Director Soderbergh Kicks Off UCLA’s ‘The Movie That Inspired Me’ Series

Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic”) leads off the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s “The Movie That Inspired Me” series Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Following a screening of Hal Ashby’s 1979 film “Being There,” starring Peter Sellers, Soderbergh will take part in an informal discussion and Q&A; moderated by fellow filmmaker and archive director Curtis Hanson (“Wonder Boys”).

Soderbergh rose to prominence in 1989 with the success of his first feature, “sex, lies & videotape,” which is often credited as the launching point of the independent film boom. He scored back-to-back critical and commercial hits last year with “Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic” and will be back in theaters later this year with a remake of the Rat Pack-Vegas heist film “Oceans 11,” starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.

The screening replaces the previously announced pairing of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and the film “What Happened Was . . .”

Future participants include Drew Barrymore presenting “Annie Hall” on May 31, Sean Penn screening “Minnie and Moskowitz” June 1, and an artist and film to be announced on June 5.

All screenings are at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall on the northeast corner of the UCLA campus near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue. Admission is $7 general and $5 for students, senior citizens and UCLA Alumni Assn. members with ID. For more information, call (310) 206-FILM or visit the Web site, https://www.cinema.ucla.edu.