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Film series pays homage to ‘Giant Robot,’ influential magazine founded by UCLA alumni

October 18, 2024
UCLA Film & Television Archive

A film festival beginning Nov. 1 will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of “Giant Robot,” the Asian and Asian American culture magazine co-founded by UCLA alumni Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong.

The festival, A Film Series for You: Celebrating Giant Robot’s 30th Anniversary, is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in partnership with the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities at UCLA. The festival will be held over seven nights through Nov. 17, with all events taking place at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum at UCLA.

From its first print issue to its last in 2011, “Giant Robot” elevated Asian and Asian American popular culture with sharp, smart writing on art, film, music, television, food and politics, and its influence still reverberates through the cultural landscape.

Nakamura, who earned a degree in East Asian studies from UCLA in 1993, is serving as co-curator of the festival. Wong, who graduated in 1990 with a degree in English, will participate in a Q&A during the Nov. 1 event.

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Photo caption: “Tekkonkinkreet,” a 2006 animated film, will be screened Nov. 8 at the Billy Wilder Theater.

Photo credit: Destination Films/Photofest