Looking to the Local
for Docs to Watch
A First Peek at Some of the Films
of Special Interest to Santa Barbarans
By Leslie Dinaberg | February 2, 2023
Read all of the stories in our “Locals-Only Sneak Peek at SBIFF” cover here.
We’re just starting to scratch the surface of the treasure trove of films to look forward to at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. A few things to mark your calendars for (with many more to come):
It’s always a treat to see short films on the big screen, and it’s double the entertainment when our friends and neighbors are involved. Among the local highlights to look forward to is the “Turning Trauma Into Resiliency” themed Santa Barbara Shorts 1 program (February 16 at 7:40 p.m. at Fiesta 5; February 18 at 11:40 a.m. at Metro 4) featuring Voces de Old Town Carpinteria, which preserves and bears witness to a small slice of Carpinteria and — as co-producer Leslie A. Westbrook says — “the important and stunningly horrible history through interviews with the living former students from the town’s segregated schools, which lasted until 1947.” The film stars five Carpinterians, including 102-year-old Josephine Villegas and narrator/historian Dr. Jim Campos. Westbrook worked on the film with director Brent Winebrenner and co-producer Suzanne Requejo, whose mother went to Aliso Elementary School when it was segregated.
Also in the “Turning Trauma Into Resiliency” program are: The Golden Cage (a mother and son travel to the Mexican-U.S. border to reunite after decades), directed by Francisco Lopez and Mitchka Saberi; Lamara (ex-rebels in Uganda), directed by Bo Yoon Ha; Telos (entrepreneurs on a wilderness adventure guided by Joshua Johnson), directed by Jesse Hovey; and Waves Apart (a Jewish surfer confronts the anti-Semitic history of the sport), directed by Josh Greene.
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