Our speaker and film series begins!!!!! All events are (somehow) linked to video games, or are intrinsically game-like in nature.
All LUDUS sponsored speaker and film events are at on WEDNESDAYS at 5pm, Melnitz Hall room 2534, The Design Room:
april 15
Producing Television About Video Games:
JOEL RUBIN
former associate producer at
G4TVapril 22
Tag-Team Game Industry Talk by:
Dooma Wendschuh from
Sekretagent Productions &
John Ballantyne from
EALocation: Melnitz Hall 2534, The Design Room
Time: 5pm - 6ish or whenever they stop talking
Who: everyone and anyone who wants to learn about the industry from a couple of different perspectives.
As real life friends both working at gaming companies in los angeles, Dooma and John will BRING IT to the ucla community, throwing down not only their game industry knowledge and knowhow, but doing it with style. Topics likely to be covered, either in their presentation or in the Q&A: writing for films and video games, game design, game development, technical aspects of game development, playing games, first person shooter games, co-op games... This is not an event to miss!
april 29
eXistenZ
with: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe
dir. David Cronenberg
[1999, 97min]
Melnitz Hall room 2534, The Design Room
Wednesday 5pm
"Superstar computer game designer Allegra Geller has just invented 'eXistenZ' - a new game designed to sweep away all barriers between reality and fantasy, aided by a 'bioport' connecting the game to a player's nervous system. When Allegra arrives to present the game to the bosses of a large company, some of those present are attacked by a rival faction..." -Film Index International
may 6
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
dirs. Lars von Trier, Jørgen Leth
[2003, 90 min]
Melnitz Hall room 2534, The Design Room
Wednesday 5pm
In this documentary, the most game-like of movie directors, Lars von Trier, challenges his former professor, veteran filmmaker Jørgen Leth, to remake Leth’s 1967 cult short THE PERFECT HUMAN five times. For each remake, the petulant von Trier enforces a series of obstructions that force Leth to navigate the difficulties of rule-bound filmmaking as he traverses the globe. Nutty and combative, this meta-film presents the filmmaking process as a series of game-like moves and counter moves.
may 20 (new date!!!)
RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION
dir. Makato Kamiya
[2008, 97 min]
Melnitz Hall room 2534, The Design Room
Wednesday 5pm
Makato Kamiya’s 2008 Resident Evil: Degeneration
exists as an odd hybrid of video game and film. Entirely computer generated, it visually resembles a cut scene of epic proportions, yet it has a comprehensive narrative that develops the video game franchise’s characters, and an eerie presence that asks the viewer to non-interactively experience survival horror, qualities the preceding live-action film trilogy notably lack. A virus outbreak following an airplane disaster requires zombie-killer Leon Kennedy’s steady trigger finger and lighting quick reflexes, as the government’s collusion with the villainous Umbrella Corporation is revealed. Notably, Degeneration is itself a zombie, reanimating, reinvigorating and crossbreeding known stories, games, and media.
Film notes by Harrison Gish
june 4
THURSDAY, 7:30 in James Bridges Theater
PLAYTIME
dir. Jacques Tati
[70mm print -2002 restored version-, 1967, 124min]
co-sponsored with Melnitz Movies
LUDUS and Melnitz Movies are proud to present Jacques Tati’s masterpiece PLAYTIME, screened in its original and stunning 70mm format. Tati’s comedy about confusion in the age of technology provides one of the greatest gamelike viewing experiences. With its super large frame packed with inventiveness, the film gives viewers a dense perceptual play and an array of audiovisual gags, encouraging us to participate in a playtime of moviegoing. “A film from another planet.” --François Truffaut
Film notes by Daniel Steinhart
