Tag archives: SBIFF
The NatureTrack Film Festival began in 2018 as a way to raise funds and draw attention to the then-seven-year-old nonprofit NatureTrack Foundation, which brings schoolchildren out into nature for docent-led treks along trails in the Santa Ynez Valley. With nature now even more important during the pandemic as outdoor activity is far less conducive to […]
Normally a designation as a red zone would mean no parking or even stopping. But when it comes to pandemic procedures, the designation is more like rolling out a red carpet, as two weeks of reduced cases means more businesses can reopen. Accordingly, Metropolitan Theatres plans to welcome back moviegoers at two of the Santa […]
Longtime Santa Barbara writer Peggy O’Toole Lamb plumbed her own family history for her latest nonfiction book, Darling – Love Letters from WWII. The alumnus of UC Santa Barbara’s Teacher Education Program researched the letters that her uncle Frank J. Foster wrote to her aunt Catherine during WWII when he fought in the European Theater […]
Although there is still a dispute over whether it was Napoleon or Adam Smith who coined the phrase “The British are a nation of shopkeepers,” there is no dispute that beekeepers in Santa Barbara want to convince us that America is a “nation of beekeepers.” The Beelievers, a short documentary made by UCSB graduate filmmaker […]
Whales Without Walls, which screened at the 2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival this past winter, is essentially a five-minute argument for a modern real-life solution to the issues that were addressed in the fiction film Free Willy. The mission of the Whale Sanctuary Project is to establish a model seaside sanctuary where whales and […]
Santa Barbara International Film Festival Film Talk finds its way to the Montecito hills for a viewing and discussion of The Garden is Singing, Karen Kasaba’s 11-minute paean to Ganna Walska’s Lotusland that screened as part of the 2019 film festival. Singing does a credible job of capturing the beauty, diversity, history, and breadth of […]
Vera Cruz, the short film by UCSB professor and veteran documentarian Christopher Jenkins that follows artist-architect Jeff Shelton as he cajoles the creative community into decorating the outside of a colorful house at 521 Santa Barbara Street, gets renewed focus as this week’s entry in the film festival’s new online series of screenings and discussions […]
Guitarist Bruce Goldish was one of Santa Barbara’s most beloved folk heroes even before his unfortunate run-in with an auxiliary police officer. That encounter forced the musician to temporarily halt his habit of bringing his van to Parking Lot. No. 9, pulling out his guitar, and entertaining and often mystifying State Street pedestrians coming out […]
Residents with a love for the outdoors – and isn’t that just about everyone in Montecito – might have a particular interest in the second event in Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s new Film Talk series that features viewings of short films produced locally followed by Q&A sessions with the filmmakers. The 15-minute Trail Heads […]
In other SBIFF-related news, psychological thriller The Night has received a license for theatrical release in Iran, serving as a historic benchmark for the country’s filmmaking community as it is the first U.S.-produced film to receive such permission since the revolution more than 40 years ago. Why that matters in our little berg is that […]
The Riviera Theatre is once again closed due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19, and online screenings of new arts films have also come to a close, or at least hasn’t ramped up again as the new closures aren’t in effect nationwide. So turning even more local, SBIFF has segued into a new online […]
Film is a medium that lends itself perfectly to streaming and other methods of home delivery, perhaps a perfectly-placed panacea during the pandemic, entertainment-wise at least. No one needs an introduction to Netflix, Amazon Prime and the like, but perhaps some prodding is in order to visit our local cinematic specialists. The Santa Barbara International […]
Amazing Grace, the locally-made documentary about Grace Fisher, a 17-year-old dancer, cellist, pianist, and guitarist who contracted a rare polio-like disease that left her a quadriplegic, gets an encore screening at the Marjorie Luke this weekend. Encouraged by her mentors including Justin Hurwitz (the Montecito-raised Academy Award winning composer of the La La Land soundtrack) […]
With SBIFF barely six weeks gone, the time seems ripe for more film fests to find local favor, as three different offerings arrive in town this week. The fifth annual Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival since the event was resurrected by the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara takes place March 11-15 at the New […]
The red carpets have all been rolled back up, the klieg lights turned off, and filmmakers have gone on to the next festival along with their movies. But there’s still one final freebie for local film lovers before SBIFF calls it quits on its 35th festival. That would be the Third Weekend screenings, which although […]
It had to be the biggest night ever for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) and I’ve been to all 34. This was the evening they honored Brad Pitt with the Maltin Modern Master Award. As I approached the Arlington Theatre the street had been blocked off and there were solid people clear across […]
There are just three days left in SBIFF 35, and with all of the tribute evenings being front-loaded at this year’s festival, no more stars walking the red carpet. Unless you are an advocate of the auteur theory, that is, in which case there’s one more big event on the SBIFF slate in the annual […]
Writer-director-producer Jason Wise – whose previous documentaries include the much-lauded SOMM trilogy, had little idea what he was in for when he started making his latest film, The Delicacy, about Santa Barbara’s urchin diving industry. “Urchin is my favorite food, and I wanted to spend more time up there,” said the L.A. resident who did […]
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 […]
It’s easy to see why Katharine O’Brien calls her Montecito upbringing “a Cinderella Story.” The future filmmaker was just nine years old when her mother, Carla, a Santa Barbara native who had moved back home after years on the East Coast following a divorce from Katharine’s father, met Stephen Hahn, the distinguished billionaire art dealer […]
