Sitting in the sand at Santa Barbara’s West Beach, on what is originally the Chumash village Syuxtun, 19-year-old filmmaker Spenser Jaimes looks out onto the ocean toward the islands —which he also refers to by their original names: Tuqan (San Miguel), Wi’ma (Santa Rosa), Limuw (Santa Cruz), and ‘Anyapakh (Anacapa) — telling of his family’s roots, and the deeply beautiful culture that has existed along the coast for thousands of years.
Jaimes, whose Šmuwič-Chumash heritage can be traced back to Syuxtun and the island of Limuw, made a splash at the 2022 Santa Barbara International Film Festival with his first-ever short documentary Connected By Water, which documented a traditional paddle out in the channel by relatives from the Coastal Band of the Chumash, Tongva, and Acjachemen tribal nations in redwood-plank tomols.
He has since started Limuw Productions, and is currently researching his next project, which will focus on the 1824 Mission Revolt, which he says is often told through a Spanish or American historical lens.