**CANCELLED** — “Grand Theft Eco” Episode 1 Screening

Given the uncertainty surrounding a possible UAW strike starting next week, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Monday, May 20 screening of Grand Theft Eco. Rest assured, we will hold an official launch event at a future date TBD for us to celebrate this vital project together.

We appreciate your understanding, and we will provide a new date when we have it.

Grand Theft Eco is a machinima series and pedagogical engine that repurposes the video game Grand Theft Auto to explore possible eco-futures of LA in the year 2050. Each episode offers an alternative to dominant dystopian narratives about climate change futures by developing nuanced storyworlds in which crucial environmental problems have been addressed, but issues of social inequality continue to trouble how the solutions are experienced.

This premiere screening shares the first episode of Grand Theft Eco, The iBear in the River, which focuses on a vibrant and revitalized LA River landscape that brings together two teenagers, Kerstin Connor and Yolanda Arellanos, in an adventurous chase to retrieve a lost electronic toy. As the girls explore the landscapes and neighborhoods along the river, they forge a temporary friendship that persistent inequalities ultimately drive apart.