of the KCET series Artbound.
"Following the Watts Uprising, UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television enacted affirmative action policies to increase enrollment of students of color in its film program—a group historically underrepresented in the student population. The “ethno-communications” initiative to recruit students from Black, Asian, Chicano and Native American communities became a movement known as 'LA Rebellion.'" - Here’s the Camera. Go! (UCLA Newsroom, 6/14/2022)By Hugh Hart. "The L.A. Rebellion film movement, born at UCLA in 1969, enabled minority student directors — Black, Chicano, Asian American and Native American — to tell the world about their communities."
- L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema"L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema" is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980.
Program from a film exhibition curated by UCLA Film & Television Archive that screened from Oct. 7 to Dec 17, 2011. - L.A. Rebellion: Film Movements In CinemaJune 10, 2020 article in Indie Film Hustle by Jim Henson.
- The LA Rebellion: When Black Film-makers Took on the World – and WonApril 9, 2015 article by Ashley Clark in The Guardian.
- 8 Essential Project One Films From the L.A. Rebellion Film MovementA requirement for all film students, Project One films were created during the first semester of the program. Before taking any technical courses, students had to write, direct and edit an 8mm short film over 10 weeks. This is a selection of shorts that reflect the L.A. Rebellion's engagement with experimentation, radical discourse, and everyday moments of splendor.
- They Can't Take It Away: Education and the Traditions of the L.A. Rebellion in "Rich" (July 9. 2024)By Gabz Norte. S. Torriano Berry, the director, writer, producer, editor, composer and star of Rich, completed the film in 1983 as his 477 Film II class project while a student in UCLA’s Department of Theater Arts. Rich arrived during the second decade of the UCLA student film movement known as the “L.A. Rebellion.”
African American Studies Resources
- African American Experience This link opens in a new window
Reference books, monographs, primary documents, manuscripts, speeches, court cases, quotations, advertisements, and statistics concerning African American history and culture. Contains over 4,000 interviews with former slaves; 67 Negro University Press texts from the late 1700s to the early 1970s.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new windowHistorical and current material for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases, including International Index to Black Periodicals, Black Literature Index and Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience (interdisciplinary essays written by leading scholars on the Black Experience).
- Black Studies in Video This link opens in a new windowStreaming video access to documentaries, newsreels, interviews and archival footage surveying the evolution of black culture in the United States. Includes access to the African American Classics collection from California Newsreel.
- Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowFull text collection of non-fiction published prose and oratory by leading African Americans. Writing is focused on research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Black NewspapersSearch all historical African American newspapers from Proquest to which UCLA subscribes.
- UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American StudiesIncludes library and programming information, as well as research reports from the Center.
- Umbra: Search African American History This link opens in a new windowFree digital platform that brings together primary source content from numerous cultural institutions documenting African American history and culture. Includes images, text, sound, video, and physical objects.
