The new dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Celine Parreñas Shimizu, faces a lot of questions and a rough time for universities across the U.S.
The rise of AI, budget cuts at schools, a hostile presidential administration and retrenchment across the entertainment industry make this a precarious time for educators.
“It’s an unfortunate time in history when higher education is experiencing being at the crosshairs of attacks and the undermining of our mission. To me, there is no greater place on Earth than the classroom. It is where we create powerfully critical and analytic citizenry, as well as where our students not just find their voice and their vision, but they learn that they are not alone in the human enterprise of asking questions and figuring out what their contributions are,” she says with the passion of a zealot who’s well-equipped for challenges and change.
Parreñas Shimizu, who is a UCLA alumna, started her new role July 1. She comes to Westwood via UC Santa Cruz, where she served as dean of the division of arts and was a professor in the department of film and digital media. At UCSC, she oversaw the launch of the UC system’s first online undergraduate bachelor’s degree program as well as the construction of several facilities, including a media lab, an arts and AI lab and graduate student art studios. She’s also a scholar and has written extensively on race, gender and representation, including several books, and has also worked on documentaries and narrative films.
She plans to share her vision for the school on Sept. 25 at a special conclave with “all of our alumni, all of our students, our families, our industry friends, our independent nonprofit community friends,” she says, noting that she is also reaching out to those same stakeholders and gathering their input and ideas.
Parreñas Shimizu doesn’t shy away from the topics of inclusion and diversity.
“It’s really unfortunate that the enterprise of the university has been misrepresented as indoctrination rather than discovery. So as I return to the UCLA theater, film and television [school], it is a space that I celebrate, that I protect, that I defend, and I am in complete awe and reverence because the students come out of those classrooms confident and therefore less hard to mess with in terms of how they want to contribute to the world,” she says. “Luckily, we have a chancellor who has a vision for bold courage and who shares in my own need to protect the next generations.”
But there’s also the practical side to the university — post-graduate employment. Parreñas Shimizu notes that while the entertainment landscape is contracting, that contraction, along “with ICE raids in L.A.” are “causing a great deal of fear and anxiety in our students.”
“I have always focused my work as a leader on enhancing professional development, bringing in more alumni mentors, and creating really clear pathways so that they can engage with the industry even while they’re in school,” she says, adding that she also wants to make sure that her students get paid for internships and other programs “because you can’t really take an internship that opens career paths if you can’t put food on the table and feed yourself.”
She notes that they are “revitalizing” a television studio and looking for industry partners to upgrade soundstages and other facilities. She’s already started her studio outreach and is also has plans to meet next month with Silicon Valley leaders. And of course, AI is on that agenda.
“Our students are unstoppable, but they need beasts of computers that are capable of doing that work. And our approach to AI is not one of fear. It is a matter of saying, ‘How can we use these new technologies to help us create virtual worlds and very real worlds on stage as well?’ So we not only need the equipment, but we also need for our staff at the school of TFT and the staff of the largest tech companies to come together and say, ‘How do we make sure that these various AI tools can be in the hands of the next generations of creators?’ So there’s a lot of marriage and fixing up that can be done so that we are together in moving this industry and technology forward with higher ed.”
That conversation includes students and teachers and leaders from other UCLA schools, including computer science and engineering. Parreñas Shimizu points to “Xanadu,” a theatrical production that bowed in May and used 360-degree video, CGI 3D models, and an advanced projection and sound system.
“While I was at my previous institution, I founded a center called a A4 Lab,” she notes. The Arts, AI, Augmentation and Acceleration Lab is a partnership with global technology company AMD and the Arts at UC Santa Cruz in which AMD donated six high-performance computers, equipped with the latest AMD graphics processing units for demanding editing, 3D modeling and animation. She is in the process of replicating that tech-education partnership in Westwood, as well as “fundraising to reflect our innovation work in new and contemporary technologies,” she says, while also eager to partner with industry and independent studios and backlots to support the creative and impactful work of our faculty and students.
But most of all, Parreñas Shimizu’s enthusiasm for education and the diverse university community is palpable through the Zoom call — she finds joy in helping her students create art and change in the world might while proudly characterizing UCLA as a “scrappy” fighter and the “auteur school.”
“You know that the that the much-needed work of really serving our communities in Los Angeles and beyond is now criminalized somewhat,” she says, responding to a question about diversity and inclusion. “[Those words] they become dirty words when there is nothing but joy and happiness that comes from being in a room where everyone is present. Because when everyone is present, when more diverse voices are represented, the better the solutions are, the greater the art is.”
“We’re so lucky that UCLA TFT, from the very beginning, has championed a global curriculum. One of my favorite words is ‘decolonized.’ What I love about that word is that it essentially means free your mind by learning more about others.”
The diverse student body remains important
“So, you know, I think about our first gen students, who are feeling terrorized right now with the ICE raids, the fear is real. The anxiety is real, and this is the place where we are giving them confidence, and that is never going to stop…. We need artists in this world to bolster our strength. And I think this matters for me — I don’t look like the typical leader. AAPI women are the least represented in higher education leadership, if not the leadership of any industry in the world. But it’s not an identity issue, it’s really what we bring to the table. You know, like, I grew up in the Philippines at the time of dictatorship, and guess what I saw? I saw the power of cinema and the power of theater to teach people how to understand their lives, and, more importantly, to understand their power.
“And it’s a real model for what we need in the world today, whether it’s the industry or community-minded filmmaking and theater-making.”
