Wanda

Admission is free. No advance reservations. 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. The box office opens one hour before the event.

Wanda 

U.S., 1970

In 1970, Wanda screened at the Venice Film Festival as the sole U.S. entry winning the International Critics Prize. Barbara Loden, actor-turned-filmmaker, directed, produced and co-starred in the independent production, made for an estimated $100,000, in collaboration with Nicholas Proferes serving as cinematographer and editor. The feature was Loden’s directorial debut. Wanda follows Loden in a quiet and captivating portrayal of an apathetic young woman on a journey through a bleak and rural Pennsylvanian landscape. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 1971, Loden was clear about her approach to filmmaking: “I’ve got more movies in me, but they will have to be done my way. I’m not interested in entertaining people. I only want to do things that mean something to me, that I can say about a human being on film and then communicate that feeling to others.”

In her new book, Elena Gorfinkel draws on archival sources, including scripts, interviews, production records, oral history and previously unseen ephemera, to trace the film’s feminist legacies, and its lasting influence on contemporary filmmakers, artists and writers.—Archive Research and Study Center Officer Maya Montañez Smukler

35mm, color, 105 min. Director/Screenwriter: Barbara Loden. With: Michael Higgins, Barbara Loden, Frank Jourdano.

Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Televentures Corp. and Parlour Pictures with funding provided by The Film Foundation and GUCCI.