Classical Corner, Focus on Film, and More

Hahn Hall is back in action again on October 29 as Camerata Pacifica plays on a rare Wednesday evening for the local launch of “Beethoven 32,” its momentous three-year cycle featuring principal pianist Gilles Vonsattel performing all 32 of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. Vonsattel dives right in, beginning the cycle with the “‘Hammerklavier,’ Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106,” considered among the most demanding and monumental pieces in the solo piano repertoire. He’ll also play Chopin’s “Nocturne No. 11,” preceded by Mozart’s “Wind Serenade in E-flat Major, K.375.” Visit www.cameratapacifica.org.

Heiichiro Ohyama, the former maestro of the now-defunct Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, returns to the Lobero stage for a second “Music Dialogue” event on October 23, when the violist will be joined by SBCO alumni Amy Hershberger, Elizabeth Hedman, Erick Rynearson, and Paula Fehrenbach. The quintet will discuss, rehearse, and experiment with the first movement of Dvořák’s beloved “American” String Quintet in front of the onstage audience, then perform the piece in its entirety, followed by a Q&A. Tickets and details at www.lobero.org. 

The Santa Barbara Chamber Players, which partly stepped into the SBCO gap, play their season opening concert on October 25 at First United Methodist Church downtown, with Westmont’s Daniel Gee conducting and works by Beethoven, Kodály, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn, and Haydn on the program, the latter two with the Westmont College Choir. Visit https://sbchamberplayers.org.

AI and Film: Thoroughly Modern Tilly and Beyond

It’s either a coincidence or perhaps an inevitability that the controversy over Tilly Norwood broke just weeks before UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center (CWC) is set to mark the launch of its multi-year research initiative – on Media Industries and artificial intelligence – this Saturday, October 25. Tilly, a fully AI-generated virtual actress, developed from work of professional performers without their permission or compensation, has provoked the ire of Hollywood actors and unions, but “she” only just scratches the surface of what the initiative aims to investigate.

“Everyone in the industry is interested in understanding what the impact of AI is going to be on the media industries, on film, television, gaming and streaming, and considering the implications on labor, production, pre-production, post-production, marketing – the impact on everything that we do, including the cultural, political and economic effects,” said Ross Melnick, the UCSB film prof serving as CWC’s interim director since the summer. “The event is to have a dynamic conversation at the center to bring in people who are practitioners, journalists, scholars, those who are working with this technology and already seeing the changes.”

Accordingly, the launch event opens with remarks by CWC founding Benefactor (and Montecito resident) Dick Wolf, leading to a panel moderated by Melnick and featuring Jennifer Howell, chief creative officer at Deep Voodoo, Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s innovative synthetic media and entertainment company that blends machine learning with human talent to provide storytelling tools for creatives; Rick Rosen, a co-founder of Endeavor, now WME Agency, who oversaw the agency’s television division in addition to heading the broadcast, sports broadcast and golf divisions; Elliot Wolf, Dick Wolf’s son and co-founder of Wolf Games, a generative entertainment company that builds cinematic games personalized to the player with major IP partners across the entertainment spectrum; Ian Krietzberg, who covers the business of AI for Puck Media Company; and UCSB film prof Lisa Parks, director of the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab at UCSB. 

The free event kicks off the longer project, the CWC-funded convocation which brings together a global group of researchers around media industries and AI. The venture will look into the what and why and far-reaching implications of the rapidly-developing field as it relates to the media space, Melnick said. 

“We wanted to talk to people who are seeing not just what’s happening now, but can forecast years down the road what that might mean for actors and directors and writers and producers, as well as audiences and those who engage with media,” he said. “What does it mean for the way we think about our world, because so much of film and TV is both a reflection on and an influence on our world. There are whole sets of legal and other challenges as well as ethical conversations.” 

That’s all part of the longer-term project, one that is changing much faster than the phenomena academics might typically study. 

“Our longitudinal approach of research is necessary because as soon as people identify what needs to be studied, the technology and its impact continues to change. A multi-year period allows us to essentially create a history of the present, and actually create a documentation of the present and future.”

If that sounds like a huge undertaking for just a two-hour event, well, blame the non-AI audience members. 

“The human attention span has gotten shorter,” Melnick said. “We’re trying to deliver a packed dynamic conversation because we’ll get to some key issues, and then, hopefully, it’ll still be cooking when people start to hit their capacity to listen. It’s better to leave people wanting more.” 

Visit https://www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu.

Focus on Film: Not Too Shabby

SBIFF has announced two of its major award winners for the 2026 festival. Adam Sandler joins some very esteemed company in receiving the festival’s 2026 Maltin Modern Master Award, its highest honor, on February 5; cementing his transition from Saturday Night Live comedian to an actor. Sandler’s significant dramatic range is in full evidence with this year’s Jay Kelly, the latest from director Noah Baumbach. Sandler, who counts two Golden Globe Awards, five Emmys and three Grammys (but no Oscar nods) among his accolades, might just change that come January. The actor also reprised the title character in Happy Gilmore 2 this summer. 

Michael B. Jordan, who received the fest’s Virtuoso honors for his breakout collaboration with director Ryan Coogler Fruitvale Station in 2014, and was presented with the Cinema Vanguard award in 2019 for blockbusters Black Panther and Creed II, gets SBIFF’s second prestigious honor in the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award on February 12 for his performance as twin brothers Smoke and Stack in Coogler’s Sinners. 

In the meantime, SBIFF’s Cinema Society has amped up its screening schedule of Oscar hopeful films at the Riviera, as happens every top-flight festival season to clarify the picture (pardon the pun). Films followed by discussions with filmmakers are happening almost every evening and are open to non-CS members, pending capacity. This week’s focus is on foreign-language films, including Magellan, Philippines’ entry for the Academy Awards, with writer-director Lav Diaz (October 23); Nia DaCosta’s modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda, and conversation with the writer-director-actresses Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss (October 24); Japan’s Oscar entry Kokuho with production designer Yohei Taneda (October 25); Palestine 36, a historical fiction that is the state’s Academy entry, with director Annemarie Jacir (October 26); and Happy Birthday, Egypt’s entry, which explores classism in modern-day Cairo, followed by a conversation with writer-director Sarah Goher (October 28). 

Highly anticipated feature film events next month include Hamnet with Oscar-decorated writer-director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) on November 8; Frankenstein with writer-director Guillermo del Toro (November 9); Sentimental Value, the latest from writer-director Joachim Trier (November 13); and Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos’ new Emma Stone entry, on November 15. Visit https://sbifftheatres.com/cs. 

Book ’em 

Santa Barbara Reads aims its clip-on light at The Magic Fish, Trung Le Nguyen’s graphic novel that unfolds a heartwarming tale about the stories that shape who we are. In a meta moment, the journey involves books the young protagonist borrows from his local library to help him as he struggles to explain what he’s going through, navigating life through fairy tales to tackle tough subjects in a way that’s accessible for readers of all ages. 

Free print copies are available in English and Spanish at the central library’s kickoff celebration 5-6:30 pm on Friday, October 24, outdoors on the Michael Towbes Library Plaza. Copies will also be handed out on request while supplies last at all SBPL locations; ebooks and digital audiobooks are available in English. Guests will have an opportunity to contribute to a community art piece with local artist Veronica Sanchez, and register for upcoming SB Reads book clubs, workshops and special events. 

Sandra Resnik, a third-generation resident of Santa Barbara, presents her new autobiography (released on May 5), Then the Phone Rang: My Journey from Hitchhiking Hippie to the Hollywood High Life, at Montecito’s Tecolote Book Shop at 3 pm Saturday, October 25. Resnick, who writes as “Sandy Pearl,” will share stories of her journey and transitions and sign copies of the book.