Cine-Tribal Rites Meets Miranda Rights

The night had me at the Klieg lights. After the ups and downs, COVID-related compromises, and general unease about the state of things, the kitschy showbiz splendor of swirling Klieg lights outside the Arlington signaled something special with last night’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival opening night. The lights evoked beams from heaven, rather than manmade beams reaching up longingly to the heavens.

Okay, the imagery is cheesy and hyperbolic, and it wouldn’t pass muster in a screenwriting class. But you get the point: Let us say “Hallelujah” for the dawning of SBIFF 2023.

After the red carpet ritual, the evening — featuring the world premiere of the interesting legal/human drama Miranda’s Victim — opened with radically different welcome mats. In his introduction to the evening, Mayor Randy Rowse kindly welcomed the locals and visiting throngs, suggesting that visitors enjoy restaurants and all that the tourist destination of Santa Barbara has to offer, and “maybe take in one or two films.” By contrast, longstanding festival Executive Director Roger Durling unveiled a passionate dedication to the obsessive nature of the cinephile “tribe” who could avail themselves of, say, six films a day, starting with the “breakfast club” screenings at 8 a.m. “We eat films for breakfast,” Durling exuded, exaggerating only slightly. (I personally like the doable four-or-five-films-a-day model).