Saturday, May 10, 2025 | 3-6:30 PM | UC San Diego - Mosaic Auditorium #113

Please join us for a film screening of the recently-restored independent film "High Art," followed by a talk with its award-winning screenwriter and director, Lisa Cholodenko.

Special guest Lisa Cholodenko will participate in a discussion with Michael Trigilio, Director of the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts. She will share her experience working in TV and film, and answer questions from the audience. The event will conclude with a reception of light refreshments in the lobby.

SCHEDULE: 3 PM Opening | 3:10-4:40 PM Film | 5-6 PM Talk | 6-6:30 PM Reception

EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL | PLEASE RSVP

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ABOUT THE FILM

"High Art" | 1998 | R | 1hr41m | Watch the Trailer

"Twenty-two years later, High Art…resonates simultaneously as a timeless meditation on love, loss and art and as a trenchant drama with distinctive roots in 1990s aesthetics, culture and social issues." – Aviva Dove-Viebahn, Ms. Magazine

Synopsis: At 24, Syd (Radha Mitchell) has landed her dream job at a New York photography magazine. After a chance meeting with her upstairs neighbor Lucy (Ally Sheedy), a once-celebrated photographer, Syd becomes enthralled with Lucy’s reckless lifestyle and relationship with her drug-addicted girlfriend (Patricia Clarkson). Before she can catch her breath, Syd discovers dark truths of life on the edge, and is forced to confront the consequences of her hunger for recognition and public esteem. 

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ABOUT THE GUEST

Lisa Cholodenko is a writer-director working in film and television. While earning an MFA at Columbia University, her student film "Dinner Party" won the Channel 4 TX prize and was distributed for European television. Her first feature, "High Art", won the Waldo Salt screenwriting award at Sundance and screened in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. Cholodenko’s other feature films include "Laurel Canyon" and "The Kids Are All Right", which was nominated for four Academy Awards and won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical. Her HBO limited series, "Olive Kitteridge", earned seven Emmy awards and the DGA award for best limited series. "Unbelievable", for which she directed the first three episodes, was nominated for several Golden Globe and Emmy awards, and won the Peabody award. Currently, she’s working on an adaptation of Joan Didion’s "The Year of Magical Thinking" for HBO.

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ABOUT THE SURAJ ISRANI CENTER FOR CINEMATIC ARTS

The Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts in the School of Arts and Humanities serves as the university’s hub for creative and academic advancement in culture, music, theater, film and the arts. The center provides access and opportunity for UC San Diego students and scholars to pursue their passion in cinematic arts through research, scholarship, teaching, production and exhibition of film and moving-image arts.