Tag archives: documentary
Although the project was 10 years in the making, director Paul Lamont remembers exactly why he wanted to make The Songpoet, his nearly two-hour exploration of the conflicts of career, family, ego, relationships, and sheer talent vs. achievement that have propelled the great American singer-songwriter Eric Andersen through his half-century-plus career. It was a moment […]
Just over five years ago, Grace Fisher was a normal, healthy, happy, and extremely active high school teenager who was proficient at three musical instruments and eagerly anticipating attending the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston the following fall. Then, out of nowhere, tragedy struck at her 17th birthday party when she suddenly developed a severe […]
The life and accomplishments of one of the most influential but least known Santa Barbara architects will be celebrated at the Lobero Theatre on January 5. LUTAH A Passion for Architecture: A Life of Design tells the story of Lutah Maria Riggs (1896-1984), a protégé of famed architect George Washington Smith, who, among other landmark local buildings […]
Santa Barbara documentary filmmaker/journalist Kevin McKiernan was a rookie NPR reporter in 1973 when he was embedded at Wounded Knee during the famous armed American Indian Movement (AIM) occupation in South Dakota that left two dead and scores arrested. Embedded himself, actually, as McKiernan had to circumvent government roadblocks surrounding the village and resort to […]
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is no stranger to the camera as the actress has starred as Elaine in the iconic sitcom Seinfeld and the title character in the just-concluded HBO hit VEEP, as well as several feature films. She’s collected 11 Emmy Awards, a SAG prize and a Golden Globe. But perhaps her most personal work appears […]
Watching David Crosby: Remember My Name at a SBIFF screening at a sold-out Lobero Theatre back on Super Bowl Sunday last February 3 was a thrilling but almost excruciating experience, made even more so knowing that the aging Santa Barbara-raised rock star was seated just a few rows away, watching himself sing, and squirm, on […]
Echo In The Canyon, Andrew Slater’s documentary about the 1964-68 era in Laurel Canyon when folk-rock bands formed in the neighborhood that offered both seclusion and proximity to Hollywood studios before giving way to the psychedelic and singer-songwriter movements, may well prove to be the most commercially successful movie to have emerged from this year’s […]
Montecito resident Lawrence Dam‘s son-in-law Jason Baffa, who lives in Summerland, is the director and director of photography of the film Loopers, which opens Friday, June 7 at the Hitchcock Cinema & Public House on Hitchcock Way in Santa Barbara. The film takes on a subject I kind of know and absolutely love: golf. And, […]
The Thomas Fire and ensuing Montecito debris flows were devastating to the community. But even worse weather-related disasters could be on the horizon around the globe due to habitat destruction, according to Eric Adler, a longtime Santa Barbara resident and founder of One Season Productions. Adler is making a film on the life and work […]
The mad social whirl was at full throttle when UCSB Arts & Lectures hosted parties for guest speakers at the Granada and Campbell Hall. The first was held at the charming Montecito residence of Audrey and Tim Fisher, the former home of actor James Brolin, for global photographer James Balog, who spoke about his new […]
Last weekend, Santa Barbara marked the 50th anniversary of the famous oil spill that befouled local beaches and, through inspiring Earth Day and the creation the EPA, basically birthed the environmental movement. Earlier in the month, Montecito marked the one-year anniversary of the devastating debris flows that killed 23 people and caused millions in damages. […]
It was an evening of high note, not to mention many others in between, when Opera Santa Barbara pulled out all the stops to celebrate its 25th anniversary at the Lobero Theatre. The company, founded by soprano Marilyn Gilbert and the late Nathan Rundlett, presented a sold-out non-stop “hit parade” of opera favorites, conducted by […]
Last January, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival considered cancelling the city’s premiere cinematic event in the wake of the Thomas Fire and the devastating Montecito debris flows before ultimately deciding to go ahead, partly as a healing offering. This Wednesday, SBIFF 34 kicks off with a locally-produced opening night film catalyzed by another Montecito-related […]
The late Santa Barbara artist and poet Margaret Singer, who died at the age of 98 last year, is the focus of a new documentary by local director and documentary maker Louise Palanker. The 20-minute short “Margaret Singer: Seeking Light” tells how the Frankfurt-born citizen fled Nazism and lost her family in the Holocaust, moving […]
Santa Barbara director Andrew Davis, better known for his Hollywood action films, including The Fugitive, has returned to the world of documentaries with an intimate portrait of two renowned local photographers, Tony Vaccaro and an old friend Santi Visalli. In Mentors – Tony & Santi, Davis focuses on the warm supportive relationship between the twosome […]
Six years after its world premiere at the Lobero, the theater she designed, animal activist Gretchen Lieff‘s award-winning documentary on Santa Barbara architect Lutah Maria Riggs, had a sold-out reprise showing as gale-force winds blew. Having attended the first event – I am even mentioned in the credits – it was nice to see such […]
The film about the late Montecito actor Tab Hunter’s tumultuous relationship with Psycho star Anthony Perkins in 1950s Hollywood is nearly ready for blastoff! Allan Glaser, Tab’s companion for 35 years, who is producing the Paramount project Tab & Tony with J.J. Abrams and Zachary Quinto, tells me exclusively Brit Wash Westmoreland, 53, who directed […]
Next Wednesday, January 16, the Partnership for Resilient Communities and Montecito Union School’s superintendent Anthony Ranii will host an informational community meeting to discuss realistic opportunities to mitigate future debris flows. In late December, the Partnership received emergency permits to proceed with the installation of 11 debris flow control nets in San Ysidro, Buena Vista, […]
Santa Barbara photographer-videographer Isaac Hernandez, a Spanish immigrant who has lived in our Eden by the Beach for three decades, has compiled a film documentary he describes as “a love letter to the history, people, environment, and organizations” that make our tony town so special. The 53-minute project, Better Together: Through Oil, Mud and Fire […]
Montecito documentary maker Harry Rabin‘s latest work, The Night It Rained Boulders, about the recent fire, flash floods, and mudslides in our rarefied enclave, has been showing on The Weather Channel. The 44-minute film took two months to come to fruition with Harry, 64, starting shooting December 4 with the outbreak of the Thomas Fire, […]
