5:00 p.m. Sunday, June 9, 2019
James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
The Event: The Undergraduate Senior Showcase presents an assortment of projects that embody the bold, original storytelling tradition that the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television has fostered for decades. Join us as we debut the creative products of our directors, producers, screenwriters, animators, cinematographers, editors and digital media artists!
2019 Film, Television and Digital Media Senior Showcase
Screened Films
Tigran Nersisian- Out of Mind
A young Armenian man’s struggle with depression and anxiety disorder is worsened by the stigma around mental illness in his family and the Armenian community.
Marielle Boland- Supernova
Two girls take a road trip in search of self-forgiveness.
Ruth Murai- About Your Father
Twenty years after her father died, Ruth grapples with how grief has impacted the life she’s lived without him.
Elon Patrick Zlotnik- It Happened Like This
A 2019 Coca Cola Regal Films finalist, a young teenager gets a magical glimpse of his future at a Regal theater concession stand.
Suzette Martinez- T.O. Legislative Theater for Racial Justice
UCLA Theater of Oppressed students travel to Sacramento with one of their BJN classmate’s mother and sister to lobby for criminal justice reform legislation proposed at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall forum theater performance, featuring Co do Brasil and Madalena Anastacia.
Brandon Hiner- Don’t Go Whistlin’ Dixie
“Don’t Go Whistlin’ Dixie” examines the enduring sentiments of lost cause mythology (the romanticized retelling of Confederate history) in Richmond, Virginia. This influence extends to local schools named “Stonewall Jackson” and “Lee Davis,” the Robert E Lee memorial bridge, and the Confederate statues that litter the city and have become a surrogate battle for racial injustice. At the same time, the documentary explores the personal journey of coping with one’s own confederate heritage, and what that means in the 21st century
Eli Snyder- Interlude
After witnessing a liquor store robbery degenerate into a liquor store slaughter, a twenty-year-old African-American finds himself trapped and attempts to escape to the place he knows best.
Candace Ho- Red
When a tenacious but sheltered Asian American girl seeks to find her birth mother as an attempt to reconnect with her roots, she finds herself stuck in a facility far more menacing than anticipated.
Intermission
Ezra Sky Peterson Behnen- Dreamtown
Four sleepless folks take walks around town and beyond.
Cole McCarthy- Cinematographer’s Reel
Nick O’Brien- Shafted
When college sophomore Andrew wakes up after a night of partying to find that his penis has fallen off, he enlists his fraternity brothers to help him find a way to reattach it before he’s expelled from his fraternity forever.
Emily Perkins Rock- The Princess Pleasure Principle
A young woman reflects on her past, dipping in and out of the princess stories of her childhood.
Aimee Roberts- A Wake
On the night before a funeral, a young woman and her mother must confront their past in order to repair their fractured relationship.
Sandra Carbonell-Kiamtia- Lost in the Indian Ocean
Mauritius is a little-known island southeast of Madagascar. Imagine stretches of white sand gently descending into warm blue waters. Many Mauritians are eager to share their country, but is paradise still paradise when it is shared? This documentary explores a growing industry of hospitality and the need for an interdependent infrastructure to allow sustainability and tourism to co-exist.
Peter Berger- Binary Thinking
Experts across various fields guide us through the neurological, behavioral, and societal implications of our current digital trajectory; ultimately revealing that what really makes us human could be at stake.
Screenwriters’ Loglines and Bios
Christopher Buchanan
Hero Worship: After a freak accident at America’s premiere Comic Convention kills the world’s most beloved superhero actor, a bottom-feeding clickbait journalist descends into the dark underbelly of modern-fandom and corporate conspiracy to uncover the truth behind the tragedy.
Christopher Buchanan was forged in the mean streets of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. After falling in love with movies as a child, he decided to forfeit a guaranteed career in the NHL to pursue an equally secure career in filmmaking. Some of his special talents include being able to recite The Dark Knight from memory and not having a back-up plan.
Maya Rose Dittloff
Sweetness of the Blood: W restling with the loss of her sister, Rose returns to her childhood home to take care of her aging mother. Filled with loss, and torn by grief, Rose descends into memories of a past the land won’t let her forget.
Maya Rose Dittloff (Ukkayǔ”kwīyinnimǎakii/Many Pipes Woman) was born and raised in Montana. She double concentrated in screenwriting and cinematography to complement her theater background in hopes of one day becoming a director. In her time at UCLA she wrote two features, including a psychological thriller/horror and a coming-of-age story. She also produced and directed a proof of concept for a TV show, a 1920s sex dramedy. She loves Irish mythology, Harry Potter, ghost stories, and is attached to direct the TV adaptation of Perma Redfor Ramo Law.
Maura Julia Dooley
Lumpy’s Opium Summer: The summer before her senior year of high school, Louise Maller’s life is uprooted when her widowed mother remarries, moving the pair to Modesto, California. Though initially prejudiced against the seemingly-bleak and artless town, Louise is forced out of her shell when her beloved cat Lumpy is injured in an accident and she has to get a job to pay his vet bill. Working alongside the vet’s intriguing daughter Cecelia at a local ice cream parlor, Louise learns to see the town through fonder eyes and falls in love – with Modesto and with Cecelia.
Mo Dooley was raised by a pair of artists in upper Manhattan alongside her older sister, with whom she is locked in an eternal (loving) power struggle. She has spent her time at UCLA concentrating in screenwriting, double-minoring in History and Central & East European Studies, and proudly speaking mediocre Czech. This year she completed two features, Lumpy’s Opium Summer and The Blue Rider, and a TV drama pilot, Unsportsmanlike. She credits her love of film to an altogether inappropriately young theatrical viewing of 28 Days Later with her father at age five.
Tashaila Garrett
Ahimsa:W hen his daughter is abducted by an overzealous vegan radical, a meat-loving narcissist must complete cannibalistic, dietary conversion therapy in order to get her back.
Tashaila is a Bay Area native who has grown up surrounded by creatives. Her early exposure to the culinary arts, paired with her passion for screenwriting, has inspired her to tell stories in the unique niche of food horror.
Lynzie Yahná Glover
56th and Vermont: A young black girl from South Central with a dream of one day becoming a star is given the opportunity of her life when a film set shoots in front of her home on 56th and Vermont. However, when she learns that the film continues to push negative stereotypes about her community, she begins devising a plan to make her own movie that shines a light on what she believes her community really is.
Like many of the girls and women in her stories, Lynzie Glover is a young black woman from South Central who wants to be something or someone someday
Bailey Olmstead
Cut to the Cheese: After being disgraced from their local county fair, two female cheesemongers are hell-bent on winning the World Cheese Championships in Switzerland to prove everyone wrong.
Before coming to UCLA, Bailey worked in the Portland production community and in Los Angeles as a freelance writer. At UCLA, Bailey has added three scripts to her portfolio of over a dozen feature-length and hour-long TV scripts. In addition to screenwriting, Bailey has produced multiple MFA short films, a few now on the film festival circuit. She also produced Marielle Boland’s Supernova and Tigran Nersisian’s Out of Mind premiering tonight, as well as associate produced Elon Zlotnik’s Coca-Cola Regal Films commercial It Happened Like This.
Melissa Oskouie
Tahira: Tahira is starting her first year of college when her relationship with her long-time Iranian-American boyfriend falls apart. Tahira discovers that he has started dating a blonde sorority girl and decides that the way to win him back is by being the best white girl on the planet. With the help of Barbie, the bad angel on her shoulder, Tahira sets out on her mission to achieve ultimate whiteness, which inevitably backlashes on her.
Born and raised in Chicago, Melissa spent a lot of her time in the city learning improv and play reviewing. Her passion for theater gradually led her to pursue a degree in Film and Television at UCLA. As a student, Melissa has written sample scripts ranging from daytime writing for kids’ television shows to primetime adult comedy programming. Her first feature-length script, Tahira, has been selected for a table read hosted by SAG/AFTRA.
Elon Patrick Zlotnik
Voice of God: A young cantorial student with a talent for singing is thrust into the Holocaust and must navigate a world where his gift may be the only thing to keep him alive.
Since coming to UCLA, Elon has written feature-length and hour-long TV drama scripts. His feature screenplay Voice of God was selected to be presented at the UCLA Undergraduate Research Week. Elon has also produced multiple graduate short films over the past two years, as well as tonight’s film Out of Mind by Tigran Nersisian. In addition, Elon produced the nationwide ad for Coca-Cola Regal Films titled It Happened Like This.
Producers’ Bios
Leighton Armitage
This year, Leighton was a Producer/UPM for Aimee Roberts’ thesis A Wake, and UPM for Eli Snyder’s thesis Interlude, which are both being screened at the showcase. She also was a Producer/UPM for Isaac Werner’s 2nd year MFA film Penumbra.
Aubrey Campbell
Aubrey Campbell, originally from Anchorage, Alaska, spent her senior year completing her English minor and producing Candace Ho’s “Red,” which will be screened tonight at the showcase. She also produced Nissryne Dib’s 2nd year MFA film “You’re Next,” interned at Color Force (Crazy Rich Asians, American Crime Story), and interned at Dylan Clark Productions at NBCUniversal (Bird Box).
Maddie Stratton
This year, Maddie held an assistant producer role on Candace Ho’s Red and on various projects outside of school for Streets Ahead Productions, as well as helped manage production scheduling for Ezra Sky Peterson Behnen’s Dreamtown. During her time at UCLA, Maddie has also interned for 20th Century Fox’s newly greenlit podcast series “Screen Dive” and now works with Blindlight Productions on yet to be announced projects for the video game industry.