International science fiction filmmakers, often sidelined by Hollywood, are shining brightly at UCLA.

The UCLA Film & Television Archive and the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television’s cinema and media studies program debuted their long-awaited film series “Science Fiction Against the Margins” on Oct. 4. For 12 nights until Dec. 14, 39 science fiction films from 21 countries will screen at the Billy Wilder Theater and offer live Q&A sessions with select filmmakers participating in the event. Distinguished professor in the UCLA department of film, television and digital media, Chon Noriega, said thinking about science fiction in the international context is essential for considering differing perspectives.

“We needed to think internationally but get beyond just supporting other industries,” Noriega said. “We wanted to look at the films, whether they’re coming from an industry, the independent sector, people in exile or those who are a part of a social or political movement within that society and separate it from the kind of resources of the nation itself.”

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Noriega said art can be understood as a universal human ability as humans are rational beings who can think abstractly and be creative. He emphasized the importance of telling stories from various perspectives because when art comes from only one group, that group has complete control over how stories are told. When a country controls their artistic market, the majority of distributed and profiting films are made within the same country, he said. This type of monopoly has political and ideological ramifications, he added.

“If the discussion about democracy is just about the United States, if the discussion of what cinema is and can do is just about Hollywood, you’re missing something,” Noriega said. “You are reducing an understanding of the entire world to the framework that is useful and functional for one country.”

Some of the filmmakers recognized in the series are working transnationally, said Maya Montañez Smukler, head of the UCLA Film & Television Archive Research and Study Center. For example, Mexican American filmmaker Alex Rivera created a fictional film called “Sleep Dealer” about the border between Mexico and the United States that will be shown Nov. 3. The film critiques U.S. policy on the border, said Nicole Ucedo, the programming coordinator at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. “Sleep Dealer” is inspired by the Bracero Program, where, during the day, Mexican workers were in the U.S. to earn day wages, only to cross the border later and return to Mexico, she said.

Filmmakers are also able to critique colonialism through science fiction, said Anisia Uzeyman, a director of one of the films that will be showcased Oct. 19, “Neptune Frost.” The science fiction genre often acts as a way to share the perspective of the oppressed when the creator is the oppressor, she added. “Neptune Frost” challenges this framework as it was shot in Rwanda, Africa, as opposed to excluding the African continent as much of the science fiction world does, Uzeyman said.

“Science Fiction Against the Margins” includes those outside of mainstream film production and political, social and cultural identities, said Paul Malcolm, senior public programmer at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Traditionally, many science fiction films have a high price of entry, as the genre is characterized by futuristic technologies, cities, aliens and spaceships, Malcolm said. In contrast, the Western genre is often characterized by a horse, a gun and an open plain, which is generally inexpensive, he added.

Another common feature in science fiction is the use of a single male protagonist, Smukler said. This protagonist is challenged with a life-and-death dilemma, and science fiction films are often centered around that singular character – often a man – she added. Science fiction films in this series can challenge this trope with different heroes such as a child, a group of people or a protagonist from another planet, Smukler said.

“That’s something that really stood out to us, is that hero that is so central to the science fiction film, when the science fiction film is so much about saving the world, … to sort of play around and push the boundaries of what a hero could be,” she said. “Does it have to be singular? Does it have to be this certain kind of character?”

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More work can be done in the science fiction genre to improve it because of how closely related it is to propaganda, Uzeyman said. This connection disempowers many people, and science fiction provides the opportunity to empower communities by talking about those who are not acknowledged, she added. Minorities are sometimes exclusively portrayed as being unintelligent and are exploited for their imagination due to the lack of credit for their innovations, Uzeyman said. Noriega hopes “Science Against the Margins” can play a role in diversifying the conversations about films.

“I hope it (the genre) will go in the hands of the … younger generations of the South,” Uzeyman said. “I really wish to see the global majority, the Global South, take on the future of that genre. I think there’s a lot of material there that, if they are not exploited or extracted from there, and really spoken from there, I think that could be a very interesting and beautiful emergence.”