The Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara will present a screening of the film In Utero on Thursday, April 27 at 7 pm in the Pollock Theater. After the screening, director Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal and producer Stephen Gyllenhaal will be joined by Professor Brenda Major (Psychological and Brain Sciences, UCSB) and Professor Maya Rossin-Slater (Economics, UCSB) for a discussion and Q&A, moderated by Professor Maryam Kia-Keating from the Department of Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology, UCSB.
The event is free but a reservation is recommended in order to guarantee a seat; reservations may be made online.
In Utero is a cinematic rumination on what will emerge as the most provocative subject of the twenty-first century – life in the womb and its lasting impact on human development, human behavior, and the state of the world. In Utero brings together for the first time convincing data that explain why some individuals face challenges from the start while others thrive. Fetal origins experts, research scientists, psychologists, doctors and midwives discuss how our experiences in utero shape our future. Through interviews with experts and pioneers, In Utero paints a complex tapestry of the human experience from conception to birth. Tapping into cultural myths, media imagery, and technological trends, the film demonstrates how our experiences in utero preoccupy us throughout our lives.
“Documentaries tackle tough subjects every day but a breakthrough documentary takes on a subject that people haven’t even thought about, let alone explored and come to a conclusion on,” says Tonya Mantooth, Executive & Artistic Director of San Diego International Film Festival. “It takes a provocative and ground-breaking creative filmmaker to make a breakthrough documentary.”
Maryam Kia-Keating is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the UCSB Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She holds degrees from Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and Boston University, and completed her clinical and post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Diego. She focuses her work around coping and resilience in the context of experiences of trauma, stress, and adversity, particularly for ethnic minority and other vulnerable and/or understudied populations including refugees and immigrants. She utilizes community-based participatory research methods to engage and empower communities towards social action and reducing health disparities.