Nontheatrical Film History, Race, and the Case of Felicia (1965)

Shot by three student filmmakers at UCLA, Felicia is about a teenage girl living in Watts, California. The film chronicles a day in the life of a high-school junior as she reflects on social disparity, educational opportunities, and her aspirations. [Felicia ended up attending UCSB in the late 1960s, where she was one of the few students of color at the time.]

This talk is partly an excavation of a forgotten film, but it also considers how Felicia is particularly suited to a discussion of the ways that urban spaces, and Watts in particular, were imagined in the 1960s, both through official media channels such as television news reporting of the urban revolt of 1965 as well as through less mainstream but potentially influential avenues such as nontheatrical films.