True Crime Time at SBIFF’s Opener

True Crime Time
at SBIFF’s Opener

By Leslie Dinaberg | February 2, 2023

From the SBIFF Opening Night Film Miranda’s Victim | Credit: Courtesy

Read all of the stories in our “Locals-Only Sneak Peek at SBIFF” cover here.

“It all comes down to the desire to tell stories,” says Michelle Danner, who will tell the story of a true crime and courtroom drama when her film Miranda’s Victim has its world premiere as the opening night movie for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 8 at the Arlington Theatre.

Based on the 1963 kidnapping and rape case that ultimately established the laws regarding the notifications given by police to criminal suspects in custody that advise them of their right to silence, Danner says she immediately saw the importance of the story of Trish Weir (played by Little Miss Sunshine herself, Abigail Breslin, who is now 26 years old), the young woman who was kidnapped and brutally raped by Ernesto Miranda. The subsequent trials went all the way to the Supreme Court and led to creation of the Miranda Rights.

Not only does the film have historical significance, “it’s an important story, especially since it has never been taught,” says Danner, an actress and well regarded acting teacher and founder of the Creative Center for the Arts and the Los Angeles Acting Conservatory, as well as a director. “I’ve had movies where I’ve had the dialogue of the right to remain silent and all of that. And I never questioned it, which is so incredible, all these years that I’ve been on this earth listening to this, and I’ve never questioned the origin of the story.”