Science Fiction Against the Margins: Time Travel

Science fiction films from France, Brazil and the U.S. explore time travel in this UCLA Film & Television Archive Series.

Friday, October 18, 2024
7:30 PM
Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum

Science Fiction Against the Margins Film Series
UCLA Film & Television Archive

part of
PST: Art & Science Collide

Time Travel: 
"La Jetéenn," "Barbosa" and "The Sticky Fingers of Time"

October 18, 2024 – 7:30 p.m.
Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum

Tickets are free, no RSVP required
Box office opens at 6:30 p.m.

followed by a discussion with
Hilary Brougher, filmmaker, and
Maya Montañez Smukler, head, UCLA Film & Television Archive Research and Study Center

La Jetéenn  (France, 1962)

A prisoner in a post-apocalyptic future proves a suitable candidate for an experiment in time travel conducted by his jailers because of his fixation on an enigmatic memory from his childhood: the face of a woman on the jetty at Orly airport. Told entirely through still photographs and voice narration — with the exception of one captivating moment — Chris Marker’s melancholic masterpiece explores the natures of time, cinema, memory, death and love within an endlessly fascinating structure.—Paul Malcolm

Barbosa  (Brazil, 1988)

The historic upset that was the 1950 World Cup Final between Brazil and Uruguay is the focal point of one of science fiction’s most obsessed time travelers in Jorge Furtado and Ana Luíza Azevedo’s short. A devastating loss for the Brazilians — the game was the inaugural event in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium, itself a purpose-built symbol of national pride — it was also a personal turning point for the film’s narrator, an 11-year-old in the crowd who felt his own hopeful future slip away with his team’s loss. Leaving aside completely the wonder of his time machine, he yearns to set things right only to discover that regret — personal and national — can sometimes form an infernal loop.—Paul Malcolm

The Sticky Fingers of Time  (U.S., 1997)

“Time has five fingers — one is the past, two is the present, three is the future, and four is for what could have been, and five for what yet could be”: this opening dialogue from The Sticky Fingers of Time provides the framework for writer-director Hilary Brougher’s cinematic debut.

The New York-based story centers around 1950s bisexual hard-boiled fiction writer Tucker Harding (played by the pitch-perfect Terumi Matthews, best known for playing Madonna in two television productions). Tucker is mysteriously transported to the 1990s and meets hopelessly struggling writer Drew (Nicole Zaray). This meeting sets off an intricate time-travel storyline that plays like a non-linear murder mystery with an interesting mix of themes: mid-century H-bomb hysteria, ’90s arthouse angst and queer/lesbian chic power dynamics.

Brougher deftly handles the film’s low-budget limitations with a character-driven script, savvy tongue-in-cheek humor and no reliance on special effects for its science fiction elements (unlike the many exposition-heavy time-travel films churned out by the studios during this period). In addition to the appealing chemistry between the two female leads, the then mostly unknown cast delivers engaging performances, particularly Belinda Becker as Ofelia, and James Urbaniak as the morally ambiguous “time freak” Isaac (Urbaniak would go on to great success as a character actor on television, and in such film productions as Henry Fool, American Splendor and Oppenheimer). Anita Gates of the New York Times stated in her 1997 review, “Overall this is a satisfying film, offering the true joy of time travel: the opportunity for a fresh look at our culture, our moment in time.” With its quirky and confidently queer 1990s sensibilities, this noir-adjacent gem is ripe for rediscovery as we travel forward almost 30 years from its release.—Todd Wiener

 

Background
The Science Fiction Against the Margins film series of the UCLA Film & TV Archive is a constituent part of the Getty’s PST: Art & Science Collide, a broad range of art exhibitions and events held throughout Southern California in fall 2024. The films in the festival will be shown free of charge from October 4–December 14, 2024 at the Billy Wilder Theater of the Hammer Museum at UCLA. The series is presented in partnership with Cinema & Media Studies of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; the UCLA International Institute is a community partner of the festival.

Filmmakers showcased in Science Fiction Against the Margins occupy the “margins” of mainstream cinema in order to challenge and subvert the science fiction genre. Hollywood’s ubiquitous sci-fi story structure functions within the conventions of action-driven melodrama, resolving social issues in private, emotional and moral terms that reinforce the status quo.

While the focus is on the feature film as a global form of mass entertainment, the series also includes documentaries, shorts, video art and television episodes.

Cost : Free

Sponsor(s): UCLA International Institute, Film and Television Archive, Cinema & Media Studies