A found footage animation piece on the COLA wildcat strikes by UCSC grad students in 2020

“Difficult Year” is a short experimental documentary and found footage piece which explores power structures within the University of California during the grad student worker’s COLA strike at UCSC. The UC administration has consistently let down their students and workers, paying TAs at UCSC far less than a living wage for their work. Their rent burden is astronomical, they can’t afford to live where they learn and teach, and the administration won’t take their demands seriously. When grad student workers escalated their protest to a full strike in response to the administration’s inaction, the university responded by spending $300,000 per day on police in riot gear who were sent to arrest protesters. They also responded in a flurry of emails, all of which used language that minimized the reality of the situation.

This piece juxtaposes and compares found footage and audio from the picket line with the dry language from administrative emails. This brings to light the disconnect between the people who keep UCSC running (students and teachers) and the people in power who consistently crush their activism. Audiovisually, this comparison exposes the administration’s empty claims and transforms the meaning of their words. UCSC calls itself the “original authority on questioning authority,” but when the authority of the UC is questioned, they immediately can’t handle it. This irony is the center of the “difficult year” argument.

Made for FILM 171C, Found Footage, a film production class taught by Irene Lusztig