Focus on Film 

Trick question: Is Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – one of this summer’s hits –twice as good as the 1988 original? Not so much, which is why seeing Tim Burton’s now-classic 36-year-old Beetlejuice on Halloween seems like a special sort of holiday treat as it opens the Ojai Film Festival with a free screening in Libbey Park. The five-day extravaganza, which is marking its 25^th year, once again presents a diverse selection of films, workshops, panels, and special events from October 31-November 4. Film highlights include Water for Life, Los Frikis, the documentary 999 — The Forgotten Girls, The Italians by Michelle Danner (who directed Miranda’s Victim, last year’s opening night film at SBIFF), Death Pays Flora a Visit, The Cigarette Surfboard, and the annual Gold Coast section showcasing locally produced films. A panel on “Navigating Film Distribution,” a live reading of the Screenplay Competition winner’s script, and a couple of parties are special attractions. Visit www.ojaifilmfestival.com for details, schedule and tickets. 

Closer to town, the Alcazar Theatre in Carpinteria hosts a couple of cinematic special events starting November 2 with ECHOES: A George Greenough Experimental Show – a 50-minute six-pack of shorts digitally re-mastered in 4k by the Santa Barbara native surfer, surf photographer, shaper and filmmaking pioneer who was an early entrant in the visual documentation of deep tube riding. Greenough, who now lives mostly in Australia, will be on hand for a Q&A… The following night, the Alcazar screens The Bet, a fictional film about a grandfather and teenage boy produced by the nonprofit Community Film Studio Santa Barbara. A panel discussion with the filmmakers follows. Visit www.thealcazar.org/calendar.

The annual Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival gets underway November 6 with an opening night gala at the newly remodeled Bronfman Jewish Community Center, home of the festival’s fundraising beneficiary Santa Barbara Jewish Federation. The gala will be followed by a screening of Bliss at the New Vic, about a married couple with a more than 20-year age gap who must confront painful truths. Eight more films are on the slate, including Rob Mor’s Echoes of Loss: Eight Days in Israel, which pits his own personal loss of his wife against the tragedy of the Israel-Gaza crisis. Ádám Breier’s dark comedy All About the Levkoviches closes out the fest on November 10. Visit www.sbjewishfilmfestival.org.