Illuminate Film Festival: Shining a Light on the Heart

In a town rife with special film events seemingly every fortnight if not more often, it wouldn’t be wrong to think of the Illuminate Film Festival as a series of gatherings where film is, in many ways, only incidental to the mission. Billing itself as the world’s leading showcase for conscious cinema, Illuminate launches its second year in town next week after nine festivals in Sedona, AZ. The festival will showcase 20 films about raising spirits, awareness, and actions. The 14 feature-length documentaries and a selection of micro-shorts explore human potential, spiritual growth, and social change in an effort to cultivate empathy across boundaries and imagine more heartfelt possibilities for our collective future. 

“We’re providing an antidote to a lot of the media and everything else that is coming at us right now,” said Téana David, the festival’s artistic director since the move to Santa Barbara. “All of our films are very carefully curated to emphasize themes of consciousness, spirituality, health and wellness, social change and/or earth stewardship. Think of it as enlightening entertainment, or entertaining enlightenment.” 

To that end, nearly all of the already illuminating screenings are followed by a panel, process or event meant to take the audience deeper into what they’ve just seen cinematically. Illuminate’s new “Reel integrations” go beyond discussions to offer experiential processes. 

Wolf’s Message, which has its world premiere on May 3, tells the story of Michael “Wolf” Pasakarnis, and the evidence-based medium Suzanne Giesemann in sharing proof of consciousness beyond the physical body – which challenges our understanding of life, love, and the soul’s eternal journey. A panel discussion with the director Jim Spruell and Suzanne Giesemann will precede the latter’s leading the audience in “tuning into the frequency of love” to connect to loved ones beyond the veil.

Rescued Hearts is a film inspired by a life-changing moment when a nonverbal 7 year old boy diagnosed with autism spoke his first words while interacting with a horse – an animal widely believed to catalyze healing and transformation. Friday night’s showing includes a post-screening panel that features Sheva Carr, the architect and director of HeartMath’s HeartMastery Program. On Saturday Carr also leads an experiential and interactive workshop sharing leading-edge neuroscience about the heart and brain. This research shows us how we, as filmmakers and audience members, can deliberately look through the lens of love – this year’s festival theme – to create movie experiences that serve as meaningful medicine for the evolution of our souls. 

The multi-tiered approach is also exemplified by the Opening Night on Thursday, May 1, at our city’s grandest indoor venue, the Granada Theatre. The evening begins with live music geared toward opening the heart, offered by mantra-pop artist Donna De Lory, electric cellist Brianna Tam and Montecito-raised percussionist Joss Jaffe, along with a performance by LUME Apex, a Los Angeles-based movement collective whose practices embody ritual, reverence and radiant expression. Celebrated ocean and environmental filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau will be presented with the Illuminate Media Changemaker Lifetime Achievement Award by actor/activist Ed Begley, Jr. The keynote address comes from Lynne Twist, the bestselling visionary, activist, and Soul of Money author. Twist will share powerful insights from her latest book, Living a Committed Life, inviting the audience to remember our deeper purpose and discover the freedom and fulfillment that come from living in service to something greater than ourselves. 

“Lynn is so perfectly emblematic of Illuminate because she combines inner inquiry and growth, outer service and action,” David said. “She’s both very spiritual and a real changemaker in the world… Why do inner work if not to awaken the heart and be called to greater service so that we can really help create a more caring civilization?”

Those activities lead to the Santa Barbara premiere of Wisdom of Happiness, the documentary – executive produced by Richard Gere – of a deeply intimate encounter with the Dalai Lama, who speaks directly to the camera about inner peace, happiness, and potential for a peaceful 21st century. 

His Holiness is also the subject of another film basically bookending the festival on Sunday afternoon in The Dalai Lama’s Gift. The film captures his historic 1981 Kalachakra Tantra initiation in Wisconsin, which marked Tibetan Buddhism’s arrival in America. The historic occasion was captured on film, but locked away in the Smithsonian for some 40 years. David moderates a panel discussion called “Tantra: Imagining What You Can Be” with director Ed Bastian, Tibetan scholar Losang Samten, and Vesna Wallace, UCSB professor of South Asian Religions and Inner Asian Buddhist Studies. 

“With this year’s festival, we’ve curated the experience as a journey where one event amplifies the ones that came before,” David said. “Everything just builds to where, hopefully, people walk away with their hearts wide open and inspired.” 

Visit https://illuminatefilmfestival.com