Free Movie Series Triggers Panic at Carsey-Wolf Center

A fall film program at UC Santa Barbara will delve deep into the realms of social anxiety, moral vice and political subversion with a lineup of free screenings including a silent-era classic and a dark Hitchcock thriller.

As part of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s (CWC) public programming, the next Panic! The series explores the complex relationship between media, an anxious public and turbulent social, cultural and moral currents.

“The series grew out of an interest in the ongoing history of efforts to blacklist or otherwise suppress particular films and filmmakers on the grounds that they pose some sort of threat to the political or social order,” said Tyler Morgenstern, the center’s deputy director.

“As the CWC programming team discussed which episodes of cinema history we would like to explore—the Red Scare and the resulting Hollywood blacklist, for example—we realized that many of the anxieties that fueled those early moments of violent reaction echoed the cultural and moral panics that characterize our own times, including those centered on communist infiltration, gender and sexuality, and the corruptibility of impressionable youth,” he added. “This opened the door to thinking about panic as a theme in its own right, and to using cinema as a means of illuminating the longer history of these panics, as well as their tendency to repeat themselves over time.”

The center’s history of partnership with UCSB’s Department of Film and Media Studies also continues this fall, with “Practical training at the Carsey-Wolf CenterUndergraduate course in the study of contemporary programming. In addition to the Panic! films, students will focus on Hitchcock’s “Blackmail” (1929), “The Shackled” (1946), “Psycho” (1960), and “The Birds” (1963) to study the historical relationship between panic and anxiety on the silver screen. The course also covers the dynamics of media distribution, curation, and exhibition.

The Panic! series films are open to the public and admission is free. Ticket reservations are recommended.

“Memoria” (2021) stars Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton as a Scottish woman suffering from a strange sensory syndrome in the Colombian jungle. The film’s sound editor, Javier Umpierrez, will join moderator Greg Siegel of the Department of Film and Media Studies for a discussion after the screening. The screening begins at 7 p.m. on October 1 at the Pollock Theater.