UC Santa Cruz’s Division of the Arts will soon begin construction of a world-class production and post-production facility in support of its Social Documentation (SocDoc) MFA program.
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Soc Doc Honors & Awards
MFA, Social Documentation
Applications due: January 12, 2023
— The UC’s only MFA committed to socially engaged documentary production
— Two-year program with summer production/field work
SocDoc had a strong showing at this year's Webby awards. Alum and current PhD student Mahshid Modares's MFA thesis project,Sanctions in the Sky, was nominated for a 2022 Webby Award in the Best St
SocDoc alum (2020) and current PhD student Mahshid Modares's interactive documentary, Sanctions on the Sky, has won three awards so far in 2022: Silver Medal, Anthem Awards, Human a
Congratulations to our Class of 2021! This group persevered through natural disasters, labor actions and uncertainty, and a global pandemic to complete their M.F.A. work.
Great job to our Class of 2022 cohort on four successful qualifying exams! We are proud to congratulate:
"People Like Me," the Social Documentation MFA thesis film directed by Marrok Sedgwick and co-edited by Sedgwick and Jackson Patrick-Sternin, was just awarded Best Short by the American Anthropology Association's film festival.
In Mong Kok First Aid, filmmaker and SocDoc alum Mavis Siu documents the experiences of voluntary frontline first aiders during 2014’s violent Mong Kok street protests.
Social Documentation alum Juan Mejia's film, Death By A Thousand Cuts, is now out on iTunes. In Death by a Thousand Cuts, the murder investigation of a Dominican park ranger by a Haitian charcoal producer reveals the complex, growing conflict between the Dominican Republic and Haiti in the battl
From the beginning, Melinda James wanted to put women and underrepresented communities at the forefront of her filmmaking.
The Santa Cruz Film Festival takes place on October 3-7 at various locations around downtown Santa Cruz. This year, we have two films that will be screened at the festival that were produced by FDM and SocDoc students:
Social Documentation professor Jennifer Maytorena Taylor has a new documentary available to watch on PBS. Redneck Muslim follows the life and work of Shane Atkinson, the first Muslim chaplain in-training at North Carolina’s biggest trauma center and founder of the "Society of Islamic Re
Social Documentation Professor and Editor of Film Quarterly, B.
The annual M.F.A graduate exhibition for the Social Documentation graduation class of 2018 will take place on Wednesday, June 13th at the Del Mar Theater in downtown Santa Cruz. Continuing this long tradition, the SocDoc cohort will premiere their thesis films that are two years in the making:
Social Documentation Professor Jennifer Maytorena Taylor has received a fellowship for a summer residency at one of the nation's leading contemporary arts organizations, the MacDowell Colony. Professor Taylor is one of 85 artists that have been awarded the fellowship for 2018. Professor Taylor
ANNOUNCING A MASTER CLASS WITH LUCRECIA MARTEL, LEGENDARY ARGENTINE FILMMAKER
MONDAY, APRIL 23; 1-4 PM
PLEASE RSVP by Monday, April 16
UC Santa Cruz as been ranked by College Factual as one of the best colleges in the nation for Film, Video and Photographic Arts. Coming in at #6, UCSC is ranked with NYU, UCLA and USC, recognizing programs in film studies. In particular, UCSC was noted for our graduate programs in film studies
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies will be holding their annual conference in Toronto on March 14-18. This year, we will have a strong mix of faculty and graduate students present at the conference. We are proud to have these members of our community represent our department and UC Santa
The Santa Cruz Film Festival takes place on October 11-15 and we will have many slugs participating, including FDM and SocDoc alums!
Social Documentation Alumni Juan C. Dávila (MA 2013) is currently a correspondent for Democracy Now! and is in Puerto Rico covering the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Please view the links below for his latest reports.
The Wastsonville Film Festival takes place on October 5-8th, and we will have many SocDoc and FDM alums that will be participating:
Social Documentation Professor Jennifer Maytorena Taylor is one of two UCSC Arts factulty and 107 recipients nationwide to receive a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Prof. Taylor has also recieved a grant from production company, Fork Films.
Social Documentation Professor B. Ruby Rich will be honored with a festival at the Barbican Center in London at the end of June.