SB Independent • Meet the Makers 2016, 02/04/16

independent.com presents

interviews

with the nominees

MFA

in Writing & Contemporary Media low residency program

Tell Your Stories AUSB’s new low-residency MFA in Writing & Contemporary Media program will help you strengthen your talent so you can tell your stories in whatever genre you choose: whether you like the page, the stage, or the screen. Join the new storytellers starting in December 2016. > Film, Stage, Adaptation,

> Video Game Writing and

> Journalism, Criticism, and

> Radio Broadcasting

and Television Writing Opinion Writing

Narrative Design

Learn more at:

antiochsb.edu/writer Antioch University is a not-for-profit private institution accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

2 | February 4, 2016 | santa barbara international Film Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

independent.com presents

Meet The Makers Interviews with the nominees

Welcome to the 2016 edition of Meet the Makers, The Santa Barbara Independent’s fifth annual collection of interviews with filmmakers whose works are bedent ing showcased by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

This year’s magazine features edited versions of more than 40 filmmaker interviews — including 11 World Premieres and 13 U.S. Premieres — but rememonber that extended versions, as well as another 30+ interviews, can be found on line at independent.com/sbiff.

Keep in mind that this is just a slice of what can be found at the film fest, where more than 200 films from 60+ countries will be screened. Also, some of these films are in multiple sidebars, which we note on those interviews.

Happy movie-going!

TABLE OF CONTENTS • • • • • • • • • • special presentations The High Sun • Lamb • Viva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Amerika • Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt • Oyster Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Documentaries It Had to Be You • Alex & Eve • The Pickle Recipe • Mammal • Who’s Driving Doug . . . . 10 inDepenDents international Koza • You Carry Me • Parched . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 above anD beYonD Crossing Bhutan • Mad Dogs • Standing on Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Bizarre: A Circus Story • One More Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 cinematic overtures A Classy Broad • Being George Clooney • Floyd Norman: An Animated Life Global hollYWooD Harold & Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story • Projections of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Kolnoa Against Your Will • Hotline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 noir Fire Birds • Lazar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 norDic The Midwife • The Fencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The Dark Side of the Ocean • Huntwatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 reel nature The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille • A Single Frame • Wheels over Paradise • Local Heroes. . . 39 santa barbara Cooking Up a Tribute • The Missing Ingredient screen cuisine Craft: The California Beer Documentary • Miso Hungry • City of Gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 social justice 10 Billion: What’s on Your Plate? • The Champions • Thank You for Your Service . . . . . . 51 spanish/latin america

Showroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Editor: Matt Kettmann; Design: Ben Ciccati, Caitlin Fitch; Contributors: Kelsey Brugger, Richie DeMaria, Charles Donelan, Michelle Drown, Léna Garcia, Keith Hamm, Tyler Hayden, Ethan Stewart, Nick Welsh; Production: Jackson Friedman, Diane Mooshoolzadeh, Amy Smith

Celebrity interviews @ independent.com/sbiff • Tribute coverage @ independent.com/sbiff More filmmakers interviews @ independent.com/sbiff • Meet even more makers @ independent.com/sbiff Red carpet photo galleries update daily @ independent.com/sbiff • Full SBIFF schedule @ independent.com/sbiff

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SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS • • • crOwD-pleasing FilMs applauDeD bY Festivals acrOss the wOrlD

the hIGh Sun

DirectOr DalibOr Matanic zvizdan.com

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his epic Croatian feature follows multiple timelines and plots amid the past 30 years, a period full of war and ethnic strife in the Balkans. It’s visually arresting in its sweeping scenes, which are full of heavy drama, impeccable acting, and ambitious cinematic tropes, a combination that at times almost screams for Academy Award attention.

What do you hope to convey to the rest of the world about the past 30 years in Croatia? I am afraid that the topic I’ve picked does not tell only about Croatian history. Hatred is something we witness almost daily, not only in the Balkan region, but everywhere. If it is not hatred toward other nations, then it is toward other religion or a different political strategy, a different sexual orientation, a neighbor’s car, and so on. There are many reasons for intolerance because it is much easier to express a negative feeling than a noble one, such as love or compassion. I want to bring those who hate face-to-face with this film.

Do films like this help Croatians heal from their troubled past? I would say that it has a therapeutic effect. My aim was to tell, using cinematic means, that the highest human principal, such as love, can overcome all the ethnic differences, troubled heritage, political, or social intolerance. Facing the audience over the past few months, I believe I’ve reached that aim.

Is Croatian filmmaking influenced by modern American techniques? I simply adore the best from the American and European, same as from the Asian cinematography. What I consider to be the most important goal is to communicate important and high topics with the audience, no matter where the movie was filmed or where it is consumed. If the audience around the globe understands the message of the story, then we can say that the piece is universal, and that is of crucial importance for me.

Did the great acting take a lot of directing?

We have had intensive and long rehearsals prior to shoot. My two lead actors are great, hardworking, brave young people who want to explore. We searched for subtle differences between the characters, all the while keeping in mind that it was important to create the impression that our three different couples make one love story through their identical faces.

Was showing off the beautiful landscape of Croatia a motivation? What I was looking for filming this beautiful nature was that the beauty of the nature helps us plunge into the characters, looking for their inner beauty. On the other hand, the nature, compared to the society, has some inner wisdom and calmness and works as a constant reminder of what is important and what is not important. We should think about it more often.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 4 | February 4, 2016

—Matt Kettmann

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr YareD Zeleke filmsdistribution.com

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his film is about a sweet young boy who must leave his drought-ravaged village to live with distant relatives in the far-off highlands of Ethiopia, where his uncle hates the boy’s inability to farm — and his affinity for a certain ruminant — but his aunts are impressed by his cooking prowess. Aside from being a touching saga, it’s a stark look at how the ancient traditions of Ethiopia are running headfirst into modern ways.

What inspired you to make this film? From my memories of Ethiopia as a kid. Despite the war, famine, and political chaos going on at the time in the ’80s, my childhood in Addis Ababa was like a fairy tale. I grew up with a lot of love, good food, colorful characters, and holiday festivities that I never forgot. At the age of 10, I left behind everything I knew and everyone I loved for, as my mother said, “a better life in America.” Writing and making Lamb was a way to return to my beautiful but tragic past.

Is there a daily struggle between tradition and modernity in Ethiopia? I wanted to capture a glimpse of contemporary Ethiopian life with all the changes happening in the country, as well as forces still holding it back. I am trying to say to fellow Ethiopians and the world that

while we may be poor in some regards, we are very rich in others.

Why are gender roles a central theme? The film is an homage to the clever, funny, and beautiful Ethiopian women who raised me. Despite the patriarchy in many aspects of Ethiopian culture, there has always been strong-willed women who held families and even the nation together. The character, Emama, for example, represents those women from the past, such as my own grandmother. Azeb represents the Ethiopian women of today, still struggling to survive in difficult economic and political circumstances. Tsion represents what I hope for the future of the country: a more educated and equal Ethiopia.

Specific Ethiopian dishes are also described in rich detail. Why? The primary theme of Lamb is loss. Ephraim longs for his home and family he lost from famine. He deals with his trauma through a skill his deceased mother taught him: cooking. Thus, food is an important element in this story. Ephraim obsessively cooks as it gives him a sense of control and a kind of subconscious unconditional love. So he cooks to remember her. He cooks to cope.

He cooks to save his lamb, who represents his material attachment to his mother and home, while, for his family, she is just food.

By showing Ephraim cooking, I am also playing with the cliché of Ethiopia being synonymous with famine. Despite its problems, the country continues its ancient and rich cu—MK linary culture.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS • • • crOwD-pleasing FilMs applauDeD bY Festivals acrOss the wOrlD

lamB

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independent.com presents

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SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS • • • crOwD-pleasing FilMs applauDeD bY Festivals acrOss the wOrlD

vIva

DirectOr paDDY breathnach magpictures.com

J

esús is a young gay hairdresser in the heart of Havana, Cuba, whose dreams of becoming a lip-synching drag queen are threatened when his hard-drinking widower dad comes home from prison surprisingly soon. A fresh take on the usual father-son saga, the dramatic film is full of colorful characters and hope, with ample scenes of contemporary Cuban life to enjoy.

How did an Irish director wind up making a film about drag queens in Cuba? Myself and one of my producers (Rob Walpole) went on holiday to Cuba and stumbled across a drag show in a hotel off the beaten track. We got talking to a woman in the audience, and when one performer started miming a powerfully raw emotional song, this woman began to cry.

She told me the performer was her brother, and the only time he was happy was when he was onstage. I found the powerful emotional quality of the performances fascinating and a few years later came up with an idea for a father-son story set in that world.

Is there a large drag scene in Cuba? When we started working, it was mostly underground.

I remember going to shows in someone’s backyard in a rundown suburb of Havana.

They put up a red sheet and a spotlight, and this drab place was transformed into a place of dreams and possibilities. The performers

mimed to powerfully emotional songs of love and loss. Sweat and tears were spilt, and the reality of the surrounds were forgotten.

The film in some ways is about transformation and how through artifice we can reach deeper, more profound truths about ourselves. Now the clubs are more established, but you still find that raw emotional quality to the performances.

What is the Cuban feeling about homosexuality?

Officially gays were badly treated for a long time, and we came across many harrowing stories when we were researching the film.

A few years ago, the state apologized for the way gays had been treated. Raúl Castro’s daughter Mariela was influential in changing attitudes officially. I’m not an expert or a representative, so I’m reluctant to speak on their behalf. It’s a macho culture, and in general culture changes slowly, but my impression is things are much better.

The acting is phenomenal. Is there a wealth of Cuban talent? That was a big surprise for me.

The depth of great acting talent really opened up the possibilities for this film. I probably had set out on a more restrained style until I started auditioning, but the quality of the actors I began to see quickly let me know I could be more expansive emotionally with the film. I had a great casting director, Libia Batista, and I learned a lot from her. When they read the script and saw we were serious people, they were very keen to work on the —MK film.

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. 2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/sbiFF 6 | February 4, 2016

Charlotte can now define:

Can you?

Your kids can get Cottage smart too.

Visit Cottagechildrens.org/kidtalk

With experience in over 40 specialties, our physicians are trained to treat the most serious pediatric conditions. independent.com/sbiFF | santa barbara international Film Festival | February 4, 2016 | 7

DOCUMENTARIES • • • Up close and personal wIth real-lIfe storIes

amerIKa

u.s. PREMIERE

DirectOr/actOr Jan FOukal facebook.com/amerikafilm

T

he Czech tradition of tramping re-creates the American West’s ideal of freedom by camping with friends in the middle of Central European forests. This film examines that slowly dying phenomenon, using a pseudo-documentary style to explore the true spirit of the movement.

This film mixes techniques of a straight-ahead documentary with more of a narrative film. What did you mean to convey by presenting the story in this way? I didn’t want to present the topic of tramping as a historical fact; I didn’t want to use the simple description, because this classical style of documentary narration seemed to me quite passive — something that belongs to the past. That’s why I tried to present tramping as living stuff. The movie should enable you to personally experience the phenomenon of tramping.

How did you decide to make this film in the first place? Tramping is a specific kind of living, specific kind of spending your free time in the nature. And it takes place only in the Czech Republic. Nobody before made a movie about it, but everybody here knows this kind of “country lifestyle.” So my motivation was quite clear. I wanted to show this specific relationship of Czech people to the countryside and woods, which seems to belong to everybody.

How is Czech tramping culture today? The numbers of the tramping population are going down. Nowadays, not many people are spending time with friends by the fire in the wood. I hope that my movie will refresh it!

How do the people who live out there survive?

Tramping is mostly weekend stuff. So you are working five days, and on Friday you change your dress, your name, identity, and go take the train to spend two days in the countryside. And it is very cheap.

Are they welcoming of strangers? Tramping is based on friendship. It is not a movement.

There is no structure; there are no restrictions. So everybody is welcomed. You should only be respectful to the countryside, to the nature.

Are there many tourists who tramp? I don’t think so. Tourists are usually visiting Prague, our capital city. There is a lot of people in the countryside, hiking, biking etc., but mostly in the summer. So “hard-core” tramps love autumn and winter, as well, when the space is empty and the air is clear.

What do you hope viewers take away? That there is another scale to the human being. That you can set yourself free of your common role in the society, sitting by the fire under —MK the clear sky.

8 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

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vIta actIva: the SpIrIt oF hannah arenDt DirectOr aDa ushpiZ zeitgeistfilms.com

V

ita Activa covers the entire span of philosopher Hannah Arendt’s remarkable life. As a student of Karl Jaspers and a lover of Martin Heidegger, the young Arendt participated fully in the most elite circles of the German intellectual scene. Her later espousal in Eichmann in Jerusalem of the controversial concept of the banality of evil brought her both international fame and intense criticism. This film pairs Arendt’s ideas with the reflections of many thinkers who knew her or were influenced by her, and it embeds her philosophical journey within a wealth of archival footage to a powerful cumulative effect.

How did you go about working with the combination of the author’s writing and archival footage?

The artistic challenge for me was to edit scenes using archive footage, each scene with its own latent dramatic narrative or an accumulation of images depicting one subject, culminating in a strong emotional reaction, adding a dramatic value to the film. For instance: the scene in which Germans are being forced by the Allied Forces to look at the hor-

rors of the Nazi concentration camps immediately after the end of the war. The scene was edited by paying close attention to close-ups of German expressions of distrust, sickness, and shock, and by using as many different faces and types of reactions as possible.

Against this background, Arendt’s poignant words about the way in which the murderers become, in their own eyes, the victims of their crimes, thus distancing themselves from guilt, receive, in my opinion, not only additional validation but also a very particular shade. These narrative sequences were also meant to emotionally intensify the film.

More so, by serving as a private example to Arendt’s universal insight, they have an intrinsic value that goes beyond the written word.

Has making this film changed you or your views on history? How? I don’t feel that making the movie changed me or changed my views on history. My great joy was to reveal Arendt along the making of the movie as a unique moral philosopher. … I was thrilled by her rejecting the popular idea that truth is in the eyes of the beholder on the ground that it undermines the possibility of communication between people and of a common world as such. In this respect, I think she was ahead not only of her time but also of our postmod— Charles Donelan ernist time.

DOCUMENTARIES • • • Up close and personal wIth real-lIfe storIes

u.s. PREMIERE

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independent.com presents

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INDEPENDENTS • • • featUres fIlms made wIth passIon and wIthoUt the sUpport of the bIg stUdIos

all. While I was shooting the way they shuck oysters, I noticed there was a note on the wall which said, “Saturday, November 9th - China is coming.” I gradually found out that two Chinese workers were arriving, and that Hirano’s oyster factory had never accepted foreign workers before. So naturally, I became interested in this aspect. We also learned that Mr. Watanabe and his family moved to Ushimado from Miyagi because they lost their oyster farming business due to tsunami/ quake on March 11, 2011.

u.s. PREMIERE

oYSter FactorY DirectOr kaZuhirO sODa oysterfactory.net

Also in Screen Cuisine nless you’ve seen Kazuhiro Soda’s past works, you may have never experienced a featurelength documentary like this intimate study of a regional oyster industry in Japan. It’s a strategically paced journey into the lives, concerns, and dreams of these oyster shuckers, painting an honest picture about globalization, disaster, and change in the modern world.

U

How did you decide to focus on the Japanese oyster industry? I and my wife/producer, Kiyoko Kashiwagi, often spend summer vacations in Ushimado, Okayama, because Kiyoko’s mother is from there. We met some fishermen, and I got interested in making a film about their life because most of them were in their seventies and eighties and had no successors, which means, maybe in a decade or so, we’ll see no fishermen in Ushimado or even in Japanese shores!

Were you at all aware of the connections to the tsunami or influx of Chinese workers? No, not at

Do you feel that coming in with little knowledge leads to a more truthful film? Yes, I believe so. I call my works “observational films,” which means two things. Firstly, I closely look at the reality in front of me and make films according to my observations and discoveries, not based on my assumptions and preconceptions. Secondly, I encourage the viewers to observe the film actively with their own eyes and minds.

Your camera also affects the way people act. How does that affect the “truthfulness”? Being “observational” doesn’t mean I’m distant and separate from the characters I shoot. In the end, my films are always “participant observations,” which includes myself. A documentary is like a diary, I believe. When making documentaries, I try to reconstruct my experience in a cinematic reality so that I could share it with the audience.

Do you worry whether American audiences will have the patience for this observational technique?

Honestly, yes. I have an impression that American audiences tend to be very used to fast-cutting, music-heavy, manipulative documentaries. They’re not so used to two-hour, 30-minute documentaries, either! But with my previous films, it may take a half hour or so to get used to my style and pace, but once they get used to it, they have no problem.

After all, observational technique was originally invented by American filmmakers like Frederick Wiseman and the Maysles Broth—MK ers!

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. 10 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

The Environmental Defense Center Keeping our local environment in focus

Legal protection for what really matters EnvironmEnTaLDEfEnsECEnTEr.org independent.com/sbiFF | santa barbara international Film Festival | February 4, 2016 | 11

INDEPENDENTS • • • featUre fIlms made wIth passIon and wIthoUt the sUpport of the bIg stUdIos

It haD to Be You DirectOr sasha gOrDOn ithadtobeyouthemovie.com

C

ertain to be a festival favorite, this is a smart, inventive, expertly acted, thoroughly engaging romantic comedy about a woman who’s intimidated by the thought of marriage, despite all the stars otherwise aligning.

Does this story come from any personal heartbreak? The character and you are both composers, of course. It’s definitely a pretty personal story. When my husband proposed (or tried to), rather than seeing hearts and hearing violins, I was filled with a panic and terror reserved for climactic horror movie scenes. I yelled, waved my arms in the air, and pretty soon was unable to see or hear as adrenaline took over my body. And keep in mind this was a man I loved.

As I got a little older, I encountered a lot of women who described a similar dissonance between expectation and reality. So when I set out to make my first feature, I knew this was a dissonance I wanted to explore and that this particular moment in a woman’s life — the big proposal — was a good jumping-off point since it’s so loaded with expectations of what it’s “supposed” to feel like.

Society does seem to think people who don’t want to marry are either from divorced parents or in some

way emotionally damaged. Did you intend for your film to make people rethink that perspective? Yes. In my experience, the notion that women are dying to settle down and men are the ones who get cold feet/avoid commitment is simply untrue. Very few women I know were just sitting around hoping and praying their boyfriend would propose and then jumping at the opportunity. Come to think of it, none.

How is composing different from filmmaking?

Composing is a pretty solitary pursuit. You do work with the director, but that’s about it; the rest of the time, you’re alone doing your thing in a very controlled environment where you can achieve exactly the result you want, the result you hear in your head. Filmmaking is about as collaborative a medium as there is. There are so many people that come into play between the word on the page and the image on the screen. It’s very different: more challenging in many ways but also more exciting because you get to see your ideas come to life in ways you may have never imagined.

Should more women propose to men? I don’t see why not. Aside from all the things I mentioned above in terms of cultural expectations, I also just hate surprises, so I was never going to do well with a traditional proposal scenario. But really, everyone should just do what makes them comfortable, what makes — MK them happy.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 12 | February 4, 2016

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

woRld PREMIERE

DirectOr peter anDrikiDis alexandeve.com.au

L

ighthearted and refreshingly true to life, Alex & Eve explores the joys and hurdles of crosscultural dating in Australia when a Greek man and a Muslim woman fall in love.

How did the cast relate to the cross-cultural themes?

The cast related to the themes well as most had experienced this situation in their family. Marriage between cultures is always a “hot topic,” especially between Greek Orthodox and Lebanese Muslim decent. We had a female Muslim advisor on set who would help us get the Lebanese living situation correct.

The cast members also heavily researched the material in the script. I rehearsed the Greek family and Lebanese family separately, so when the story required they meet, they meet for the first time on set with the camera rolling.

How did you foster such a realistic tone? To keep the film authentic, it was important for me to allow the actors to bring their own life experiences within ethnically diverse cultures in Australia to the film. I allowed the actors to

The film has a light and uplifting heart. Were there any such moments during filming? One of the moments was when Alex meets Eve in the bar. He pulls a stool to sit on at the same time she tries to sit on that stool, and she falls to the ground. He then tried to lift her up and uses his hand which has a bottle of beer in it, so the beer ends up poured onto her new red dress. To get this action right we had to do 12 takes, and because we only had two dresses — due to our budget — you can understand Eve started to smell like a beer keg.

Andrea Demetriades was a real trooper and continued the long night shoot without complaint in that same dress. Her commitment to getting the action right was outstanding.

Andrea and Richard [Brancatisano]’s comic timing was impeccable, which made my job easier.

Do you hope this film adds to the conversation on diversity in Australia? To me, an Australian has a genuine respect for all cultures and all religions. We hope that this movie will start conversation, open up discussion about multicultural marriages, and have the parents laughing about their concerns, realizing that everyone is really the same in the end, regardless of their cultural background.

INDEPENDENTS • • • featUre fIlms made wIth passIon and wIthoUt the sUpport of the bIg stUdIos

alex & eve

improvise at times and to add to comic situations.

Again, because these actors are trained dramatic actors as opposed to comedians, their choices are truthful and come from the characters they play and not a “joke” for a cheap laugh’s sake. As the director, you must make sure that every actor [in the ensemble] is playing the same comic tone. This film is not a sketch comedy or a broad farce.

— Richie DeMaria

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woRld PREMIERE

INDEPENDENTS • • • featUre fIlms made wIth passIon and wIthoUt the sUpport of the bIg stUdIos

the pIcKle recIpe

DirectOr Michael Manasseri thepicklerecipe.com

W

hen a single dad and wedding deejay in Detroit asks his uncle for help, he’s suddenly trying to trick his Jewish deli-running grandmother into divulging her secret pickle recipe. That makes for good Jewish jokes, heartwarming discoveries, and plenty of indie-flick entertainment.

Do you have a pickle recipe from your past? In early 2010, I was sitting in a coffee shop in Metro Detroit with Sheldon Cohn. Sheldon told me that his friend Gary Wolfson had mentioned to him that he would have killed for his late grandmother’s secret pickle recipe, and they thought there could be a terrific, funny movie in that idea. I agreed. We started developing the idea, and Sheldon and Gary must have written 80 drafts of the film over the next four years.

The film’s recipe is really a metaphor for life. One of our characters talks about how the people in our lives are the ingredients that make us who we are. When something like a recipe is passed down from one generation to the next, it helps us remember people and places, those special moments that are dear to our hearts … and our stomachs!

For me personally, it was my grandmother’s marinara sauce and meatballs. My grandparents have passed on, but just thinking about that sauce brings me back to the incredible Sunday dinners of my childhood. It’s one of the things that keeps them with me.

Why did you decide to set it in Detroit? There was never a question of shooting the film anywhere but Detroit. The writers and producers are natives of Metro Detroit, and I’ve lived in the area for the past six years (my immediate family has lived in the area for 12 years). Detroit also has such a gritty, cinematic feel to it. I’ve always loved shooting in Detroit.

We were also one of the last films to qualify for the Michigan film incentive, which made our investors happy. And even though the incentive is now a thing of the past, Detroit is very filmmaker friendly, and it means a lot to us when we can keep the local film community working.

You had fun with some stereotypical Jewish scenes.

Was it a joy to send up these traditions, or did you fear offending anyone? We had a lot of fun shooting those scenes. Our writers, producers, and pretty much all of our investors are Jewish. Throughout the process we kept asking if we were going too far, and everyone said, no, keep going! Every family event has its moments of chaos, and you need to be able to laugh and take it in stride when crazy things happen.

Do you have a favorite pickle? Kosher dill all the —MK way.

14 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr rebecca DalY picturetree-international.com

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achel Griffiths and the young Barry Keoghan star in this emotionally complex feature film about a single woman trying to cope with the loss of the son she abandoned by helping a troubled soul. More heart-wrenching than tearjerking, it’s a cinematic study of what it means to be a parent.

How was this haunting and emotional story developed? My cowriter Glenn had the idea to write a film about a woman who did not know how to parent. But we wanted this to be something that the audience finds out after they have spent some time with her. Mystery is an element of storytelling that Glenn and I are both interested in, so we wanted to play with this although this film is not a mystery as such. Finally, I think the film became a love story, about a woman who tries to love her son too late.

We never learn much about why she abandoned her family, so what do you hope viewers think? I hope they can see that she struggled with mother-

hood and her baby, that she didn’t know how to do it, that she is not asking for sympathy, that the choice was complex and painful for her — all of this is in the subtext of the film.

The clues to the why of what she did exist in her present life. She is still that person.

This film is full of symbols. Do you plot those during the writing phase? Most of them were in the script. I write a lot of images into the script.

It’s part of the storytelling for me; sometimes it’s doing the job that dialogue might otherwise have to do.

Do you have children yourself? What did you take from your own life in making this film? No, I don’t have children. There isn’t much of my life in the film. I’m more interested in writing about what intrigues me rather than what I know. If it’s something I’m already very familiar with, if I fully understand something, I’ve solved it in a way; I’d be bored. I tend to be drawn to characters who behave in unexpected and sometimes contradictory ways, or ways the audience mightn’t agree with. I’m not interested in characters who make easy decisions.

I want to work out why a person might make the choices they make and how every decision and action accumulates. I’m interested —MK in the tension within a character.

INDEPENDENTS • • • featUre fIlms made wIth passIon and wIthoUt the sUpport of the bIg stUdIos

mammal

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INDEPENDENTS • • • featUre fIlms made wIth passIon and wIthoUt the sUpport of the bIg stUdIos

The movie is considered semi-biographical. Have you embarked on a similar road trip or journey in your life? Or is the road trip/adventure element allegorical? I like to make the drive to Vegas with my best friend once every year or so. …

Many of the funny and awkward interactions between Doug and the denizens of Vegas were lifted from real life. A lot of it was also completely made up to make the story richer.

Doug is the obvious reflection of myself on a physical level, but I also feel deeply connected to the other characters, as well. I left a bit of myself in every person. Of course, the road trip aspect fits nicely on a metaphorical level.

The characters are literally on a journey. It’s hard not to resist that kind of setup.

How was it working with RJ Mitte? What was it like seeing the character of Doug come to life? RJ was wonderful. … I told him that Doug wasn’t necessarily me, but he was adamant about being faithful to my situation. It was amazing to watch him effortlessly physically transform himself when the cameras started rolling. RJ is not at all like me, physically or socially, but when I watch him perform the role, it’s like looking into a mirror — a mirror that reflects a doppelganger much more handsome and charismatic than myself. It’s fascinating and creepy and cool.

Who’S DrIvInG DouG screenwriter Michael carnick whosdrivingdoug.com

W

ho’s Driving Doug is a story of companionship and discovery shared between introverted young man Doug (RJ Mitte), who has muscular-dystrophy, and his driver, Scott (Ray William Johnson). Inspired by the experiences of screenwriter Michael Carnick is a heartwarming — and heart-wrenching — tale of unlikely bonds formed through a journey of self-acceptance.

The movie looks at themes of reclusiveness and self-perception. Did writing this movie and creating the character change your own self-perception or sense of place in life? I’m naturally an inward and self-reflective person, and I spent much of my time growing up in my own head. …

When you’re physically disabled, a lot of that solitude is forced on you. You might look at a person like me and imagine all the hard things we go through physically, but the social aspect is the hardest part to overcome. I wanted to bring through a sense of desperate loneliness. I was also inspired by Alan Ball’s self-loathing characters. Let’s just say that — RD they speak to me.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/sbiFF 16 | February 4, 2016

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees u.s. PREMIERE

maker from a small country, with a small budget, your possibilities of casting actors are also limited.

kozamovie.com

What were the advantages and disadvantages of using an amateur in this role? One of the disadvantages would surely be less plasticity for the character, but on the other hand, it also brings more authenticity with it. You can’t write complicated dialogues for a nonprofessional actor and make the dialogues last for very long. It’s simply a much slower process with the nonprofessional actors, and you move step by step.

But on the other hand, if your main character is an unemployed Romany guy, you got a lot of time for rehearsals. When you see a well-known professional actor box, you feel and know you’re watching a show, performance. Though of course, there are plenty of great films with professional actors in the role of a boxer. It’s just not what I wanted.

DirectOr ivan OstrOchOvský

L

anguidly paced, texturally gritty, and groundbreaking in production style, this feature film portrays a poor Romany boxer, a former Olympiad from Slovakia who must endure a series of last fights to get enough money to convince his girlfriend not to abort their coming child. The actor is actually a pro boxer, some of the scenes are actual matches, and this film punches you square in the gut, repeatedly.

Did Koza truly fight as part of his role? Half of the scenes in the film are staged, half of them are real. The last match we see Peter “Koza” Baláž boxing is, for example, one of the real ones.

I was waiting for it for almost a year, and only when we finished it did I know I could proceed with the editing. We didn’t want to make the environment of the boxing matches attractive by dynamic editing or with camera movement. The environment, which the main characters is set in, is far from attractive, to be honest.

Tell me more about why you hired him as an actor. Peter is not a professional actor; he is a professional boxer. I chose him because he had the greatest charisma of the other possibilities at that moment — both actors and nonprofessional actors. When you are a film-

Do you have tips for filmmakers who want to tell evocative stories but don’t have a big budget? In a way, you’ve answered your own question. If you don’t have a big budget, you need a strong story. The power of a good story can make up for, in some cases, the missing money.

And apart from that, it motivates the author to work out problems. Sometimes, low budgets can even bring a sort of an “economy in expression” and affect the length of the film.

Films nowadays often suffer by being half an —MK hour longer than needed.

INTERNATIONAL • • • featUre fIlms that are popUlar aroUnd the world

Koza

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u.s. PREMIERE

INTERNATIONAL • • • featUre fIlms that are popUlar aroUnd the world

You carrY me DirectOr ivOna Juka youcarryme.com

F

ollowing three daughters in the pursuit of happiness and reconciliation with their fathers, this Croatian-made drama confronts loss and desire at their highest stakes. This subtle, nonlinear film explores uncensored family relationships, moving seamlessly between memories, dreams, and reality.

What inspired the making of You Carry Me? I was inspired by the need of human beings to be loved the way they are. We all want to be loved, but we also want to change others and refuse to change ourselves.

What is the role of addiction in this film? Addiction is always a means of escaping reality.

I’m glad you’ve noticed that problem, and I hope you are not speaking of drugs as the

only form of addiction in the film. While some of the characters literally take drugs in order to find courage to face reality, some other characters are addicted in a different way, and their addiction is their escape from reality, their refusing to face the real problem.

Why have the characters’ lives connected by a TV production company? The protagonists of this story are directly or indirectly connected with the production company, which is making an imaginary world, a TV series called Prisoners of Happiness. Each of them is, in his or her own way, a “prisoner of happiness” because they are searching for happiness, not for joy. Happiness is elusive, but joy isn’t. When they discover joy, they are no longer prisoners. They free themselves.

What is the significance of rocks as dream motifs?

A rock can be a barrier, but a rock can be a building rock. The motif of rocks is somewhere between real and surreal, on the verge between subconscious and conscious. It is a symbol and the real rock at the same time.

18 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

— Léna Garcia

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr leena YaDav entertainmentone.com

S

et in a desert village in India, Parched portrays the lives of women who exhibit carefree enthusiasm for life despite living in repression.

Replete with candid dialogue about sex, prostitution, and patriarchy, the scenic film is insightful and fun to watch.

Why did you decide on the title? I first titled the film Parched because of the landscape. But as the story developed, the title took on many more meanings like “thirst” — for freedom, for sexuality, for touch, for expression. And the title just became so relevant to many themes that the film was trying to explore that it got irreplaceable!

What was the inspiration for this film? The film was born from a conversation I had with actress Tannishtha Chatterjee. She shared with me many conversations that she had

with women in villages of Kutch, Gujarat. I realized that the women were very candid in their conversations about life and sex.

So my first idea was, Let’s make Sex and the Village! Then, I traveled to Kutch and spent time in the villages meeting lots of women.

It involved about two months of research and some enlightening conversations. The story took on some serious undertones and became what it is. The process of research continued even as I was scouting for a village to shoot the film.

INTERNATIONAL • • • featUre fIlms that are popUlar aroUnd the world

parcheD

This film depicts a strong sense of hopefulness. Do you believe that to be true for the future of women in these villages? The strong sense of hopefulness is what I wish for women, not just in these villages but also in cities all over the world. Hope is essential for survival and, therefore, for a better tomorrow.

— Kelsey Brugger

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ABOVE AND BEYOND • • • sporty docUmentarIes aboUt adventUre, endUrance, and oUtdoor thrIlls

croSSInG Bhutan DirectOr ben henretig thehappiestplacefilm.com Also in Documentary

T

he mountainous kingdom of Bhutan was closed to visitors until 1974 and only slowly has allowed increasing numbers of tourists to enter, fearful that their impacts may harm the country’s Gross National Happiness levels. This revelatory, visually stunning, at times dramatic documentary follows a team of adventurers, sponsored

by Bhutan’s Olympic committee, as they hike and bike across the entire country.

How were you lucky enough to get tapped to document this journey? For many years, I have crafted short documentaries for social and environmental innovators to help them build support for their work. But my dream has always been to make a feature. I was connected to this team of veteran athletes making this unprecedented crossing of Bhutan, and after a bit of reading about Bhutan, I was immediately enraptured. Bhutan has this powerful mythos as one of the last great Shangri-Las, and a place that very few foreign filmmakers have had the opportunity to document.

Were you ever scared for yourself or your equipment? We had stretches of 10 days at 15,000plus feet without access to power, so we strapped solar panels on our support donkeys to keep our gear charged. After a 12-hour day on the trail, we’d have to start offloading and media managing all of our footage. It was craziness. A bridge outing meant we had to take a more challenging route through the first part of the journey, which made for a lot of

wear and tear on our bodies and equipment.

But it never got to the point of being scared for my well-being.

Can Gross National Happiness be exported? Most definitely. Gross National Happiness points to a policy framework implemented on the level of government, with nine domains, 33 sub-indicators, annual polls, etc. that is in fact replicable. We’ve seen some movement toward the adoption of the GNH framework within the international community in the U.K., Costa Rica, and even at the level of the United Nations — though I think that Gross National Happiness has the most promise as a grassroots movement.

There was decent human drama in the film. Were you worried it would not happen? I definitely didn’t set out to capture human drama in the film, though I’ve always found conflict to be a powerful mirror and window into our values. While we were filming, I began to notice the parallels between the conflict emerging within the team — which really centers on not having time for the things that truly matter most in our lives — and Bhutan’s conflict.

With the introduction of television and the Internet in Bhutan in the late ’90s, Bhutan has emerged from this timeless slumber and is suddenly grappling with all of the challenges of modernity. Bhutan’s solution is to develop more slowly — even if it means that they don’t modernize as quickly as neighboring countries.

— MK

20 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr rObertO stuDart primitivo.art.br

N

ot long ago, big-wave surfing was being taken over by machines, with jet skis towing hopeful surf sliders into massive mountains of ocean. But thanks to the unheralded efforts of Brazilian surfers living in Hawai‘i, traditional paddle-in surfing is back with both vengeance and controversy. This tells the story of that crew and their underground effort to paddle at all costs.

Why are they called Mad Dogs? Maui locals started to call them that after the earliest sessions at Jaws. At that time, they were climbing down the unexplored cliff and jumping in from the rocks with no rescue team, no safety, no vests, no plan B. Pure insanity.

What drives the film’s stars? These guys are not normal people. They have an appetite for some feeling that only they themselves can explain. I believe they belong to a group of people to whom money is just not enough.

They need more than just a regular life based on work, family, and things. And they are ready to give their lives for it.

Are they more respected in Hawai‘i than at home in Brazil? They’re more known in Hawai‘i.

They’ve been living there for many years, and plus, we don’t have huge waves in Brazil, so this whole thing seems a little distant from the Brazilians’ day-to-day life. But the Mad Dogs’ story is bigger than big-wave surf. It’s about three human beings who have risked their lives for years, with absolutely no support, in the name of a dream. And as soon as the Brazilians realize what they have accomplished, they will love them. Many already do.

Why does the mainstream surf media ignore these guys? Because mainstream surf media is comprised of sponsors, brands, and certain surfers who better fit the media’s desired profile. We all know that, right? They want to sell the show, not the truth. They had six-foottall, blond-hair Laird Hamilton towing into 20 waves in less than 10 minutes, and suddenly three guys from the northeast of Brazil jump in and say, “Get the fuck out; we’re paddling this shit.” They had no sponsors, they don’t like cameras, and they had nothing to offer in return. … Nothing but the revolu— Ethan Stewart tion.

ABOVE AND BEYOND • • • sporty docUmentarIes aboUt adventUre, endUrance, and oUtdoor thrIlls

maD DoGS

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independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees u.s. PREMIERE

ABOVE AND BEYOND • • • sporty docUmentarIes aboUt adventUre, endUrance, and oUtdoor thrIlls

StanDInG on Water DirectOr peter alsteD standingonwaterfilm.com

A

cinematically arresting portrait, Peter Alsted’s film gets up close and personal with the world’s most unlikely saltwater hero: Denmark’s world-champion stand-up paddle surfer Casper Steinfath and his anything-but-traditional childhood and family life.

How did you find this story? I met Casper when he was 19 and had just won a world title in SUP. I’d never even heard his name mentioned, but I immediately felt an urge to find out more about this kid when I saw his skills on the water. When I got a chance to talk to him, I felt his unique personality to be very inspiring. So very little time then passed before I felt a film was in the making. However, I didn’t want to make another surf porn. I wanted to make a documentary film. Anybody can shoot some waves and put music on it. And a lot of sports films, specifically surf films, are basically just music videos displaying the same trick and wave or competition over and over again, stating the obvious, and repeating clichés about traveling and “living the dream.” But, to me, the real story comes first. As a filmmaker, I believe that’s the only way to truly inspire other people, by being real even when it’s ugly.

It’s clear that Casper and his family are in love with life and with the ocean, which is reflected in the cinematography. Explain this. I’m a surfer. I’ve always wanted to make some sort of surf or snowboard documentary since I was plowing my first powder and chasing friends in the French Alps with a camera in my hands pre-GoPro-and-Internet era. So finding a story and character like Casper was a dream of mine. I wanted to portray this passion with the elements as my muse. The changing and often unpredictable conditions of nature came to set the stage for the framework of the film. And in a sense, I wanted, through filmmaking, to better understand my own passion and love for the ocean and for life.

Describe the special bond between Casper and his brother and their parents. Casper and his brother had a very unique upbringing, traveling the world and being homeschooled most of the time. That lifestyle takes courage and sacrifices, but the gift they’ve gained in the process is that special bond and playfulness that you see on-screen. It’s very admirable and inspiring. Also, their parents included them in their lifestyle. They didn’t treat them as fragile children or overprotect them. They were included in all aspects of their parents’ life, weren’t sent to bed when there was a party or friends came over. In general, they weren’t viewed as children but as equal humans. Small humans who just needed a little guidance from the — ES bigger humans.

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EARN A CSU DEGREE IN SANTA BARBARA • BA Psychology • BS Business • MBA http://ext.csuci.edu 805-312-6367

Register for an Information Session

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cInematIc overtureS • • • FilMs that shOwcase the pOwer OF perFOrMance

BIzarre: a cIrcuS StorY

DirectOr Meg pinsOnneault bizarrethefilm.com

Also in Documentary

M

eg Pinsonneault’s documentary focuses on circus-act pioneer Master Lu Yi and the lives of the many entertainers and circus performers his teachings have touched. The movie is a jubilant mix of interviews and beautifully artful circus pieces.

What drew you to Master Lu Yi? Master Lu Yi’s energy is utterly infectious. He’s charming and charismatic. He’s tough and disciplined. Funny yet wise. Caring yet strict. Open-minded yet brutally honest. People say he’s young at heart. But it’s more than that. He’s young in spirit and mind, as well. Even in his late seventies, he’s still continuing his art form and growing a strong circus community — not to mention, he can still hold a two-minute handstand with ease. Master Lu Yi is basically the Master Miyagi of the circus world — but the real-life version and way cooler.

What was the most surprising thing you learned about Master Lu Yi? Master Lu Yi does not look his age. When he recounts his story in broken English, you think, “How old is this guy?”

You would never guess he endured great pain and sorrow as a child acrobat. You would nev-

er think he took major risks to flee his native country. The time he spent in prison. The time away from his infant daughters. He’s just so positive.

I really enjoyed the slow-motion dance/movement/ clown pieces in the documentary. What was it like to film them? One of my goals for this film was to show circus in a whole new way. So I thought slow motion would give great insight into the tiny little details of circus performing that makes it so beautiful. I utilized some of my favorite filming techniques to showcase these nuances, like powder, glitter, smoke, and performer equipment. The outcome is fun and dreamy, just like the circus.

Is it your hope that this film may inspire greater respect and/or funding for circus and acrobatics in this country? Absolutely! Circus is an incredibly old art form that dates back centuries. It’s still a thriving industry in Europe, Canada, China, and other countries. Programs are government-funded, and some circus performers are considered national heroes. But that’s not the case in the U.S. Did you notice a generational difference in approach/philosophy between the older, more experienced clowns and the younger ones? Truthfully, no. Every clown I met was awesome, hilarious, crazy, super smart, and totally different from the last. Age didn’t seem to matter.

Clowning is all about being yourself and —RD making people laugh.

24 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr rObert eDwarDs

C

hristopher Walken stars as an aging crooner whose struggling yet talented daughter, played by Amber Heard, leaves New York City for their old home in the Hamptons to wallow and get her life straight. Family tension, new tunes, and awkward therapy ensue.

Why make a movie about the home life of a fading musician? I was interested in the idea of an artist whose personal life is at odds with his professional reputation. I seized on the idea of a crooner famous for his deeply romantic love songs but who in his own life was an absolute train wreck to be romantically or otherwise interpersonally involved with — the kind of worldclass narcissist who left a trail of emotional wreckage in his wake with everyone who ever got close to him. There are a number of real-life examples that come to mind. From there I began thinking about what it must be like to be in the orbit of someone like that — specifically, to be in the family, and even more specifically, to be his daughter.

What drew Christopher Walken to the project? I had numerous meetings with him before he signed on, including, at his request, acting

out the entire script one-on-one, where he read his part and I read all the others. That was certainly a little intimidating. Later we also did a full-blown table read with him and a dozen actors before he agreed to do the film.

He’s very methodical about how he approaches his work, which I completely respect. I think his great intelligence is an aspect of him as actor that gets short shrift because it’s obscured by his famous eccentricity. But he’s razor-sharp, not only about his role and a given script but about every aspect of the filmmaking process.

Though this film is about musicians, do you think the family dynamics are paralleled in more “normal” families? Absolutely, and a lot of audience members have said that to me, in terms of relating to the Lombard family. Apparently Tolstoy was wrong: Every unhappy family is not unhappy in its own way. I don’t come from a show-business family, I have no background in that world, I don’t have any sisters, so none of this comes out of my own personal experience (apart from being a terrible narcissist myself). So forget that old saw that you should “write what you know.” I live by the guideline “Write about things you know ab—MK solutely nothing about.”

cInematIc overtureS • • • FilMs that shOwcase the pOwer OF perFOrMance

one more tIme

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 25

woRld PREMIERE

GLOBAL HOLLYWOOD • • • docUmentarIes that reveal the backstorIes of tInseltown

a claSSY BroaD DirectOr anne gOursauD

facebook.com/marcianasatiraclassybroad

T

he Big Chill, Hamburger Hill, Coming Home — these are a few of the films that Marcia Nasatir helped bring to the screen. With a singular ability to recognize a good story, Nasatir, born in Texas in 1926, rose through the maledominated ranks of Hollywood to become the first woman vice president of a major Hollywood studio.

Still active at age 89, Nasatir tells her remarkable story in this charming documentary.

Clearly Marcia was a groundbreaker. Do you feel there is any woman — or women — who is picking up the mantel from Marcia to continue to make inroads in Hollywood? Marcia is unique because of the time — she broke the glass ceiling. She was singular, and her talent and professional demeanor helped the chances for other women.

She was so solid, so respected, and so talented with her abilities to spot a good story, men started to change their minds about women in leadership.

Since Marcia began her career, things have changed tremendously in the film industry for women, yet there is still much gender bias. What would be your advice for young women hoping to get into producing, directing, etc.? Try to ignore it if you can! I wasted so many of my younger years crying over the injustices when I could have been creating more and better.

I love the relaxed pace of Marcia’s storytelling as she lets us in on her life. She must have so many fabulous stories that weren’t able to make it into the film. Was it a difficult edit? In a movie like this, choice is the key and the most difficult to evaluate. I had to leave out people and moments in order to have enough time to spend on what I thought more defining of her life.

Marcia Nasatir influenced so many women in Hollywood. What was your first encounter with her, and how did she affect your career choices? I was lucky enough to rent an apartment on the same street where she lived. We became friends.

Marcia passed along my name to Fred Roos, Coppola’s producer, and that was the real beginning of my editing career in Hollywood.

What is your hope for this film? This is a movie not only for women but for men, as well. Every male acquaintance of mine who has seen the film felt that her energy, optimism, and tenacity were an inspiration for all. She is a life lesson.

Also, she led a productive, ethical life in Hollywood. Just because she’s not famous outside of our profession doesn’t mean that she should not be known and admired.

26 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

— Michelle Drown

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr paul MarianO beinggeorgeclooney.com

I

n his fascinating, charming film, director Paul Mariano goes behind the scenes to reveal the men and women who dub the voices of American movie stars in countries including Italy, France, Turkey, and Brazil. Being George Clooney is for film dubbers what Twenty Feet from Stardom is for backup singers — and a definite festival must-see.

How did you learn about the dubbing profession?

I read an article in a magazine about the French voice of a famous American actor (“Je suis Brad Pitt”). I was intrigued. I wanted to know more about the concept and the world of voice actors, those people who provide the sound for these famous Hollywood faces.

Who are these people that work in the dark and provide the voices of “our stars”? How did they get started doing this work? Are they well-compensated? Do they enjoy being heard but never seen? And so, I set out to meet these famous voices and learn about the world of dubbing.

Why did you choose to focus on the men who dubbed for George Clooney rather than another famous actor? We were looking for a singular Hollywood actor, someone who was both famous and fun — someone who was loved by both men and women. George Clooney seemed to be the perfect vehicle to tell this story. As the German voice of Clooney says in the film: “He is cool. He is charming. He is beautiful.”

George Clooney is the modern-day Cary Grant.

This seems a departure from your usual documentary subject matter. What made you decide to pursue it? Like most people, I love the movies. I love how they can transport and transform us, how they excite and entertain us. But I am also fascinated by the “behind-the-scenes” action. How do they make the magic? I read an article about dubbing and dubbers, and while I was aware that films were dubbed, I was unfamiliar with the process, the problems, or the personalities. The more I learned about the process and the people involved, the more I realized how important this part of filmmaking was to audiences around the world. It was a subject that was clearly “Doc— MD worthy.”

GLOBAL HOLLYWOOD • • • docUmentarIes that reveal the backstorIes of tInseltown

BeInG GeorGe clooneY

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 27

GLOBAL HOLLYWOOD • • • docUmentarIes that reveal the backstorIes of tInseltown

FloYD norman: an anImated lIfe FilMMakers Michael FiOre anD erik sharkeY michaelfiorefilms.com

Also in Documentary ot only was Floyd Norman the first AfricanAmerican employee at Disney in an era of outright segregation; this Santa Barbara–raised artist and writer also worked intimately with Walt Disney, the visionaries at Pixar, and all of the bigtime animation wizards of the past century. This doc tells his saga, which is rife with turmoil, in vivid detail.

N

How did you learn about Floyd, and why did you think it would make a good documentary?

ES: I first learned about Floyd Norman when I was introduced to him at the San Diego Comic-Con by a friend that works for Disney. During our conversation, I learned that Floyd was a Disney legend, and he told amazing stories about working at Disney when Walt Disney was alive and years later working for Pixar. He was instantly likeable and a great storyteller with a rich history and life. I thought it would make for a great documentary.

His Santa Barbara roots were very interesting to learn about. Does he still have much of a connection here?

ES: Floyd loves Santa Barbara. He always makes it clear that he had a great upbringing

in Santa Barbara and felt he was able to pursue his creative talents there. It’s also where he saw his first Disney film in the theater: Dumbo. That film would inspire him to go pursue a career at Disney later on. He often comes back to visit his hometown because he loves it so much.

Is the general public interested about behind-thescenes stories from Hollywood?

MF: Origin stories are always intriguing, whether it is about someone in Hollywood, politics, business, etc. We all want to know how someone rose to the top and what mistakes may have been made along the way, amongst their successes. Our documentary is a love story, on many levels. I think that Floyd’s love for his family, his craft, and his friends helped form his path.

Do you think he has any regrets in his career?

MF: In one interview, Floyd said, “I’m a lucky guy. I’ve always had the opportunity to work with top talents. My only regret is I simply haven’t been a top talent.”

ES: Floyd has worked on so many amazing projects over the years. You’ll have to check out our documentary to see that he truly has seen and done it all. But if he has one regret, I think it might be that he would like to direct an animated feature film of his own one day.

He has never said that to me, but that’s what I think. I personally would love to see that.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 28 | February 4, 2016

— MK

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haroldandlillian.com

H

arold and Lillian Michelson are the two most important people in Hollywood that you’ve never heard of. His work as a storyboard artist and her career as a research librarian greatly shaped such films as The Ten Commandments, The Birds, The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby, Scarface, Full Metal Jacket, and much more. This doc is about their life together, at work and at home.

When did you know they would make a compelling doc? I was a student at the American Film Institute when I first met Harold and Lillian.

They were legends and some of the most nurturing and selfless people anyone starting out in the film biz could wish to meet. I interviewed Harold in 1998 for my first documentary, The Man on Lincoln’s Nose. These encounters resulted in two career-spanning interviews with Harold, and for several years I was ruminating on making a film about Harold and Lillian.

In 2013 I began in earnest to make this film when some never-before-seen documentary footage of Lillian working at her Paramount Studios research library came to my attention. This footage was shot in 1992 and is

extremely cinematic — unexpected considering the subject is a film researcher in her library surrounded by hundreds of reference books and clippings. But Lillian is a fascinating character with a movie-star-caliber screen persona. She is a great storyteller, and she lights up the screen.

Were you surprised no one had told their story yet?

Yes and no. Other filmmakers filmed interviews with Harold and Lillian over the years, but those films were never completed. We were blessed that the filmmakers agreed to let us use some of their footage, resulting in a much richer film.

What draws you to telling Hollywood’s behindthe-scenes stories? I want to help preserve the legacy of these cinema artists who I came to know and admire from the time I was a student. My goal was to capture their personalities, their creative philosophies and passion for storytelling. They really are a dying breed of cinema artists, and through them we are passing on the torch to the next generation.

Also, their work is completely under the radar in terms of appreciation for their contributions. Harold’s imaginative storyboards for films such as The Birds and The Graduate are entirely uncredited. Harold and Lillian worked on hundreds of classic American movies, and their story deserves to be told.

GLOBAL HOLLYWOOD • • • docUmentarIes that reveal the backstorIes of tInseltown

harolD anD lIllIan: a hollYWooD love StorY DirectOr Daniel raiM

— MK

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What made these films so compelling to you? I had known nothing about the Projections series, but as soon as I learned about it, I was convinced that its story needed to be told. And when I watched the films themselves — beautifully crafted, character-driven stories that reflected what America could be if it lived up to its ideals — I was hooked.

GLOBAL HOLLYWOOD • • • docUmentarIes that reveal the backstorIes of tInseltown

projectIonS oF amerIca DirectOr peter Miller facebook.com/projectionsofamerica

S

creenwriter Robert Riskin is best remembered for collaborating with director Frank Capra, making classics like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.

But during World War II, Riskin jumped into war propaganda feetfirst, overseeing the production of 26 documentaries designed to soften the hearts of people living in the countries the United States was trying to liberate. These films — dubbed Projections of America by the Office of War Information — sought to put America’s best face forward overseas. When documentarian Peter Miller got wind of these, he was hooked. This is the result.

We hear about so many other war film projects involving Hollywood celebrities during World War II — Ronald Reagan springs to mind. Why do you think so little is known about this one? The series created propaganda films unlike any others I’ve ever seen. Rather than thumping our chest and celebrating America’s military strength, the films focused on who we are as a people, revealing our diversity and the messiness of our democracy. The films were idealized versions of what America could be, created by politically engaged filmmakers who wanted to fundamentally change America itself while fighting tyranny abroad. Why aren’t these films better known now? I wonder if it’s because their optimistic, progressive vision of America fell out of favor at the end of WWII, as the nation’s politics shifted to the right.

Riskin was a liberal progressive Jew, which made him a definite outsider in many parts of the United States. Yet here he is telling the story of America’s soul and defining the American spirit, to millions of people living in what was the occupied world. Did he ever think that was weird? As a Jewish American, Riskin was profoundly troubled by what he saw happening in Nazi Germany and decided, well before the U.S. was involved in the war, to help in whatever way he could.

What did you find most surprising in doing the research for this documentary? One of the great pleasures of making this film was meeting Riskin’s family, including his daughter Victoria, a screenwriter and human rights activist who lives in Santa Barbara, who will be present at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival screenings.

We tend to think American soldiers were universally greeted with open arms as the conquering heroes. But to people living in Normandy before D-Day, we were the country dropping thousands of bombs on them.

That’s not an angle I looked at before.

The filmmakers recognized that we might have been received not as liberators but as another occupying army. So the films they made were intended to introduce America to newly liberated overseas audiences with a message about who we really were, that we were not the stereotypes of cowboys and gangsters that were presented in many Hollywood films.

I think about how America is perceived around the world today. Are we thought of as a diverse and welcoming place, a nation of immigrants and laws, or are we thought of as a belligerent and intolerant military power?

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 30 | February 4, 2016

— Nick Welsh

independent.com presents

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aGaInSt Your WIll DirectOr assaF banitt go2films.com

Also in Social Justice

A

What inspired you to explore this issue? My grandmother committed suicide before I was born, and no one in my family ever talked about it. In addition, I grew up in a nonreligious kibbutz in a bereaved family (from war, not only suicide), and so the ability to mourn in a closed society was always on my mind.

I also served in the same special unit with Amit. Years later, when I was in film school, I wrote a story about his funeral. To my surprise, Gilles called me one day and said that a visitor had brought them the story during the shiva for Yotam. I went to meet with the Alexanders, and after talking with them, I realized I wanted to tell their story. It touched my wounds, and I thought they were wonderful people, as well as great heroes for a documentary.

Why is there an epidemic of suicides in kibbutzes?

It is impossible to get accurate data about suicide rates in the religious world. They are often reported as “accidents.” There are, however, certain factors that make suicide more common in small religious communities: a reticence to participate in psychological treatment, crises of faith, and a strong pressure to excel.

What was it like to record such private, emotionally raw moments? The impact on me varied.

Sometimes the camera was a buffer and kept

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me detached from difficult scenes, but sometimes it was hard. There were scenes that left me crying, and their effect remained for days.

What do you hope the film will accomplish? We hope that the film will make a difference in the way Israeli society deals with suicide, and especially weaken the silence. We also hope that it will stir a discussion in the religious world among kibbutzes and yeshivas. I have also hoped that it would give the Alexanders some peace and empathy, which I think it did.

What are some practical ways these suicides could be curtailed? Controlled discussions should be held in kibbutz high schools, under the supervision of psychologists and advisors.

There should be seminars and lessons about the causes, effects, and scope of suicide, without religious criticism. Psychologists should be positioned inside kibbutz schools and yeshivas, and not be under the rabbis’ authority.

Kolnoa • • • FilMs that exaMine israel FrOM Diverse perspectives

gainst Your Will tells the story of Gilles and Esther Alexander, residents of a religious kibbutz who lost two of their sons to suicide.

Few subjects are more taboo than suicide in orthodox Jewish communities — it’s often viewed as an unforgivable sin committed by faithless self-murderers. As they struggle through heartbreak and turmoil, they also work to raise awareness around mental health in Israel’s kibbutzim, where suicide is a growing epidemic. But their honest remembrances of their sons Amit and Yotam is often downplayed or outright dismissed by religious leaders.

What surprised you most? There were certain opinions that I heard about the Alexanders that left me shocked. I won’t even repeat them here, but they included different justifications for the family’s fate. I was also surprised to hear both very tolerant and liberal rabbis and people who thought quite humanely about certain topics make very harsh statements about suicide. I found that contradiction hard —Tyler Hayden to understand.

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 31

hotlIne

FOunDer sigal rOZen

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go2films.com

Also in Social Justice otline is a nonprofit organization in Israel that manages to stir up quite a lot of controversy by aiding the plight of refugees from mostly Africa who stream into the country, often illegally. Run by Sigal Rozen — who replied to these questions instead of the filmmaker who made this documentary about the organization — it is a flashpoint for those who fear, like in many countries worldwide, that these new cultures threaten their own.

H Kolnoa • • • FilMs that exaMine israel FrOM Diverse perspectives

Your work seems almost masochistic, as you appear to take heat from all sides, from refugees for not doing enough, from antiimmigration voices for doing too much. I’m definitely not masochistic. I feel that there is frustration and anger on both sides, and I totally understand it. As much as it hurts me to tell a mother that her son who was born in Israel will be deported, it hurts me to listen to a Jewish resident of the neighborhood who suffers from so much hate that she wishes for my daughter to be raped. I feel really sorry for both women, and I strongly believe that the Hotline’s activities will improve the fate of them both.

But I don’t enjoy this pain. I feel that if we stop, the pain will be greater since the situation will not be improved, only we will not be there to try and improve it at least a little bit.

Refugee matters are hugely controversial everywhere, but in Israel, which is a Jewish state, the situation is perceived to undermine the very roots of the country. How do you reconcile that? I totally disagree with your statement. There are

now 43,000 African asylum seekers in Israel.

There is a fence that blocked the flow, and the situation is under control. Even if there were 100,000 or 200,000 Africans, they do not threaten to undermine the root of the country.

There are six million Jews in Israel. We are the world champions in absorbing immigrants. Even if we absorb all the asylum seekseek ers, they will not change our demography.

In addition, Judaism is not just about demography; I believe that Jewish values are more important than demography. When we deport refugees and make them risk their life

trying to find another refuge, we trample on our Jewish values. This is far more dangerous to a Jewish state.

How does Hotline ensure that they are not aiding potential terrorists from entering Israel? It is not a concern at all since up until now, not even one of the 64,000 African asylum seekers who entered the country was suspected to be involved in terrorism. People who want to be terrorists enter Israel and blow themselves up in crowded places. They don’t pretend to ask for asylum since in prison they can hurt only — MK African Christians and Muslims.

32 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

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DirectOr aMir wOlF topia-com.com Also in Kolnoa

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his suspenseful and culturally insightful feature film from Israel follows a detective who tried to figure out why an elderly man with a mysterious identity, and an apparent Holocaust survivor, was killed and tossed in the sea. It’s a stark and poignant look at Israel’s aging population, touching on reparations, Nazi sympathizers, and a people’s unique moral compass.

What made you want to tell this story? Ever since I can remember myself, the subject of the Holocaust fascinated me. As I grew older, I started seeing interviews with people talking about the Israeli ethos. As you may know, Israel is a land of immigrants; some of them came from Europe and some from Arab countries. I saw and read some interviews with people, whose origins are in Arab countries, saying that because they have no connection with the Holocaust, they sometimes don’t feel a part of the Israeli ethos. I always found that interesting and thought about this story of a man that wants to be a part of a larger group, a part of the ethos. Add to that I was always fascinated by my Jewish Polish family — their humor, their strength — and wanted to immortalize this generation.

How is the Holocaust-survivor community treated in Israel? These days, when you read in the papers or watch the news and hear about the general condition of the Holocaust survivors,

it is a poor one. Most of them live in poverty and can’t live the rest of their lives with dignity and respect, as for a large percentage of old people in Israel in general.

In my film I go back a decade or so, and not showing a documentation of Holocaust survivors in Israel today but describing a small group in this larger one, of people who “made it” and use the money they made in their lifetime and the money they get as reparations from the German government in order to live the rest of their life with a certain degree of pleasure. In this way this film is not a Holocaust film but a film describing certain characters in Tel Aviv today who live their life while they are constantly being haunted by the memory of the Holocaust.

Have many pretended to be Holocaust survivors?

Not that I know of. While I did my research, I heard some stories of people who slightly changed their biographies in order to receive more reparations.

One has to understand that, until 1961’s Eichmann trial, the survivors were looked upon as lambs to the slaughter. After the trial, when the truth came to light, people changed the way they look at this group of people who survived hell on earth and continued living. Suddenly this group became something of an Israeli aristocracy, in the ab— MK sence of a better word to describe it.

noIr • • • suspenseFul lOOks at grittY tales abOut baD guYs, unDerwOrlD criMinals, anD MOral nihilists

FIre BIrDS

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noIr • • • suspenseFul lOOks at grittY tales abOut baD guYs, unDerwOrlD criMinals, anD MOral nihilists

lazar

DirectOr svetOZar ristOvski smallmovesfilms.com

H

uman smuggling of refugees from the Middle East and Africa is a regular business in the Balkan states, where these desperate people can slip from the poverty and danger of home into the hope of Western Europe. This compelling feature focuses on one such smuggling outfit in Macedonia and the attempts of a central player named Lazar to escape the game for a better life.

What inspired you to tell this story? In the early ’90s, around the same time of the creation of the European Union, the country and the social system that I grew up in collapsed. Macedonia became an independent state, establishing a fragile democracy under a constant threat of inter-ethnic and/or religious conflict, accompanied by the calamity of crime and corruption. The high rate of unemployment made most people feel lost and hopeless. Many of them left, or tried to leave the country, and many of the ones who stayed got involved in some shady business. I witnessed how the system of values changed in just a few years, and the introduction to the rudimentary capitalism, named “a Transition,” turned compassion into weakness but ruthlessness into strength.

Since Macedonia, and the Balkans in general, are a gateway into the E.U., the whole region became a smuggling hub for everything

and anything that offered [a] good price in Europe, from cigarettes and drugs to women and hope. About six years ago, I learned that someone that I knew since childhood was arrested for smuggling illegal immigrants.

This spiked my curiosity, and I interviewed the guy. What I realized is that most of the smugglers are the most average people. Most of them have families. And since they are unemployed, they justify the smuggling as means to their survival, and they don’t see it as a crime at all.

Since his father left him as a boy, Lazar is a victim of immigration himself. Was that a theme you intended to explore? Of course. To me, it was important to show that Lazar and his family are affected by the immigration, as well, and that they are just one step from the people that they smuggle. It is important that the audience recognize that these people are not very different from the faceless, nameless immigrants that they smuggle. And the immigration is almost like a vicious circle that hangs above the heads of the next generation.

We all are on the same boat, and by having no compassion for the less fortunate, we only make the boat a horrible place, and it is our home and the very likely future of our children.

What do you hope viewers learn from this film?

Compassion. I hope it will make people think and start seeing other people as human beings, and not as news and/or numbers.

34 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

—MK

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DirectOr antti J. JOkinen solarfilms.com

L

ittle known to most Americans, the Lapland War put Finland between the barrels and bombs of the Nazis and the Soviets at the end of World War II. This meticulously researched feature tells the tale of a brave midwife who voluntarily became a concentration camp nurse to get closer to a German soldier she desired. It’s not only a powerful love story but also an enthralling lens into a forgotten era of history.

Is this film based on a true story? The film is inspired by true elements, but we took some creative freedoms. To me as a filmmaker, the premise was very interesting and naturally the lead characters of the book. How much of the book is real and how much is fiction? I don’t know. However, it’s certain this happened, and all the locations, camps, and the political themes are true history.

There must have been a lot of historical research.

Was it challenging? Were you happy with the results? I’m never happy with the films I

make. It’s a pain to watch them since I would change so many things and details. It seems there is never enough time. I’m happy how the film was received, especially in Finland.

It’s a very traumatic topic for us, and it became the biggest drama hit in the box office ever.

I worked a year on the script nonstop, with lots of research and visiting Germany, Norway, Russia, and Finland. I must have also read 50 books about the history and the background of [the] Lapland War and WWII.

norDIc • • • contemporary cInema from scandInavIa

the mIDWIFe

What happened to the children of Finnish women and Nazi soldiers? It was almost impossible for us to find people willing to talk about this topic. People in Finland are very shamed about this part of their history. I’m not quite sure why. I thought it was a very natural thing to fall in love during the war and a very human thing to do.

What is your next project? I’m currently finishing a film called Flowers of Evil. It’s a social commentary on Helsinki’s crime rate and young criminal gangs living in the suburbs.

— MK

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 35

norDIc • • • contemporary cInema from scandInavIa

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Is Endel Nelis a well-known figure in Estonia? Endel Nelis is famous in fencing circles, but he’s not a national hero in that respect. The film is based on a true story, but part of it is fiction.

The basic idea was to tell Estonian history within the context of this fencing club. It’s a kind of David and Goliath story. Nelis died having seen the fall of the Soviet Union, and I think that’s one of the wonderful things of the film — that the small fencing club keeps going when the big empire is gone.

What were your thoughts on seeing the script? For me, this was a totally unexpected thing. I was working on something else some years back when a Finnish producer contacted me and asked, “Would you like to read this story that takes place in Estonia in the 1950s?” And I thought, “I’m not sure. That sounds really gloomy.” But as I started reading, it didn’t take very long for me to get the feeling of, “Wait a minute; there’s something here.” And I’m a Finn, so I’m pretty pessimistic, so I kept thinking, “Hold on. This is so good. It can’t be this good.” What really got me hooked was the scene where Nelis is teaching the kids for the first time.

Does the film comment on what’s going on in Russia today? Fencing was a thing of beauty and hope that was introduced into a dour and gloomy place. The film reminds us that the Soviet empire was young, not even 50 years old at the time, while fencing goes way back into history. So what seemed at the moment to be something that was impossible to overcome, it turned out to not be the case. Fencing was a good reminder of that.

As we were shooting the film, specifically the scene where the grandfather gets taken away by Soviet secret police, people were on their phones. I was a little bit irritated and said, “C’mon guys, this is not Facebook time.” And they said, “We’re not on Facebook; we’re reading the news that the Russians are entering Ukraine.” It set a certain — TH tone.

the Fencer

DirectOr klaus härö thefencermovie.com

Also in Special Presentations

et in Estonia during the dreary early days of Soviet rule in the 1950s, this follows the true story of professional fencer Endel Nelis as he flees authorities and hides in a small town, where he tries to blend in as a gym coach. But with his founding of a fencing school that still stands today, he didn’t stay anonymous for long — especially when his team challenged the Soviets themselves.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 36 | February 4, 2016

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meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

u.s. PREMIERE

thorities on the fishes that comprise the DSL. Based on these records, we knew that these living layers of organisms actively migrated from the deep during a 24-hour period. But there was so much that we didn’t know!

DirectOr rick rOsenthal rickrosenthal.net Also in Santa Barbara Features

A

fter a career of shooting ocean scenes under the sunshine, Santa Barbara underwater photographer Rick Rosenthal decided to see what marine freaks come out at night. The result is a visually captivating and informationally rich view of a nightly phenomenon that’s the largest migration of life on the planet, perfect for anyone interested in the sea.

When did you realize that there was such a wealth of life to be filmed at night in the ocean? Back in the 1960s, after completing undergraduate studies in zoology, I was assigned a task by the Westinghouse Ocean Research Laboratory in San Diego to examine deep-sea photographs and side scan sonar records of the so-called DSL (deep scattering layer). I even got to see this living phenomenon while making several dives as an observer in the Deep Star 4000 submarine off California and Baja California, Mexico. My boss at the time was Dr. William Clarke, one of the au-

How much does science know about this phenomena? The phenomena has been known for years, but what actually triggered the vertical migration has only recently been identified.

Also, how do these animals benefit by making these mind-boggling trips from the deep to near surface and back again, day after day?

The absolute top research has been ongoing at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

Do you hope to explore this realm more deeply in the years to come? Every dive we make during the darker hours over really deep water reveals something new. Our film is just a beginning into understanding this great vertical migration. Our approach was to take the audience along on the journey, and by going into the deep ocean at night, we would also learn something about ourselves. Humans have a fear of the dark, as well as diving over thousands of feet of water. For most people, that activity would be completely insane. Everyone asks: What about sharks, what about stinging animals, and what about getting — MK separated from the boat in the dark?

reel nature • • • natUral hIstory docUmentarIes focUsed on envIronmental and wIldlIfe challenges

the DarK SIDe oF the ocean

What took so long for you to explore this realm?

The early obstacle to filming this vertical migration was having access to a submarine that could follow the movement of animals from day to night. Almost all of the deep dives were conducted during daylight hours.

Dive times were limited by battery power; our lights and cameras were experimental, and pretty crude considering what is available today. The breakthrough that we needed to tackle this subject came about with the development of professional digital cameras that could capture a high-quality image under very low light.

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 37

huntWatch

DirectOr brant backlunD huntwatchthefilm.com

reel nature • • • natUral hIstory docUmentarIes focUsed on envIronmental and wIldlIfe challenges

Also in Social Justice ith spy cameras, historical footage, stunning visuals, and a truly legendary protagonist in activist Brian Davies, this lays bare the past, present, and future of Canada’s sealhunting industry and the people who have been fighting it for decades.

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Why did you make this film? When the producers approached me, they wanted to make a film that was powerful enough to end the Canadian commercial seal hunt. Personally, I didn’t know much about the seal hunt at all.

The more I learned about it, the more I was amazed that this was happening, and largely under the radar. I was really fascinated by the characters that have devoted their lives to stopping the hunt, but I also wanted to try to understand the hunter’s perspective. This is a fiery debate that has been going on for almost 50 years. We wanted to make a film that was a window into this bizarre world that plays out every spring in a forgotten corner of the world.

How many seals are being hunted now? In 2014, hunters were actually allowed to kill 400,000 harp seals by the Canadian government.

However, there are very few markets left to sell seal products, so the quota wasn’t met and 60,000 seals were killed.

Can you explain Brian Davies’s activist legacy?

Brian was a real pioneer in a lot of ways … writing the blueprint for running an environmental campaign. He started by using cameras and documentaries to expose the hunt to the world to build public support to end it. The key to Brian’s success was that he then used this public support to apply pressure in the political arena. This approach has been extremely effective recently if you take a look at films like Blackfish and The Cove,

which started as documentaries and are now creating real change.

Could you have asked for a more dynamic visual than red blood on the ice, innocent baby seals, and callous seal hunters? Seal-hunt imagery is incredibly powerful, and it makes it easy to villainize the hunters. But I don’t think we can brand them as callous, because they have a very different life experience than many people. One thing we wanted to do is to try to understand the hunter’s perspective. They feel that this is an important source of income in an economically challenged region, and it is a proud tradition passed down for generations.

The seal-hunt imagery is naturally packed with emotion, and this actually became one of our biggest challenges in making the film.

We didn’t want to overwhelm the audience, so we made sure to pick our moments but to also make it entertaining with lighter moments, action sequences, politics, spy cam— ES eras, etc.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 38 | February 4, 2016

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the loSt cItY oF cecIl B. DemIlle FilMMaker peter l. brOsnan lostcitydemille.com

woRld PREMIERE

Also in Global Hollywood

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Are you relieved to have this film finished? “Relieved” is an understatement. Most of the interviews and footage were shot 25 years ago or more. It has all been sitting in boxes in my garage ever since. I am delighted it is finally seeing the light of day. But I certainly hope that work on the site will continue. We have saved so little from the early days of the American motion-picture industry — it’s estimated that perhaps 95 percent of all the American-made silent films are “lost.”

DeMille buried enough in the Guadalupe Dunes to fill several museums.

Does DeMille get the recognition he deserves today?

Belatedly. For years it was fashionable to look at his films as overblown or corny. In reality, he was the one who showed other filmmakers how to fill a screen with epic, grand, and exciting images that had never been seen in any other medium before. His contribution to the creation of “Hollywood,” and to the art and science of motion pictures, is second to none.

Are there any film shoots today of this magnitude?

No. There are still wonderful, epic films but no more armies of extras. The grand scenes are now done by an army of kids with apps.

The County of Santa Barbara planning department is clearly the enemy in this film. We were aware of their reputation, and we tried to play by their rules. The problem was they kept changing their rules. In a weird kind of way, I am grateful to the permit people. They gave this film something I never expected it to have: a heavy. Made for a much better film.

Could the economically strapped City of Guadalupe better capitalize on these ruins? The city of Lone Pine has made a healthy tourist industry out of its movie history. Guadalupe could do the same. Perhaps a “classic movie festival” — in the “classic town” of Guadalupe — would help bring attention to this wonderful, and well-preserved, gem of a town. They are right in the middle of the Hollywood-to-Hearst Castle tourist route.

What is the best way for the everyday Santa Barbaran to learn more about this lost city? Visit the Dunes Center in Guadalupe. Their exhibits and staff are wonderful. And, of course, — MK watch our movie.

SANTA BARBARA • • • selectiOns FrOM the wOrk OF hOMetOwn FilMMakers

any Santa Barbara residents have a vague appreciation that the Hollywood epic, The Ten Commandments, was filmed in the sand dunes of Guadalupe. This thoroughly researched and surprisingly dramatic documentary showcases one man’s decades-long quest to unearth the forgotten movie sets — and the wealth of archaeological, old movie culture evidence therein — focusing sharply on many of the ridiculous hurdles he faces along the way.

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 39

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SANTA BARBARA • • • selectiOns FrOM the wOrk OF hOMetOwn FilMMakers

a SInGle Frame

prODucer JeFF bOwDen anD DirectOr branDOn DickersOn asingleframe.com Also in Documentaries

C

oproduced by Santa Barbara resident Ginger Sledge, this documentary follows Jeff Bowden as he tries to track down a young boy that haunts him from a photograph shot in Kosovo during the brutal Balkan wars. It’s a great primer on that era and a compelling tale of one American’s interest in exploring the region’s postwar life.

How did this quest turn into a documentary project?

BD: I met Jeff Bowden on the set of my first film, Sironia, and we stayed in touch when I moved to Austin. Over coffee, Jeff told me about this journey he was on inspired by a photograph of a refugee boy taken by a French female war photographer during the Kosovo war. I was beyond intrigued.

How many years of searching did it take to reach the conclusion? How many trips to Kosovo were required?

JB: Gracie and I saw the picture for the first time in Dubrovnik in June 2007. She surprised me by giving me the picture in January 2010. I framed it and placed it in my office on a shelf in front of a window-unit air conditioner, which meant I had to tip the photograph forward every time I turned the air on or off. Perhaps as a result, the photograph

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never faded away like it might’ve if I’d hung it on a wall. I was face-to-face with the boy’s image several times a day. Almost immediately I started asking myself: What happened to him? Is he okay? Eventually, I decided that I couldn’t keep the photograph without knowing what had happened. So in the spring of 2012, I started making phone calls.

I made my first trip to Kosovo in September 2012. We finally found the boy in March of 2013. It took 13 months, start to finish.

Would you have had a film worth making without reaching that conclusion?

BD: Absolutely. I think the journey is what is interesting, and everyone you meet along that road. Learning about the war, meeting the people of Kosovo, engaging with war photographers — all of it was inspiring and insightful.

Do films like this help the healing process, or do they uncover old wounds?

JB: Probably a little of both. My experience was that older folks would talk for hours about the suffering they endured during the war, but their children have heard it all before. They’re tired of war. Young people in Kosovo want jobs, freedom to travel, a stable country where they can raise a family. — MK

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. 40 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

This project is funded in part by Cultural District Promotional Funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.

independent.com/sbiFF | santa barbara international Film Festival | February 4, 2016 | 41

WheelS over paraDISe DirectOr paul Mathieu

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westbeachfilms.com Also in Above and Beyond

T SANTA BARBARA • • • selectiOns FrOM the wOrk OF hOMetOwn FilMMakers

he notion that skateboarding runs on a 40-year cycle helps explain the burgeoning popularity of downhilling, that simplest and most dangerous genre that peaked in the mid-1970s. Back then, four-wheeled adrenaline jockeys — tucked like Olympic ski jumpers on approach — reached freeway speeds with little more than a foot drag or hay bale to help them slow down. These days, practiced downhillers maintain control with speed-scrubbing slides, a widely refined technique beautifully captured in this one-hour documentary set in the mountains above Santa Barbara.

Teaming up with downhiller and cameraman Tom Flinchbaugh, director Paul Mathieu deploys aerial and follow-cam footage to capture small crews of free-riding friends chasing bliss down the region’s steepest ribbons of asphalt. Though spaced with sit-down interviews covering history, run-ins with law enforcement, and one rider’s near-fatal crash, the film finds itself at its best when it simply presses the record button, cranks up the tunes, and jumps on for the ride.

It’s more than just the great views that make Santa Barbara a great downhilling hotspot, right? The hills right above us are another world. Santa Barbara has always been a downhill paradise.

We’ve got Kevin Reimer, the 2014 IDF World Champion. The best skateboard wheels in the world are made right here in Goleta, at Powell-Peralta. Arbor Collective is downtown with amazing board designs. And it still has that counterculture feel. Downhillers are the outlaws, the guys and girls on the fringe.

You were faced with a bit of a time crunch on this.

Explain. I read an article in The Santa Barbara Independent this past summer about the proposed county ban on downhill skateboarding [on certain roads]. I’m not a skateboarder, but something about the camaraderie of the sport intrigued me. I sought out

Tom Flinchbaugh and essentially declared we’re going to make a movie together. Tom is an experienced skater and downhill cinematographer, so he must have thought I was just crazy enough to be serious. We knew the ban would most likely pass, so it became a race to film the riders, develop the storylines, and have the film edited in time for SBIFF. Our story is timely, so I wanted to premiere this festival season and not wait another year.

What would you have done with more time? My favorite films, both fiction and nonfiction, capture a slice of time that can never be recreated. With the narrative films I’ve done, I could change a thousand things. I’ve learned to let documentaries just live in their own time and place. Interviews are always more organic during the first round of conversation. It would have been nice to have more time with the riders, however, because it was exciting.

What were the difficulties in making the film? Logistics. This is a tough sport to document.

Weather, light, and the downhill runs are all really, really variable. To have everything come together and maintain an authentic ex— Keith Hamm perience is tricky.

42 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

Santa BarBara B Bara LocaLL Heroes DirectOrs stan roden anD phyllIs de pIccIotto

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PAUL WELLMAN

his series of 16 documentary shorts, which will play before a number of the Santa Barbara films, are based on recipients of The Santa Barbara Independent’s Local Heroes Award in 2015. The annual Local Heroes edition was the first issue of the newspaper back in 1986 and continues as a proud tradition into its 30th year. The husband-andwife filmmaking team of Roden and De Picciotto, who founded the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 31 years ago, produced intimate portraits of these amazing individuals and organizations, spreading their inspiration with SBIFF’s thousands of attendees.

Santa BarBara

MichaelKate Interiors is honored to partner with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

• MICHAEL KATE INTERIORS / 132 SANTA BARBARA ST. / OPEN 6 DAYS, CLOSED WED. WWW.MIChAELKATE.COM

independent.com/sbiFF | santa Santa barbara BarBara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 43

SCREEN CUISINE • • • FilMs abOut FOOD, Drink, anD the culture that surrOunDs theM

cooKInG up a trIBute

cODirectOrs luis gOnZáleZ & anDrea góMeZ elcellerdecanroca.bbva.com

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he Roca brothers’ restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, is considered by many to be the best restaurant in the world. So when they decided to close down for a while to tour and set up dinners based on indigenous and popular ingredients in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru, a documentary crew funded by the Spanish bank BBVA just had to capture the creative culinary explosion that was certain to occur.

Did you find new flavors that the local cooks were not aware of? I think it was a mutual swap. The Rocas got new flavors, techniques, impressions, and feelings, but they left amazing ways of reinterpreting the local cooking. I know that they were by Colombia. They discovered unknown flavors there and a huge wealth about products that were not being used in local cooking. The Roca brothers contributed a new point of view to use some of the ingredients that got the local chefs really impressed. They raised the quality of many plates with simple details using products that already were there but had never been mixed or used that way. It was really interesting.

Were the regional chefs happy to have you explore their cuisine? I had no experience before in the “gastronomic world,” so one of the most surprising things for me was the existing brotherhood between the chefs, at the upper echelons at least. It seems an absolute open world where everybody shares everything: recipes, tricks, techniques.

Cocktails also got some attention, like the piscosherry drink. Was that a surprising twist? That was surprising for all, including Josep! He prepared the cocktail for the first time just there, with the camera rolling. It could be a terrible mix, but we were lucky and worked enough to be a part of the Peruvian menu. It’s a very beautiful experience when you can witness a spontaneous and creative process with the Rocas. The process really started with Pepe Moquillaza in Pisco, Peru, and ended with the final taste in Lima.

What did you learn about different cultures’ dining habits? One really funny thing is the distance in a fine dining table. If you ask Josep, he can make a whole dissertation on the subject: They configure tables at the Celler depending on the nationality of the tables, so it really matters. What is curious is the differences between countries. For instance, people in the U.S.A. tend to be closer than people in Bogotá, where they need to work with much wider ta— MK bles for the same amount of guests.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 44 | February 4, 2016

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr Michael sparaga

facebook.com/themissingingredient

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hat makes a restaurant “classic”? That’s the central question asked by this film, which follows an up-and-coming New York City restaurateur as he tries to take his establishment up a notch. Will paying blatant homage to a nowshuttered iconic Manhattan joint do the trick? Finding out makes for both excellent drama and fascinating Big Apple history.

How did you stumble upon this story? I’ve known Charles Devigne since 2001. In May of 2013, he called to tell me that his interior designer quit on him, mid-renovation, over his choice of wallpaper. I thought he was kidding, but when he told me that the wallpaper was the prancing zebra wallpaper from Gino’s, a recently closed New York dining institution known for its iconic wallpaper, his designer’s decision started to make sense.

Although Charles was aware of Gino’s, he had never been there himself, and he swore he only discovered the zebras when he was searching for wallpaper ideas online. Regardless, he was hooked. But was he hooked because the zebras appealed to him on an aesthetic level, or was it because he wanted some of the magic (and fame and money) the zebras brought to Gino’s for so many years? Whatever it was, I could tell by the determination in

his voice during our call that nothing was going to stop him from putting the wallpaper up in Pescatore. That’s when I knew I had a movie on my hands.

Did you feel his decision-making was flawed? Definitely! I thought it was flawed from the start, which is why I wanted to make this movie.

There’s inherent drama (and comedy) in watching someone bumble through a bad decision. But I’m also a nostalgist at heart, and I see this film being about the death of character, not only in New York but the world over.

Owner-operated places are disappearing in record numbers as Walmart, Starbucks, and a slew of corporate chains with deeper pockets and more clout muscle them out. Charles might be copying Gino’s, but he’s also an owner-operator with strong ties to his community and, regardless if you or I agree with his wallpaper decision, I personally feel the world could use more of that.

SCREEN CUISINE • • • FilMs abOut FOOD, Drink, anD the culture that surrOunDs theM

the mISSInG InGreDIent

Were you surprised how much the restaurant became like family to people? Not at all. I worked in restaurants for 15 years. When a New Yorker’s favorite restaurant closes, it leaves a big hole in their lives. Not only do they lose their extended family, but also their personal real estate gets a little smaller; it’s like losing a room in their home. And in a city where space is at a — MK premium, it takes a toll.

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 45

S A N TA B A R B A R A 路 G O L E TA M O N T E C I TO 路 S U M M E R L A N D

46 | February 4, 2016 | santa barbara international Film Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

WHER E C IN E MA M E E T S SAVORY Great plates and pours steal the show during Film Feast 2016. Showcasing both the culinary and cinematic arts, this 11- day event lets you celebrate creativity in two of its most enjoyable forms – with flavors from The American Riviera® and films from around the world. During the 31st Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Stay close to the action by booking now at

SBFilmFeast.com

All contents ©2016 Visit Santa Barbara. All rights reserved.

independent.com/sbiFF | santa barbara international Film Festival | February 4, 2016 | 47

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SCREEN CUISINE • • • FilMs abOut FOOD, Drink, anD the culture that surrOunDs theM

craFt:

the calIfornIa beer docUmentary DirectOr JeFF sMith craftbeerdoc.com

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ever before has such an exhaustive, wideranging documentary been made about the craft brewing movement in California. This features interviews with every big name, covers every topic you can imagine, and leaves no sudsy stone unturned.

Did you know how integral California was to the national microbrew scene? I did realize it when I started doing research. I originally was going to do a doc just on craft beer. After some research, I realized that that had been done many times before. But none were specific to California, which is where I live. Once I realized that craft pretty much started here and that I live here, it was go time.

How much beer did you drink while making this film?

A friggin’ ridiculous amount. My producer did most of the driving, while I did the “tastings.” I also filled my car up so much so that I couldn’t hold any more and had to give it away along the way. My wife was none too pleased when I showed up at home and completely filled the fridge up with beer. It took 30 days in May 2014.

What was the most surprising thing you learned?

The camaraderie and the helpfulness toward each other between brewers. It’s ridiculously cool and unheard of in other industries. They really are (for the most part) in it for the greater good. And to take a little market share from the macros along the way.

Do you think the craft-brew bubble will burst? I don’t think it will burst, but I do think it will respond accordingly. Things cannot continue to go up. I think the guys making great beer will stick around while the subpar ones won’t.

Is the public wising up to the corporate pseudo microbrews like Blue Moon and Shock Top? I don’t think so. Obviously the beer nerds know about it and are quite vocal. But the general public might not care so much. Those macro guys know how to market. There’s a reason BM and ST are the biggest “craft” brands out there. Plus those guys are starting to scoop up the craft brewers: Ballast Point, Firestone, Lagunitas, etc. etc. That will continue. And if the macros are smart, they won’t be obvious about the new ownership. Let what works continue that way.

What’s your favorite beer? Anything from Alpine in San Diego, which has now been bought up by Green Flash. Their IPAs are un— MK touchable, in my humble opinion.

48 | February 4, 2016 | Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival | independent.com/sbiFF

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr tiM DelMastrO misohungry.tv

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ustralian comedian Craig Anderson lives a very productive life in front of his computer screen, but his health is horrible. This film follows Craig on a mission to get fit by traveling through Japan in search of their skinny secrets.

How did you decide to do this film on this interesting and large fellow? My previous documentaries are about serious topics, so I wanted to create a lighthearted and comedic documentary, which was still informative. I had seen some of Craig’s previous comedic work and thought he would be “the perfect fit” for the subject of the film.

Were the Japanese hosts welcoming? Did they fear you would make fun of their culture? I’ve always found the Japanese people to be very welcoming, helpful, and friendly. They were quick to welcome and make us feel at home. The humor in the film comes not from making fun at their culture but from Craig’s bubbly personality. His goofball nature in a foreign setting is what adds color and humor to the film.

What do you think Western viewers will find most surprising about this film? When most people think of Japanese cuisine, sushi and raw fish immediately come to mind. Although these

woRld PREMIERE dishes are Japanese classics, I think Western viewers will be surprised to discover the typical Japanese diet extends far beyond these dishes. Miso Hungry explores traditional Japanese meals and ingredients that are commonly found in the Japanese home, but which may not be familiar to viewers in the West. I think Western viewers will also be surprised by how simple and effortless these Japanese dishes are to prepare and serve.

How is Craig doing now? When Craig and I initially discussed filming this unique dieting experiment, we thought a 12-week diet would be sufficient time to measure the results.

However, even after we had finished principal photography, the effortless nature of the diet and the impressive health benefits which resulted convinced him to continue the diet.

Craig continued the diet long after we had finished shooting the film, and he has continued to lose weight.

SCREEN CUISINE • • • FilMs abOut FOOD, Drink, anD the culture that surrOunDs theM

mISo hunGrY

Did making this film in any way change your own diet? I was born and raised in Japan, so a lot of the traditional Japanese ingredients and meals were already familiar to me. I regularly enjoy eating Japanese cuisine, even the smelly, — MK sticky fermented soybeans.

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 49

SCREEN CUISINE • • • FilMs abOut FOOD, Drink, anD the culture that surrOunDs theM

Was he welcome to the idea of a documentary? Cut to 15 years later, our kids ended up at the same elementary school. I took him out for coffee and pitched him on the idea. He said absolutely no and had several reasons: He wouldn’t let me film him reviewing restaurants, and he wouldn’t give me any personal conflict. We had a few more coffee dates, and he finally came around.

I convinced him it would be a film that celebrated the diversity of L.A. and explored the city through his eyes. I wasn’t interested in making a traditional portrait documentary, and that reassured him.

cItY oF GolD

DirectOr laura gabbert

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onathan Gold’s food writing is so impressive that the former L.A. Weekly and current L.A. Times critic even won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in 2007. This intimate documentary explores the daily life of Gold, whose articles, though ostensibly about food, weave together the various histories, cultures, memories, and experiences that make Los Angeles the fascinatingly diverse metropolis it is.

How did you learn about Jonathan Gold? I moved to Los Angeles in the ’90s to go to graduate school. I was reluctant to move to L.A. because I held a lot of the judgements a lot of people hold about L.A.: the sprawl, lack of culture, etc., etc. I started to read Jonathan Gold, and his writing changed the way I saw and experienced the city.

How much did you know about him before you embarked on this journey? I knew very little about him before I embarked on making the film.

One of the things I discovered that we explore in the film is the incredible rigor, research, and time he spends on each review. I became very interested in what the role of the critic is in society, especially in the age of Yelp and reader reviews on Amazon.

I was happy to see/hear that so much of his amazing prose made it to the screen. Was that a goal of the film, to preserve his written work on-screen? Yes, absolutely. That was very important to me.

He is a wonderful writer. His writing transcends food writing. He’s a writer of culture and a writer of urban life. One of the toughest things about making the film was the challenge of how do you dramatize or make his writing cinematic? I wanted to capture the feeling of discovery you have when you read his reviews. I had always found his writing so moving, and I credit his writing with making me fall in love with L.A. Many Angelenos feel this way about him — natives and transplants alike. I wanted the film to capture his love for —MK L.A.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 50 | February 4, 2016

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

DirectOr valetin thurn 10milliarden-derfilm.de Also in Screen Cuisine

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nflinching. Exhaustive. Terrifying. Hopeful.

These are the terms that best describe Valentin Thurn’s documentary, which explores the complex intersection of global population, food supply, farming, and social justice.

Why take on a project like this? My interest for our nutrition actually started at supermarket trash bins. When I did my first cinema documentary, Taste the Waste (SBIFF 2011), I asked myself why corporations throw away good food when at the same time people are starving? I discovered that indeed our consumption patterns and the worldwide food crisis are closely connected.

What is the average person’s biggest misunderstanding about food? Good food does not always look shiny. It is because we are so focused to buy the perfect-looking things that we forget about what should be our real focus: taste. In the process of doing this, we create mountains of food waste around the world.

What’s the most disturbing thing you found? That the middle class of the developing world has started to copy us and eat more meat. The feed production required for this, primarily soybeans, is the number one reason why small

farmers in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia are driven off their land. That’s why our meat consumption in the first world is directly linked to hunger.

What’s the biggest issue facing food security? It is not the growing world population! Certainly the number of people cannot grow and grow forever. The growth will end by the middle of this century, and the 10 billion number will be the top. But more important than the number of people is the way we are producing food for them. The biggest impact on the world’s environment comes from the fertilizers and minerals used in farming as well as artificial nitrogen that creates dead zones in the oceans. These are the main reasons why our eating habits contribute so significantly to climate change.

Do you think we can do it? We are already producing enough food for 12 billion now, so when it comes to the quantity, yes, we can produce enough for everybody. But when it comes to distribution, I have my doubts it will work, because already we are unable to distribute food in a fair manner, and I don’t really see a political will of the big players to change this. What Western governments destroy with their trade politics cannot be repaired by their little bit of development aid.

For instance, they force African governments to open their markets for food from Europe or North America and, in the process, destroy local farmers and, in the process, destroy that country’s ability to produce enough in times — ES of a crisis.

SOCIAL jUSTICE • • • shInIng a brIght lIght on IssUes from hUman rIghts to envIronmentalIsm

10 BIllIon: What’S on Your plate?

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For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 51

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

SOCIAL jUSTICE • • • shInIng a brIght lIght on IssUes from hUman rIghts to envIronmentalIsm

the champIonS DirectOr DarcY Dennett championsdocumentary.com

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n 2007, football superstar Michael Vick was arrested when authorities raided his home and broke up a brutal dog-fighting ring that he had been operating for five years. While news outlets covered Vick’s fall from and then return to fame, little was known about the dogs removed from the compound. In her film, Darcy Dennett tells of the life-saving efforts of animal sanctuaries and follows several pit bulls from rescue to rehabilitation to their new lives as family dogs. The Champions paints portraits of the dogs as individuals rather than dismissing them based on their breed, and the result is heartwarming and inspiring.

How did you get involved with this project? From 2007-2009 I was the producer of National Geographic’s series Dogtown, and during the course of the series, we followed the work of Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah.

The Vick case broke as we were shooting the second season, and we covered the initial rescue of the dogs. The memory of these dogs never left me, and I continued to follow their lives. I became increasingly aware that there was a powerful story waiting to be told.

What has the response been to the film? Overwhelmingly positive. A handful of people have said that “it’s the best documentary I’ve ever seen,” which is such a nice compliment. … Another person said they felt the film was about love, which is such a wonderful thing to say about a film with dogs rescued from a

fighting ring. … It’s such a powerful story in and of itself, but people seem to respond to the fact that it’s told in such a positive and uplifting way. There are no hard-to-watch scenes that will make your heart bleed, and we chose not to include any visuals of cruelty against animals. It’s an inspirational story about overcoming difficult odds and following your dreams. What these dogs have achieved, how far they have come, and the people who helped these dogs along the way is so inspirational.

Are things improving for the maligned pit bull?

Here in New York City, there are definitely more and more responsible dog owners with pit bulls. I think public perception about these dogs is definitely changing. It would be great to see them take back their rightful place as the “All-American dog.”

What do you hope audiences take away from this film? To me the film is about … about the significance of the relationship humans have with animals and our responsibility to be their voice, as they don’t have the ability to speak for and defend themselves. I hope audiences walk away from the film with a more informed point of view about pit bulls, and a renewed inspiration for the relationships with the animals in their own lives, as well as the — MD animals we share the planet with.

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. 2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm Film FeStIval Festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/sbiFF 52 | February 4, 2016

ADL honors Viva with the Stand Up Award

get involved! learn more about the ADL. text love to 51555 santabarbara.adl.org

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SOCIAL jUSTICE • • • shInIng a brIght lIght on IssUes from hUman rIghts to envIronmentalIsm

thanK You For Your ServIce DirectOr tOM DOnahue

facebook.com/veteransdocumentary

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hank You for Your Service takes an uncompromising look at the deep psychological toll war takes on so many soldiers and how the military often fails to provide proper mentalhealth care upon their return home. Interviews with vets, including a Santa Barbara resident, and big-name advocates for better treatment, such as Robert Gates, Sebastian Junger, and General David Petraeus, reveal where we have failed as a country and what we can do to solve the growing crisis.

What inspired you to make this documentary?

In April 2012, Executive Producer Gerald Sprayregen sent me a New York Times op-ed

by Nicholas Kristof titled “A Veteran’s Death, A Nation’s Shame” with a note saying, “We should make a film about this.” The theme of Kristof’s piece — that more people have died from suicide than in combat in our two most recent wars — had a profound and galvanizing effect on me, evoking many important themes from my own life. My father was a veteran; my best friend committed suicide when we were 21.

Of all the solutions suggested in the film, which do you think are the most realistic? I think the cre-

ation of a Behavioral Health Corps would be a direct fix to a systemic flaw in the military. As with all such change, it would no doubt meet with resistance, probably mostly by psychiatrists who fancy their position in the Medical Corps. But the system as-is is not working, and I do believe we are at a point where we could gather the will as a nation to make the change.

Why do you think our country is seemingly content to ignore this issue at the moment? Our military compromises less than 1 percent of the population. Out of sight, out of mind.

Junger had a good point about the male ethos getting in the way of swallowing one’s pride and asking for help. How do we help soldiers get past that? I believe that mandatory counseling from Day One of their service is the best way to reduce the stigma. As Vietnam veteran and author Karl Marlantes says in the film, “The general goes. The private goes.”

Instead of, or in addition to, thanking vets for their service, what else should citizens do or say to express their gratitude and help these men and women?

Citizens need to listen. A thank-you can be much appreciated, but it is not enough. They should engage in conversation. As citizens, they should also stay informed. They have a duty to read about and understand the conflicts we are fighting as a country — that their tax dollars are paying for — and on the costs of those conflicts, psychological and other— TH wise.

2016 || Santa santa BarBara barbara InternatIonal international FIlm film FeStIval festival || independent.com/SBIFF independent.com/SBIFF 54 | February 4, 2016

independent.com presents

meet The makers Interviews with the nominees

u.s. PREMIERE

ShoWroom meikincine.com

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his humorous feature from Argentina portrays middle-aged Diego, who must leave his chosen career as an event planner to sell high-rise condos in Buenos Aires for his uncle, who also lends Diego’s family a home on the city’s outer, jungle-y reaches. As his initially disgruntled wife and daughter grow to like the new place, Diego gets caught in the sales hunt.

Why did you decide to explore these characters and this story? My films and their universes do not arise from a single side. This is a mixture of personal and family situations and, from my observations, developing documentaries over the last 15 years. This is a comfortable middleclass family that, during the economic crisis, had to change their city and leave the customs of that class. Diego’s plans to regain the status and return to live in the capital are very funny and decadent.

Regarding the real estate universe, I could never understand how thousands of people prefer to live in very little places but full of amenities. The marketing of “quality of life” is an issue that catches my attention. The management of human sensibility is very delicate.

Is there a strong push and pull between city and suburban life in Buenos Aires? The dichotomy between life in the city and suburban life closer to nature is a universal theme that not only happens in Argentina. I’d rather live in the city and be able to escape to a more peaceful place and not have it be necessary to dress up.

Do you have personal experience with those types of apartments or housing complexes? Some years ago, I was looking for an apartment to move into with my family, and the bids were ridiculous, especially for places that were very miniscule but full of amenities. Lot of Argentines prefer to live in just a few meters but in a fashionable area. Others prefer a different lifestyle.

SpanISh / latIn amerIca

DirectOr FernanDO MOlnar

Diego hangs out every day with a group of friends and family, sipping coffee and maté. Is that a common daily activity for most Buenos Aires men? It seems that coffee shop time is dwindling in today’s fast-paced world. Having a coffee in the middle of the day is a habit not only of men but of all Argentines. But Diego and his friends are a select few that do not meet in their work schedules, so they can do it whenever they want. It is also an excuse to talk and try to close some —MK business.

For film festival coverage and schedule changes, visit independent.com/SBIFF. independent.com/sbiFF | Santa santa BarBara barbara international InternatIonal Film FIlm Festival FeStIval | February 4, 2016 | 55

The Pacifica Experience A COMPREHENSIVE, ONE-DAY INTRODUCTION TO PACIFICA’S GRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, IN SANTA BARBARA PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS WILL EXPERIENCE • typical class presentations • degree program-specific information meetings • sessions on admissions, scholarships, and financial aid • ample opportunity to interact with faculty, alumni, staff, and current students.

THE $35 REGISTRATION FEE includes all of the day’s activities, lunch, and a $10 Gift Certificate good at the Pacifica Bookstore.

Pacifica’s $75 application fee will be waived for attendees.

SPACE IS LIMITED AND ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Register online at pacifica.edu or call 805.969.3626, ext. 103.

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR SPRING AND FALL 2016

Pacifica is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). For U.S. Dept. of Education Gainful Employment Information visit pacifica.edu/GainfulEmployment.