B-Movie Mania: A Low-Budget Summer

While the culturally conservative Motion Picture Production Code (enforced beginning 1934) limited what major Hollywood studios could show in their films, it did not apply to independent producers working on the fringes of the industry. This summer we’re focusing on the often-outrageous movies made by the outsiders of that era: lower-rung filmmakers and outright conmen who did their respective best to produce commercial pictures with profoundly limited resources. 

Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture
 

July 5–25, 2019

With the Production Code in place, a number of cinematic renegades recognized an opportunity. They filled the void for controversial content (and then some) by producing films intended for independent theaters that strongly hinted at taboo subject matter, often under the guise of educational and moral uplift. See some of the most notorious examples of the genre in this series—all screened in new restorations.

Series curated and films restored by Bret Wood.

Down and Dirty in Gower Gulch: Poverty Row Films Preserved at UCLA

Aug 1–15, 2019

Situated along Hollywood’s Gower Street in the 1930s and 40s—then known as “Poverty Row”—numerous small companies churned out low-budget pictures that filled the bottom slot of double-bills (hence “B movie”) or provided content for Saturday matinees. In this series you’ll see films recently restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive that highlight the surprising amount of creative freedom that filmmakers enjoyed under these conditions—plus cartoons from the era just for kicks!

Organized by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.