Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Student Activism at UCLA

This film series celebrates the radical legacy of UCLA’s Ethno-Communications Program (1969–1973), a pioneering affirmative action initiative launched by Elyseo Taylor, the School of Theater, Film and Television’s first Black faculty member. Designed to train Black, Asian American, Latina/o/x and Native American students to use film as a tool for social change, the program paired filmmaking with journalism, mass communications and community engagement. The alumni in this film program created works that redefined independent media in Los Angeles, offering expansive, socially engaged portraits of multiracial America.

By reflecting the city’s vibrant, interconnected arts communities — despite the logistical and political challenges of such crossings — this history reveals how these filmmakers forged a cinema that mirrored L.A.’s ethnic and cultural complexity. The Ethno-Communications filmmakers’ body of work remains an enduring vision of a “more perfect union,” and a model for multiracial, justice-driven media-making. The series is based on Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Media Activism Made in L.A. (University of California Press, 2025) by NYU Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and guest programmer Josslyn Luckett. 

Series programmed and notes written by NYU Associate Professor Josslyn Luckett and Archive Public Programmer Beandrea July.