Montecito arborist Gene Tyburn is one proud dad. His documentary maker son Matt Tyrnauer‘s latest project Where’s My Roy Cohn?, the Svengali behind Joseph McCarthy and President Donald Trump, is currently airing on the Starz TV channel. Matt has made a number of notable documentaries while writing for Vanity Fair magazine, including 2009’s Valentino: The […]
Longtime Santa Barbara International Film Festival board member Jeff Barbakow and his wife, Margo, are proud parents. Their director son Max‘s existential comedy Palm Springs has just narrowly broken the Sundance Film Festival record for the biggest sale ever! Hulu and indie distributor Neon purchased the film rights for $17,500,000.69, exceeding the previous record set […]
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Several local organizations are collaborating to celebrate Black History Month all throughout February. Santa Barbara Young Black Professionals, Coffee with a Black Guy, Black Rock Coalition (NYC), El Centro, Endowment for Youth Committee, African American Women in Santa Barbara County, Martin Luther King, Jr Committee of Santa Barbara, Black Lives Matter Santa Barbara, Juneteenth Santa […]
The red carpets have all been rolled back up, the klieg lights turned off, and filmmakers have gone on to the next festival along with their movies. But there’s still one final freebie for local film lovers before SBIFF calls it quits on its 35th festival. That would be the Third Weekend screenings, which although […]
It had to be the biggest night ever for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) and I’ve been to all 34. This was the evening they honored Brad Pitt with the Maltin Modern Master Award. As I approached the Arlington Theatre the street had been blocked off and there were solid people clear across […]
There are just three days left in SBIFF 35, and with all of the tribute evenings being front-loaded at this year’s festival, no more stars walking the red carpet. Unless you are an advocate of the auteur theory, that is, in which case there’s one more big event on the SBIFF slate in the annual […]
Writer-director-producer Jason Wise – whose previous documentaries include the much-lauded SOMM trilogy, had little idea what he was in for when he started making his latest film, The Delicacy, about Santa Barbara’s urchin diving industry. “Urchin is my favorite food, and I wanted to spend more time up there,” said the L.A. resident who did […]
Although the project was 10 years in the making, director Paul Lamont remembers exactly why he wanted to make The Songpoet, his nearly two-hour exploration of the conflicts of career, family, ego, relationships, and sheer talent vs. achievement that have propelled the great American singer-songwriter Eric Andersen through his half-century-plus career. It was a moment […]
Santa Barbara documentary filmmaker/journalist Kevin McKiernan was a rookie NPR reporter in 1973 when he was embedded at Wounded Knee during the famous armed American Indian Movement (AIM) occupation in South Dakota that left two dead and scores arrested. Embedded himself, actually, as McKiernan had to circumvent government roadblocks surrounding the village and resort to […]
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Winning a Living Legend Award at the annual FestForums Santa Barbara is film director Penelope Spheeris. A not-to-miss three-day event is filled with a VIP Speaker Line-Up that includes Steve Baltin from Forbes Magazine, former World Surfing Champion Shaun Tomson, Skip Martin (Kool & the Gang, The Dazz Band), Jon Anderson (Yes), Grammy Songwriter Ray […]
Surf movies, especially those with a Santa Barbara connection, have been a popular sidebar at SBIFF for many years. This weekend the genre steps to a fest of its own with the first annual event celebrating the “Santa Barbara Surf Culture” on film. The two-day fest, slated for full 12-hour plus schedules on both Saturday […]
Santa Barbara Junior High’s Marjorie Luke Theatre was socially gridlocked when Generosity of Eye, directed by Emmy-winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘s husband, Brad Hall, was shown to raise funds for the theater. The entertaining film, which debuted at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, focused on Julia’s late billionaire father, William, who died three years ago […]
Montecito author Alicia St. John is bringing her award-winning children’s book Piglet Willy to film. The work, which I helped narrate some years back, won the CALM Celebrity Authors award the year it was published and was endorsed by Thomas Steinbeck, son of novelist John Steinbeck. Now Dan Goldbacher, director of the Dana Point Ocean […]
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is no stranger to the camera as the actress has starred as Elaine in the iconic sitcom Seinfeld and the title character in the just-concluded HBO hit VEEP, as well as several feature films. She’s collected 11 Emmy Awards, a SAG prize and a Golden Globe. But perhaps her most personal work appears […]
