UCSD-TV Blog

When James Avery died at the age of 68 on December 31, 2013, he was universally memorialized as the beloved Uncle Phil from the popular TV series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” But Avery, a UC San Diego graduate in literature and drama (1976), was a man of many parts: Navy veteran, classically-trained actor, poet, screenwriter, scholar, philanthropist, social activist, and above all, an inspiration to a generation of African-American performers.

Avery returned often to his alma mater as a featured guest, performer and commencement speaker. He and his wife Barbara (also a UC San Diego alum) established the James Avery Scholarship at UC San Diego to support African-American students studying performing arts. Considering his close ties to the campus, the afternoon of theatre, live music, poetry readings and personal reflections that comprised James L. Avery – A Celebration of an Artist’s Life stands as a fitting tribute to Avery’s lasting influence.

I didn’t know James Avery personally, but thanks to the diverse group of faculty, friends, performing artists and professional colleagues in attendance at the memorial, I feel I now have some sense of the man. There were expressions of love and loss throughout the afternoon, and something more; a profound sense of gratitude for a life well lived. I am pleased that UCSD-TV is able to share this moving and entertaining event with a wider audience.

Watch James L. Avery – A Celebration of an Artist’s Life.

The family and friends of James Avery have established the James Avery Memorial Scholarship to honor Avery’s achievements and to support undergrad students studying the performing arts. Click here for more information.

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Contributed by Arts & Humanities Producer, John Menier

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Featured This Month
Program Highlights
New to Video On-Demand

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FEATURED THIS MONTH

Repairing the World

Known as “the man who would cure the world,” Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer works to provide first world health care for third world peoples. He talks here with Dean Nelson, founder of the Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Watch Online >

Celebrating the Life of James L. Avery

Marshall College and UC San Diego honored Mr. Avery’s life, career and legacy through an afternoon of theatre, live music, personal reflections and poetry readings. Don’t miss this moving tribute.

Watch Online >

The Films of Akira Kurosawa

Throughout the month of May, World Cinema Saturdays features the enduring films of Akira Kurosawa (1910 – 1998). The first Japanese director to be acclaimed abroad, Kurosawa was a true auteur, and one of the world’s greatest filmmakers. This month’s festival features classics from his “middle period,” during which he consolidated and developed his technique and mature thematic concerns.

Watch Online >

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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

All programs repeat throughout the month. Visit the Program Schedule on our web site for additional air dates and times.

Science

Engineering as a Force for the Public Good with Al Pisano — The Good Life

More >>

Public Affairs

Mexico Under The “New” PRI: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly with Denise Dresser

Retaining Government Power to Make Economic Policy for Internet Access: The Role of the First Amendment with Susan Crawford

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“People talk about the Third World. We don’t live in three worlds. We live in one world.” – Paul Farmer

During his childhood, Paul Farmer and his family lived in unconventional homes including a converted school bus and a houseboat in Florida. His time in Florida also brought him into contact with Haitian people. When he first visited Haiti in 1983, he discovered huge problems in getting health care to the poorest people. While getting his medical degree from Harvard, he found his calling treating the poor and sick.

Since his medical school days he has lived and worked around the world, trying to alleviate human suffering and building a better and more just world. Known as “the man who would cure the world” he co-founded Partners in Health, an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty.

Farmer also serves as the United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. He is the author of “To Repair the World” and “Pathologies of Power Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor” and was the subject of Tracy Kidder’s “Mountains Beyond Mountains.”

Watch Repairing the World as Dr. Farmer talks about global health equity with Dean Nelson, founder of the Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University about global health equity.

Celebrate Japanese Director, Akira Kurosawa, throughout the month of May on UCSD-TV’s World Cinema Saturdays!

A true auteur and one of the world’s greatest filmmakers, Kurosawa became the first Japanese director to be acclaimed abroad for his works in the film industry. He accepted many awards, including the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement, as well as the Golden Lion award in the Venice Film Festival for his film, Rashomon.

Since his entry into the film industry in 1936, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a fruitful career that lasted 57 years. His pictures cut across genres and settings, indulging equally his love of John Ford’s Westerns, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, the work of French director Jean Renoir, and his native bushido code. Kurosawa exerted a profound influence on international cinema while fiercely asserting his individuality as an artist.

This month’s mini-festival features classics from Kurosawa’s “middle period,” during which he consolidated and developed his technique and mature thematic concerns. You can find a list of his films here, or check out the list below!

Sanshiro Sugata
Sugata, a young man, struggles to learn the nuance and meaning of judo, and in doing so comes to learn something of the meaning of life.

(Japan, 1943, 79 mins, dir. Akira Kurosawa, with Denjiro Okochi & Yukiko Todoroki, Japanese with English subtitles)


No Regrets For Our Youth
Kurosawa’s first “personal” film is a feminist study of a young woman’s journey to self-discovery in post-war Japan.

(Japan, 1946, B&W, 110 mins, dir. Akira Kurosawa, with Setsuko Hara & Susumu Fujita, Japanese with English subtitles)


Stray Dog
Murukami, a young homicide detective, has his pocket picked on a bus and loses his pistol. Frantic and ashamed, he dashes about trying to recover the weapon without success until taken under the wing of an older and wiser detective, Sato. Together they track the culprit.

(Japan, 1949, B&W, 120 min, dir. Akira Kurosawa, with Toshiro Mifune & Takashi Shimura, Japanese with English subtitles.)


Ikiru
Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He learns he is dying of cancer and wants to find some meaning in his life.

(Japan, 1952, 142 mins, dir. Akira Kurosawa, with Takashi Shimura & Nobuo Kanoko, Japanese with English subtitles)

The Greek philosopher Aristotle distinguished between “mere life” and “the good life.” The Good Life involves the principles that express our highest ideals: life as we would like to live it. Not food as nourishment, but food as delight and pleasure; not shelter as mere protection from the elements, but shelter as artistic expression.

Benjamin Franklin thought the good life was a life of improvement, spent pursuing knowledge, cultivating friendship, advancing freedom, and addressing human needs.

For some, The Good Life involves the pursuit of philosophy and theology. For others, it is about politics and economics, psychology and sociology.

Al Pisano, Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, concludes this seven-part series in Engineering as a Force for the Public Good. Pisano presents a host of projects demonstrating the role of engineering in medical advances, transportation safety, sustainable energy and other solutions for the developing world.

Check out other episodes of The Good Life, featuring Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, Political scientist Alan Houston, Professors Fonna Forman, Teddy Cruz, Carol Padden, and Gabriele Wienhausen.