Academy/UCLA screening to feature four docs

Jan 18, 2006 by Ian Evans

The February 1st installment of the Contemporary Documentary Series, which is presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archive, will feature four short documentaries, including the Oscar nominated Autism Is a World.

The screening, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus.

The four docs featured are:

• Hotel City which follows a contingent of San Francisco tenants from several Single Residence Occupancy hotels as they join together and form a city-wide collaborative to improve their quality of life. The film was directed and produced by Phoebe Tooke.

• Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story, is about the eviction of a close-knit Mexican-American community of 300 families. The promised, but never materialized, public housing project instead became Dodger Stadium. The film was directed by Jordan Mechner, who also produced with Don Normark.

• Best Sister, where filmmaker Ira Wohl brings the story of his elderly cousin, Frances, to the screen. Wohl won an Oscar in 1979 for Best Boy, which focused on Frances’ mentally retarded brother, Philly.

• Autism Is a World, the Academy Award nominated which looks at Sue Rubin, who, through “facilitated communication” techniques introduced to her at the age of 13, was finally able to emerge from a world of autistic silence. Despite many remaining hurdles, she now attends community college. The film was directed and produced by Gerardine Wurzburg.

The James Bridges Theater is located in Westwood on the northeast corner of the UCLA campus, near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue.