Ripples of the LA Rebellion: Past, Present & Future

Join us at UCLA's historical and state-of-the-art theater, the James Bridges Theater, for a night of cinema, history, and talks with the filmmakers!

LA Rebellion filmmaker Alile Sharon Larkin will be joining us as a special guest in the panel discussion and Q&A post-screening.

This event brings together two films, LA Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement (2025, 56m) and Don’t Be Long, Little Bird (2025, 23m), to illuminate the lineage between the original LA Rebellion filmmakers and contemporary artists continuing that legacy.

LA Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement, directed by Kitty Hu and Bryant Griffin, traces the origins of the LA Rebellion movement following the Watts Uprising, when UCLA’s “ethno-communications” initiative opened doors for Black, Asian, Chicano, and Native American filmmakers whose work reshaped American cinema.

Don’t Be Long, Little Bird, directed by Reem Jubran as her UCLA MFA thesis film and first Palestinian/USA co‑production, follows a young woman who time-travels to 1930s Palestine to meet her great‑grandmother. The making of the film was featured in PBS Artbound’s documentary as a modern extension of LA Rebellion’s ethos, foregrounding how Reem’s fight for voice and representation at UCLA stands on the foundation built by the Black and ethnic students who came before her.

Stay after the screening for a discussion and Q&A with LA Rebellion filmmaker Alile Sharon Larkin, Bryant Griffin, and Reem Jubran.

Together, the films create a dialogue across generations, geographies, and liberation movements.

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Host or Publisher Reem Jubran