UCLA Film & Television Archive unveils free spring programs

This spring, the UCLA Film & Television Archive brings vital film and television histories to the big screen. Honoring trailblazing filmmakers, this season features classics from Black comedic pioneers, avant-garde rediscoveries and two major film series - the UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema and the biennial UCLA Festival of Preservation.

All screenings, presented at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, are free thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor; admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit the Archive website for the full schedule and program details.

Filmmaker retrospectives

March 22-28
Gunvor Nelson Tribute Trilogy
Swedish-born filmmaker Gunvor Nelson (1931-2025) was a pioneer of experimental and feminist cinema whose works left an enduring influence on the San Francisco Bay Area's avant-garde film community. The Archive is contributing to a citywide, multivenue tribute to Nelson, co-presented by Los Angeles Filmforum and Rotations, and the Academy Museum.

April 11
Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Celebrating the Legacy of Robert A. Nakamura
Part of the Archive's series spotlighting filmmakers from UCLA's groundbreaking ethno-communications program (1969-73), this one-night event celebrates Robert A. Nakamura (1936-2025), dubbed the "godfather of Asian American media." A longtime UCLA faculty member and co-founder of the media company Visual Communications, Nakamura drew on his childhood incarceration at Manzanar during WWII to create landmark films that reshaped Asian American representation on screen.

Archive restorations and film and television collections

March 29-June 28
Archive Treasures
The Archive presents a 50th anniversary screening of Efraín Gutiérrez's "Please Don't Bury Me Alive" (1976) April 12, as well as three screenings of 35mm films from its collection, including "To Sleep With Anger" (1990) March 29; "The Night of the Hunter" (1955) April 5; and "Legacy" (1974) June 28, with in-person Q&As with directors Gutiérrez, Charles Burnett and Karen Arthur.

April 3-26
The Black Pack: Rewriting American Comedy
Responding to social tensions in the 1980s, the "Black Pack" was a creative alliance comprising comedic pioneers Eddie Murphy, Paul Mooney, Robert Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Arsenio Hall. This five-night series will screen the enduring comedies of the Black Pack, including "Hollywood Shuffle" (1987), "Coming to America" (1988), the TV series "In Living Color" (1990-94) and other works that confronted the American media landscape through cultural and satirical underpinnings. Guest programmed by UCLA alum Artel Great, associate professor at San Francisco State University School of Cinema and author of "The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance." Great will be participating in a book signing on opening night.

April 10
The Hearst Metrotone News Collection and the Spanish Civil War
Drawing from the Hearst Metrotone News collection, one of the world's largest newsreel collections, Silvia Ribelles de la Vega, a scholar and historian at The Packard Humanities Institute, presents seldom-seen views of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) to commemorate its 90th anniversary.

April 17-18
UCLA AMIA Student Chapter Takeover!
For two nights, students from the UCLA chapter of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) will introduce and screen 16mm and 35mm prints of avant-garde animation gems and UCLA student thesis films from the Archive's collection.

June 27
60th Anniversary Screening: ABC-TV's 'Dark Shadows'
"Dark Shadows" (1966-71) premiered June 27, 1966, as a daytime television series that unconventionally blended the gothic with the supernatural, later cementing itself as a cult classic. This anniversary screening of "Dark Shadows" will include rare archival footage, followed by a Q&A with actor David Selby and Jim Pierson, historian and author of "Dark Shadows Noir: Classic Black and White Photography from the Dan Curtis Productions Archive."

Upcoming film series

May 29-31
2026 UCLA Festival of Preservation
Founded in 1988, the biennial UCLA Festival of Preservation showcases the Archive's latest film and television preservation and restoration projects. The 22nd edition presents 11 features, three TV episodes and more than a dozen shorts, opening with the Los Angeles restoration premiere of "Black Girl" (1972), directed by Ossie Davis. Additional highlights include "Lorna Doone" (1922), "Merrily We Live" (1938), "Pitfall" (1948), "The Magnificent Matador" (1955), Fleischer Studios cartoons and rare kinescopes of programs directed by TV pioneer Lela Swift. Schedule and further details to be announced.

June 5-21
2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema
The UCLA Film & Television Archive and Farhang Foundation present the 2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema, an annual celebration of films from Iran and the Iranian diaspora. Over three weekends in June, the series highlights stories of struggle, resilience and hope, celebrating the courage of Iranian filmmakers and the communities they represent. Schedule and further details to be announced.

Additional programs

April 12-June 28
Family Flicks
In collaboration with the Hammer Museum, the Archive continues its popular Family Flicks matinee series with a 35mm print of "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) April 12 and "Ernest & Celestine" (2012) June 28.

June 26
Food and Film
Co-presented with the Hammer Museum, join for a screening of Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Arua's "Like Water for Chocolate" (1992), with an in-person Q&A with legendary chef and restaurateur Alice Waters. The program will be paired with a curated dinner at Lulu restaurant at the Hammer, which Waters co-founded.