SBIFF’s 10-10-10 Films Earn a 10 for Creativity
Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Educational Mentorship Program Takes on a Climate Crisis Theme
Student filmmakers stand onstage at the 10-10-10 presentation | Credit: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images for SBIFF
A refreshing look at filmmaking from a young point-of-view, Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s 10-10-10 initiative is also one of the highlights of the festival’s educational mission. The program provides filmmaking mentors for ten high school and ten college students for a five-month program which then results in ten films to be screened during the Film Festival.
This year’s crop of shorts — themed around the climate crisis — showcased the work of 20 high school and college students (in addition to their many friends and family members who were enlisted into the process), with winners from a competitive application process paired into writer-director teams since October.
The overall quality of all of the films was impressive, especially when SBIFF Education Manager Claire Waterhouse shared at the end of the screening that all of the work had been done on iPhones. Students worked with teams of professional mentors, including program directors Guy Smith and Mimi Armstrong deGruy; screenwriting mentors Russ Brown, Josh Conviser, Prudence Fraser, Kate Juergens, Jeff King, Paul Kurta, Perry Lang, Glenn Leopold, Joe Medjuck, and Robert Sternin; visual effects mentor Leslie Ekker; casting mentor Olivia Harris; directing mentors James Read, Tracy Trotter, Judy Trotter, and Leslie Zemeckis; sound mentor; David Schneiderman, and producing mentor Sascha Schneider.
