Illuminate Film Fest Will Light up the Town

Santa Barbara certainly has no dearth of film festivals, but until now there hasn’t been a festival that directly addresses the region’s rare confluence of people who are both cinema-savvy and socially conscious. If Illuminate hadn’t come along, perhaps someone would have had to invent one to interact at that intersection. 

Fortunately, the Illuminate Film Festival spent its first nine years germinating in Sedona, AZ, allowing it to grow organically in a much smaller environment than our seaside city just 90 miles from Hollywood. When the founder decided to step away, she sought out the co-directors of the Shift Your World Film Festival, which ran online through the Shift Network during the pandemic: Téana David and Kit Thomas, who have lived here for five years. The couple are their own mini-version of cinema-savvy and socially conscious. David, who curated and produced over 75 events a year with leading spiritual teachers, environmental leaders, visionaries, holistic doctors, and others as director of Deepak Chopra’s Home Base, shares a similar vision with Thomas, an Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and music producer. 

On April 4, Chopra will deliver the keynote address to kick off Illuminate 2024, a long weekend that encompasses 11 film screenings and a wide variety of ancillary events that separate the festival – which is “Dedicated to spreading enlightened ideas and pushing humanity forward” – from anything similar. 

“Illuminate is an evolutionary film festival with the mission to leverage the power of cinema to help us become better versions of ourselves, both individually and as a questing humanity,” said David, the festival’s executive director (Thomas serves as director of programming and industry relations). “What differentiates Illuminate from some activist and environmental film festivals is that we believe that true and lasting change begins within.”

Thus the festival’s movies don’t just raise awareness about issues but also instigate moving beyond simply being solution-oriented to actually inspiring a shift in consciousness, David said. “Once that happens, all of our actions are coming from a more awakened perspective, and then change happens organically.”

Opening Night film Love Over Money chronicles John Robbins, the Baskin-Robbins heir who left a life of luxury to forge his own path, including writing the bestseller Diet for a New America. A remastered edition of Fantastic Fungi, the nature doc focusing on the healing power of mushrooms, will be followed by a panel discussion about the role of psilocybin and other psychedelics in personal and planetary healing with director Louie Schwartzberg and Jacob Tell, founder of District 216, Santa Barbara’s psychedelic social club. 

Many of the other films have local connections: Jacob the Baker is about the fictional sage created by author Noah benShea, who will be interviewed after the screening, while a 20th anniversary celebration of the genre-bending, mind-altering journey into the cellular, molecular and quantum worlds What the Bleep Do We Know!? finishes with a Q&A session with co-director Will Arntz. Environmental activist, philanthropist and Holocaust survivor Eva Haller will be presented with Illuminate’s Local Luminary Award after a screening of Eva Haller: A Work in Progress. Dr. Joe Dispenza will conduct an in-person presentation after the screening of Source, which unveils a scientific study to examine what happens when we meditate, using a Dispenza retreat as testing grounds. 

Uncharitable, which introduces a radical new way of giving, will be followed by a panel with Community Environmental Council CEO Sigrid Wright and CalNonprofits CEO Geoff Green, among others. 

“There’s a thirst for films that carry messages of hope and solutions, and an awareness of humans’ role in healing our planet,” David said. “But the work doesn’t stop when the movie ends.” 

With connection and collaboration a big part of the method, Illuminate also features a few social events, including happy hour gatherings, a dance party at SOhO, and a closing celebration at CEC’s new Hub. 

“We’re marrying entertainment with enlightenment,” David said. “Bringing people together around meaningful and entertaining events accelerates our collective growth. We believe that to change the world, you also have to throw a better party.”

Illuminate Film Festival takes place April 4-7. Visit https://2024.illuminatefilmfestival.com.