This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series The Trouble with Ghosts. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu.

In person: Introduction by UCLA Cinema and Media Studies Professor Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, Université Paris Cité Visual Studies Professor Martine Beugnet

While the white sheet has become an icon of the returning dead, it also stands in the place of projection. The sheet, stretched like a translucent canvas, is a reminder of the first public exhibitions where shadowy figures suddenly appeared on or behind its surface. The screen, like the sheet, becomes the membrane through and onto which the figure of the ghost takes shape, confounding our ability to distinguish the figure (the ghost-as-sheet) from the ground (the screen-as-sheet). But while the sheet may serve as the connective tissue between a living audience and the dead, the image or shadows that congregate on screen stir up trouble for the living. Tonight’s films explore the convergence of touch (or the inability to touch) with the ghostly and our changing relationship with the past and the dead.

As legend has it, the malevolent ghost of La Llorona wanders along waterways searching for her two children who have drowned (either by her hand or by the hands of others) and seeks to avenge the man who has abused and abandoned her. She is an ominous figure whose apparition is preceded by the sound of her laments. Those who hear her cries are marked for death. In Jayro Bustamante’s film, these cries are intertwined with calls for social justice and solidarity within Indigenous communities.

DCP. Director: Jayro Bustamante. Screenwriters: Jayro Bustamante, Gustavo Matheu. With: María Mercedes Coroy, Sabrina De La Hoz, Margarita Kénefic.

In Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s apocalyptic ghost fiction, Kaïro, the technologization of contemporary life leads to the collapse of human relations and communication, and the loss of a shared history. A classic of techno-horror cinema, exemplary of Japanese cinema’s reinvention of the Kaidan or spirit story genre, Kaïro remains one of the most memorable evocations of modern technologies of communication as spectral conduits. Feeding on the growing uncertainty between touch and vision, the film stands as a transitional cinematic experiment, between so-called digital dematerialization and the eventuality of spectral forms of corporeality.

DCP. Director/screenwriter: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. With: Kumiko Aso, Haruhiko Kato, Koyuki.

The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.

Ticketing: Admission to Archive screenings at the Hammer is free. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis, limit one per visitor. Box office opens one hour before the event. Questions should be directed to the Archive at programming@cinema.ucla.edu or 310-206-8013.
Member Benefit: Subject to availability, Hammer Members can choose their preferred seats and pick up tickets for one additional guest. Members receive priority ticketing until 15 minutes before the program. Learn more about membership.
Parking: Self-parking is available under the museum. Rates are $9 for the first three hours with museum validation, and $3 for each additional 20 minutes, with a $30 daily maximum. There is a $9 flat rate after 5 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends.