Fluctuations of Home: Short Films From L.A. to D.C.
Sun 7/13/2025 • 7PM PDT
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum
In-person: Q&A with filmmakers Lupita Limón Corrales and Diego Robles, moderated by UCLA Activist-in-Residence James Suazo.
Fluctuations of Home: Short Films From L.A. to D.C.
(Dis)placement: Fluctuations of Home opens with the works and words of community organizers and filmmakers. Through meetings, poetry and visual arts education and collaboration, these artists engage profoundly with their communities. The evening includes films by UCLA alumni: L.A. Rebellion filmmakers Charles Burnett (’69, M.F.A. ’77) and Shirikiana Aina (M.A. ’82), Los Angeles Filmforum programmer and educator Diego Robles (’06) and 2025 UCLA Luskin Institute Activist-in-Residence Lupita Limón Corrales.
Brick by Brick (U.S., 1982)
Brick by Brick is an unflinching documentary portrait of late-’70s Washington, D.C., where Black residents face displacement amid rising gentrification. Juxtaposing the iconography of national monuments with scenes of homelessness blocks away, the film highlights the Seaton Street project, a powerful example of tenant resistance. Nearly 40 years later, Shirikiana Aina’s debut remains a prescient testament to global struggles against displacement — and a reminder of who pays the price for so-called progress in the Chocolate City.
When It Rains (U.S., 1995)
On New Year’s Day, a man tries to help a woman pay her rent and learns a lesson in connecting with others in a community. Ayuko Babu, founding director of the Pan African Film Festival of Los Angeles, assumes the lead role in a pleasingly empathic reading.
We Are Wyvernwood (U.S., 2011)
This collaborative film project between Diego Robles, LA Co-Media film collective and Wyvernwood Garden residents introduces the shared struggle of the Wyvernwood residents against displacement. Filmmaker and educator Diego Robles was invited to lead film education initiatives at Wyvernwood during the recession’s early days — as residents mobilized against demolition threats. Through this partnership, Robles guided and participated in creating short films honoring the vibrant community Wyvernwood residents are determined to protect.
Nuestros Videos Culturales para la Preservación de Wyvernwood (Our Cultural Videos for the Preservation of Wyvernwood, U.S., 2009)
Erasto Arena documented the images seen in Nuestros Videos Culturales para la Preservación de Wyvernwood at a community gathering and procession. The footage was edited by Diego Robles with input from Arena, who wanted to convey the feeling of everything moving fast and slow at the same time. For the residents of Wyvernwood, life does move at a rapid pace as they balance full-time jobs, raising children, organizing community events and resisting eviction and demolition.
The Need for Roots (U.S., 2023)
As a poet and organizer, Lupita Limón Corrales’ voice speaks loudly on the issues she and her Los Angeles community face. Lupita’s first film, The Need for Roots speaks on these issues too with visual words overlaid on footage captured from her window and the surrounding streets. Lupita’s images portray both beauty and destruction as she reflects on the changes in her Echo Park home and neighborhood.