Cinema and Digital Media combines the study of audio-visual and
digital media, theories about such media, and relevant modes of
artistic practice and production.
Three recent Department of Cinema and Digital Media majors from
the class of 2025 have launched their own videography and
video production company and have hit the ground
running. David Kouyoumdjian, Jihae Dong, and Ziyun
Zhang formed 175
Productions LLC (AKA. 175 Productions) in March 2025 and have
already built up an impressive list of clients.
The West coast premiere of Professor Julie Wyman’s
documentary The Tallest Dwarf will be part of
the San Francisco International Film Festival with
screenings on April 26 and 27.
For any anthropologist, fieldwork represents both a professional
obligation and a rite of passage. For Professor Fiamma
Montezemolo, as for Fred Murdock, the protagonist of
Borges’ El Etnógrafo (1969), this rite of
passage is a break and a crossing: a break from anthropology’s
traditional forms of expression and a crossing into the realm of
visual art.
Filmmakers and professors Glenda
Drew (of Design) and Jesse
Drew (of Cinema and Digital Media) have completed a project
decades in the making — a documentary about the roots of American
Country Music titled Open Country.
What happens when Italian cuisine and wine are paired with
global African music and served in a Medieval piazza in central
Italy populated by local people, tourists, and migrants from
the Global South? “Umbria Jazz Feast” is a research
project that investigates multisensorial intersections during
the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy. It
presents a new look at this festival by addressing the
question: how is jazz perceived as part of a new global
identity intersecting with local and global cuisine, art, and
culture?
There will be a special screening of Umbria Jazz
Feast, a documentary
film,directed by Alberto Guerri (Centro
Sperimentale di Cinematografia / National Film School, Rome,
Italy) and Department of Music Professor Pierpaolo
Polzonetti on Wednesday, May 6 at 6:30 p.m. in 1002 Cruess
Hall.
The screening is presented by Polzonetti and the Department of
French and Italian and co-sponsored by Global Affairs, Davis
Humanities Institute and the Departments of Music and
Cinema and Digital Media.
Free
Umbria Jazz Feast is made possible by the generous support of
the Eivind G. Lange (‘77) and Mary G. Puma Engagement and
Research in Italy Fund. At UC Davis, additional support was
given by a Seed Grant for International Activities from Global
Affairs as well as the College of Letters and Science and the
Department of Music.
The Film Festival at UC Davis presents its 26th two-night
screenings of student created film on May 28 and 29 in 1002
Cruess Hall. Each night features a different program of films and
begins at 7 p.m.
