Arts & Culture
UC Santa Cruz opens cutting-edge Social Documentation Lab to advance justice through film
UC Santa Cruz’s new Social Documentation Laboratory provides a collaborative, inclusive space for graduate students to merge media production with critical scholarship and social justice.
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Key takeaways
- UC Santa Cruz’s Film and Digital Media Department has opened a state-of-the-art lab at the Westside Research Park to support graduate students in socially engaged media production.
- The lab features accessible, sensory-friendly spaces and professional-grade equipment to foster experimentation, inclusion, and interdisciplinary collaboration between M.F.A. and Ph.D. students.
- The space enhances the department’s mission to combine critical scholarship with creative work, providing a venue for both media creation and thoughtful dialogue on social justice issues.
The University of California, Santa Cruz’s Film and Digital Media Department has launched a new Social Documentation Laboratory at the Westside Research Park, expanding the university’s capacity to support graduate students working at the intersection of media production, social justice, and critical scholarship.
The lab opened earlier this year to students in the M.F.A. in Social Documentation (SocDoc) and the Ph.D. in Film and Digital Media programs. Both emphasize a practice-based, interdisciplinary approach to media studies, grounded in questions of equity, ethics, and engagement.
“This lab reflects a longstanding commitment in our department to pairing creative work with critical analysis and community-based inquiry,” said Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, a professor in FDM who led the Lab’s development and completion as its founding faculty director.
SocDoc, established in 2005, remains the only graduate documentary program of its kind in the UC system. It is designed for students who enter with a well-defined project and a clear social justice orientation, often with prior field experience. The curriculum combines training in cinematic storytelling with coursework in history, politics, anthropology, and other disciplines that help students situate their projects in broader contexts.
The new facility builds on this foundation by offering dedicated space for experimentation and collaboration. It includes a classroom, a high-end color grading suite, an installation gallery, and a professional audio mixing and recording studio.The design process prioritized universal design principles, including wheelchair accessibility and sensory-friendly spaces, such as a quiet room for neurodivergent students.
Taylor worked closely with UC Santa Cruz architect and project manager Andrea Hilderman to ensure the space would be inclusive and conducive to collaborative work. “From the beginning, we were thinking not just about equipment, but about the environment–how to create a space where a diverse range of students could feel welcome, supported, and creatively challenged,” Taylor said.
The lab also encourages closer collaboration between SocDoc and Ph.D. students. “Our graduate students interact a lot in classroom settings, but this new space will really allow them to create and collaborate together in new, research- and practice-focused ways,” said Peter Limbrick, chair of the Film and Digital Media Department. “The lab even includes space for students to experiment with multi-screen installation work. I’m excited for all the new connections and collaborations that will be nurtured there.”
Sound designer and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jim LeBrecht, Professor Jennifer Maytorena Taylor (L), and Professor Chari Glogovac-Smith (R) in the Lab’s mixing room during the launch party. (Photo by Karolina Karlic)
The lab will not only serve as a production space but also a venue for presenting and discussing works-in-progress, fostering dialogue across cohorts and between theory and practice. Faculty hope the space will support both the creative and scholarly aims of the department, while offering students hands-on experience with industry-standard tools and workflows.
“As a department, we’re interested in how media can be used critically and constructively,” Limbrick added. “This lab gives students the infrastructure to pursue that work in a meaningful and collaborative environment.”