Tag archives: SBIFF
Multi-Oscar nominee Will Smith was in fine form when he received the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award with co-star Aunjanue Ellis for their roles in the Warner Bros. movie King Richard, about the father of international racketeers Serena and Venus Williams, at the Arlington as part of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Smith, […]
Just three days are left in Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) ‘22, but that’s still plenty of time to partake of a plethora of movies in virtually every genre as a significant percentage of the films are either premiering or having second screenings March 10-12, while others might enjoy a third showing to fill […]
Maune Contemporary, a new art gallery, has opened on State Street next to the Arlington Theatre. It is the second location for owners Ramsey and Heidi Maune, who opened their first gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, four years ago. “It has been a longtime dream of ours to open a gallery here,” Heidi told me at […]
There’s something appealing about seeing an aging actress playing an aging actress discussing acting, movies, and life in a movie. Not in the least because it’s still exceedingly difficult for actresses “of a certain age” – even in our era of more awareness – to find meaty roles. That’s partly why the veteran British star […]
Academy Award aficionados and other Oscarologists will have a field day at SBIFF ‘22 all within the fest’s first few days. All five nominated directors (including Steven Spielberg!) appear at the Arlington on March 3, followed by Kristen Stewart on March 4, the now nine-strong Virtuosos Award in the wake of the Writers’ (with eight […]
One year after the Santa Barbara International Film Festival went virtual with a bonus drive-in at the beach option, the city’s signature wintertime event is back as a full 11-day extravaganza. The festival is back to full-strength complete with Oscar-nominated movie stars doing on-stage interviews at the Arlington (with Penélope Cruz joining a line-up that […]
Transform Through Arts Theater’s annual Colors of Love dance show at Center Stage Theater returns to its usual Valentine’s Day weekend performance slot for 2022 after moving to August due to the pandemic last year, and the local collective’s approach to the concept of love has expanded in the interim. “It’s evolved into more diversity […]
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has rounded out its list of tribute honorees for the 37th annual fest in early March, with the announcement that Benedict Cumberbatch, whose portrayal of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game earned him an Oscar nomination, will receive the Cinema Vanguard Award for his performance in current Oscar favorite […]
Kulāiwi has only been together for less than two years, but the three Hawaiian musicians that make up the group – Lehua Kalima, Shawn Pimental, and Kawika Kahiapo – have been making music of the islands for decades. Between them they have claimed dozens of Na Hoku Hanohano Awards, which is considered Hawaii’s equivalent of […]
Carpinteria native Mike Eliason has taken tens of thousands of photos over the course of his 35-year career as a photographer in town. Eliason spent the first quarter-century as a newspaper photojournalist who worked for just about every paper in town, capturing sunsets and shooting alongside wildlife and wildfires before the Santa Barbara County Fire […]
Credit Crane Country Day School and music teacher Konrad Kono for honing Trixie Blue’s interest in 1980s pop music. “I’ve been messing around with music forever,” explained Trixie, who drops her last name, Garnett, while making music. “I’ve always been playing instruments and singing, but it was Crane and Mr. Kono who really got me […]
It’s not hyperbole at all to suggest that the original production of Kismet that will play three performances at the Granada Theatre later this month might be the most exciting show ever to play in Santa Barbara. While official touring shows of classic Broadway hits and more modern musical fare are still appearing at the […]
Santa Barbara writer Claudia Hoag McGarry has been involved in the arts in town for more than 30 years, including teaching English Skills at SBCC for more than three decades, publishing three novels including two thrillers and a young adult memoir, producing four plays all in the historical drama genre, and writing screenplays and even […]
San Francisco-based photographer Jay Blakesberg is a self-confessed Deadhead whose work has appeared everywhere from Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, Relix to Time, and Vanity Fair. Over a 40-plus-year career he has taken pictures of innumerable rock legends, including the Grateful Dead, Phish, Radiohead, Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, and Tom Waits, to […]
With the continued easing of pandemic restrictions, PCPA is returning after two summers to the Solvang Festival Theater, the charming outdoor amphitheater in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley village. The stars will be live on stage as well as visible in the sky above starting in mid-July, when PCPA debuts an original production […]
The population of western monarch butterflies — the majestic insects that migrate from nearby states to spend the cold months in groves of trees between Marin County and San Diego — has declined more than 99 percent since the 1980s, a dramatic drop that has sadly been verified by their disappearance from our own famous […]
The Pollock Theatre at UCSB jumps back into the post-SBIFF fray in mid-spring with three events within a single week. Appropriate for Earth Day weekend, Pollock’s virtual filmmaker series dives into the 2020 documentary Frozen Obsession, which follows the 18-day, 2,000-mile Northwest Passage Project expedition through the stunningly beautiful and extreme Canadian Arctic, aboard the […]
The opening sequence of UCSB Dance Department’s COVID-coping triptych of dance films shows a series of eerily empty spaces all over the seaside campus. But it’s not meant to be a metaphor or pandering to the pandemic, said artistic director Delila Moseley, a longtime professor of dance at UCSB. Moseley has been able to actually […]
Who doesn’t like an inspirational story? Climb is a documentary of courage and determination that begins with Neil Myers, who lives in Santa Barbara. It had its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It also won the best documentary in the Sweden Film Awards and has been selected for the Columbia Film […]
Veteran journalist and author Robert Whiting is one of only a few Western writers to have written a regular newspaper column in the Japanese language. The author of several highly successful books on Japan and the city where he has lived on and off for more than half a century include the best-selling You Gotta […]
