Events

"The Cigarette Surfboard" screening with filmmaker Ben Judkins (Kresge '17)
2026-03-08 17:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Join Banana Slug alumni filmmaker Ben Judkins (Kresge ’17, film and digital media) and “ciggy board” creator Taylor Lane for a screening of their award-winning documentary, The Cigarette Surfboard (presented by the California Coastal Commission‘s Whale Tail Grant).
5:00-6:00 PM | alumni meet & greet with light refreshments
6:00-7:35 PM | film screening
7:35-8:30 PM | filmmaker discussion
8:30-9:00 PM | mingle
REGISTER
ABOUT THE FILM
After a young designer realizes that a surfboard – which he crafted from thousands of littered cigarette butts picked up off California beaches – could captivate the eyes of millions across the globe, he decides to use it as the impetus to do something more. The Cigarette Surfboards become a platform to spark ocean stewardship and the symbol of a campaign to hold Big Tobacco accountable for their toxic, plastic waste. Surfing is the medium, but the message is universal.
Small decisions and actions, like littering a cigarette butt, cumulatively can have a large impact, for better or for worse. This immersive documentary provides viewers an up close experience of the ocean through surfers’ eyes, to amplify a message of urgency and possibility regarding the ocean’s wellbeing. As our ocean faces mounting threats, and surfing continues to grow, we as surfers have a responsibility to protect it.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Raised in Northern California, at age eight, Ben Judkins found an old camcorder and discovered the medium to explore and create. After years of videotaping friends skateboarding and surfing, Ben landed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, majoring in Film & Digital Media. His senior film “Marshall” earned the Dean’s Award, and also won “Best Locally-Produced Work” at the 2017 Santa Cruz Film Festival. Ben is an avid surfer who believes in the power of visual storytelling to move people to action. The Cigarette Surfboard documentary is an opportunity to inspire a generation of surfers to be stewards of the sea.

Movie Night Under the Stars: Screening "Castle in the Sky"
2026-04-02 20:00 - 22:00 | Oakes Lower Lawn, Oakes College, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The DSAS Office of Leadership and Involvement invite you to join us for our Movie Night Under the Stars event screening the Studio Ghibli movie “Castle in the Sky”:

Date: Thursday, April 2nd
Screening Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Oakes Lower Lawn

*Bring your own blanket*
There will be free ramen, candy, drinks and activities! For any questions or accommodations, please email involved@ucsc.edu
You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

Partners Film Screening
2026-04-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Oakes Learning Center
Join the Center for Labor and Community for a free film screening of the documentary, Partners: How Starbucks Baristas Started a Labor Revolution. Following the screening there will be a discussion with unionized Starbucks baristas. RSVP here

The Tallest Dwarf—film screening and talk with Julie Wyman
2026-04-20 19:00 - 21:30 | Communications Building, 7487 Red Hill Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
UC Santa Cruz affiliates are invited to a screening and discussion with filmmaker Julie Forrest Wyman. The Tallest Dwarf charts the filmmaker’s quest to find her place within the little people (LP) community at a moment when dwarf identity is poised to radically change. Wyman’s work engages issues of embodiment, body image, and the possibilities and problematics of media spectatorship—all informed by her experience of living with hypochondroplasia dwarfism. Julie Wyman will be in conversation after the screening with Pooja Rangan (Professor of English and Film and Media Studies at Amherst College and Visiting Scholar of Visualizing Abolition) and Cynthia Ling Lee (Associate Professor of Performance, Play & Design, UC Santa Cruz).
Co-organized/co-sponsored by the Arts Division’s Film & Digital Media Department, “Abolition Medicine and Disability Justice“—a collaborative initiative of five UC campuses, including Riverside, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco, to addresses health disparities in institutions and policy—and The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz.
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ADMISSION
– Free and open to UC Santa Cruz affiliates only
– Attend in person at Communications Studio C
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PARKING
– Parking via UCSC permit or ParkMobile
– Core West is the lot closest to the event
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ABOUT THE FILM
As Wyman unpacks the rumors of “partial dwarfism” in her family, she finds that hers is the last of a body type she has inherited. She joins forces with a group of dwarf artists to confront the legacy of being fetishized and put on display. Together they create films that reclaim a complicated history and speak back to the echoes of eugenics in the newly emerging pharmaceutical interventions that make little people taller. Through its personal and expanding perspective, the film invites audiences to a new way of seeing.
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ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Julie Forrest Wyman’s 2012 documentary STRONG! premiered at AFI Silverdocs and was broadcast nationally on PBS’s Emmy award-winning series, Independent Lens, where it won the series’ Audience Award. Wyman’s work has been awarded support from Sundance, Sandbox, IDA, SF Film Society, Points North, ITVS, the Creative Capital Foundation, The Princess Grace Foundation, California Humanities, and NEH. She has been a fellow at the UC Davis Feminist Research Institute and a resident of SF Film Society’s Filmhouse, Siena Art Institute, Logan Nonfiction and Points North. Her films, including FatMob (2016), Buoyant (2005), and A Boy Named Sue (2000), have aired on Showtime, MTV’s LOGO-TV, and have been exhibited on five continents. She serves as Associate Professor of Cinema and Digital Media at UC Davis.
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Download and share the event flyer here.
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photographer credit: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo; image description: A group of six LP (little people) performers regard their paper body cut outs on the wall.

Arts & Ecology Festival: Creative Resistance
2026-04-22 10:00 - 22:00 | Digital Arts Research Center, 407 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
On Earth Day, UC Santa Cruz launches the inaugural Arts & Ecology Festival: Creative Resistance, a campus-wide gathering that refuses to treat climate change as a problem of carbon alone. Instead, it brings together artists, scientists, students, and community partners to engage the deeper conditions of the crisis, and to open space for cultural, political, and imaginative transformations grounded in repair, reciprocity, and collective futures.
Taking place at the Digital Arts Research Center (DARC), the festival unfolds as a full day of exhibitions, film screenings, performances, workshops, talks, and public engagement. Developed through an open call that drew an overwhelming response across disciplines, the program reflects a growing field of practitioners working across environmental research, land-based knowledge, climate resistance, and practices of repair that move beyond dominant institutional and economic frameworks. Tacos Los Reyes food truck will be on site during the festival.
The UC Santa Cruz Arts & Ecology Festival is sponsored by UCSC Art Department, OpenLab Collaborative Research Center, and UC Climate Action Arts Network, with support from the University of California, Office of the President’s Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grant program.
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ADMISSION
– Free and open to the public
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Earth Day Festival
Wed., April 22, 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.
various locations throughout the Digital Arts Research Center (DARC)
Earth Week Film Screenings
Mon.. April 20–Fri., April 24, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Light Lab Gallery at the Digital Arts Research Center (DARC)
More information here at the festival website.
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PARKING
– Parking by UCSC permit or ParkMobile.
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event.
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS).
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Artist Talk with Federico Cuatlacuatl
2026-04-23 18:00 - 19:30 | Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States
We invite you to join us for a film screeening and discussion with artist Federico Cuatlacuatl. This will be the west coast premiere of QUEMAR LAS PATAS DEL IMPERIO (to burn the feet of the empire), Cuatlacuatl’s newest work.
Federico Cuatlacuatl (b. San Francisco Coapan, Cholula, Puebla -México) is Horace W. Goldsmith Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Art at the University of Virginia and currently a research Fellow at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Cuatlacuatl’s aesthetic oeuvre addresses Nahua Indigenous immigration, social art practice, and cultural sustainability. Building on his own experience as formerly undocumented immigrant and DACA holder, his creative practice collides Indigeneity, immigration, and temporalities. At the core of his most recent research and artistic production is the intersection of transborder Indigeneity, Nahua diasporic resilience, and Nahua futurisms. His work has been featured in international film festivals and exhibitions globally including: the Max Ernst Museum, the Kode Museum of Art in Norway, the KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art in Berlin, the BFI London Film Festival, the Larnaca Biennale in Cyprus, the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, the Museum of Art Såo Paulo in Brazil, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the Sculpture Center in Ohio, the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, and the Tucson Museum of Art. Cuatlacuatl is a co-founder of the UNDOC+Collective and the founder of the Rasquache Artist Residency in Puebla, México.

Santa Cruz Cinema Takeover: Double Feature Night
2026-04-30 20:00 - 22:00 | Santa Cruz Cinema, 1405 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, 95060, United States
Join us for Santa Cruz Cinema Takeover: Double Feature Night and pick your own galaxy to explore. Choose between an outer-space adventure with Project Hail Mary or a fun-filled journey through the stars with Super Mario Galaxy.
Grab your friends and enjoy a free screening at Santa Cruz Cinema, brought to you by the Center for Leadership and Involvement.
Tickets will be distributed at the theater entrance starting at 7:30 p.m.
Important: Must show your UCSC Student ID to receive a ticket.
Limited-supply goodie bags will also be available for attendees!
Seating and ticket distribution are first-come, first-served.
We hope this event will be out of this world!
For questions, please email involved@ucsc.edu

Santa Cruz Cinema Takeover Showing: Mandalorian & Grogu
2026-05-21 20:00 - 22:00 | Santa Cruz Cinema, 1405 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, 95060, United States
The Force is strong with this one.
Whether you’re a Jedi or a Bounty Hunter, join us on Thursday, May 21 at 8 p.m. for another Santa Cruz Cinema Takeover! We’re bringing The Mandalorian and Grogu to the big screen for a special free screening.
Grab your friends and may the Force be with you!
Meet us in the lobby starting at 7:30 p.m. to snag your ticket and be sure to bring your student ID.
Hosted by the Center for Leadership and Involvement.
Contact involved@ucsc.edu for questions or accommodations.
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You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

Film Screening—Let the City Speak: The Sonic Journey of Quetzal—Arts Dean's Speaker Series
2026-05-27 12:00 - 13:30 | Digital Arts Research Center, 407 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Audiences are invited to Let the City Speak: The Sonic Journey of Quetzal—a conversation and panel discussion with filmmaker Akira Boch and Quetzal members Martha Gonzalez and Quetzal Flores. Introduced by Interim Dean and Professor of Film and Digital Media Lawrence Andrews. Conversation and panel discussion with UCSC Professors Russell Rodriguez and Felicity Amaya Schaeffer (4:00–6:00 p.m.) with reception (6:00–6:30 p.m.) immediately following the panel.
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ABOUT THE SERIES
This event is presented as part of the “Arts Dean’s Speaker Series,” an annual event focused on bringing together scholarship and practice related to critical issues of our time in the Arts, in order to expand our students’ imaginations on what is possible, the importance of ambition and aspiration and tackling real structural problems and exclusions in our society and in the arts.
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ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public.
– REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE here for the 4:00 p.m. panel event due to limited venue capacity.
– Attend in person in the Dark Lab (DARC 108) at the Digital Arts Research Center at UC Santa Cruz.
– Doors open 30 minutes prior to the scheduled event start time.
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
noon–1:30 p.m.: Film screening of Let the City Speak: The Sonic Journey of Quetzal (no registration needed for the screening)
4:00–6:30 p.m.: Conversation and panel discussion with UCSC Professors Russell Rodriguez and Felicity Amaya Schaeffer (4:00–6:00 p.m.) with reception (6:00–6:30 p.m.) immediately following the panel.

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PARKING
– Parking by UCSC permit or ParkMobile.
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event.
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS).
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Panel Discussion—Let the City Speak: The Sonic Journey of Quetzal—Arts Dean's Speaker Series
2026-05-27 16:00 - 18:30 | Digital Arts Research Center, 407 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064

Movie Night Under the Stars: Screening “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
2026-07-28 19:30 - 21:30 | Stevenson College, Stevenson Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The DSAS Center for Leadership and Involvement and Summer Edge invite you to join us for our Movie Night Under the Stars event screening “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”:
Date: Tuesday, July 28th
Screening Time: Event entry begins at 7:30 p.m. | Movie starts at 8:00 p.m.
Location: Stevenson College Knoll
*Bring your own blanket! Limited chairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis.*
Free movie snacks will be available! For any questions or accommodations, please email involved@ucsc.edu.
You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.
