The 22nd Santa Barbara International l Film Festival - Day 9

About 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles is the city of Santa Barbara, California, which claims to be the American Riviera. The nickname has connotations of the rich and famous lounging about in the sun and surf, but that only captures one aspect of its personality. It is a beach town along the Pacific coast nestled west of the Santa Ynez Mountains, combining for great views. The main drag is State Street, lined with many restaurants and bars, the latter which no doubt helps fuel UC Santa Barbara's reputation as a party school. The streets are filled with music day and night as many of the homeless play instruments.

I had previously attended the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in the mid-90s when it took place in March and the event had a charming, small-town feel to it. It was mostly screenings by unknown filmmakers with a few discussion panels. Those idyllic days are long gone, as is the entire business of film festivals with so many cities competing with each other. Here, business has replaced art, made evident by the breakfast talk of discovering a new film giving way to PR flaks on cell phones working to get into the biggest parties.

SBIFF runs through the end of January and the beginning of February to take advantage of the celebrities in L.A. for the plethora of award shows and all the politicking and marketing that requires. To assist in getting the stars to come up north, they are given awards for being themselves and showing up. This year's honorees were Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, director Bill Condon, and Will Smith, who received the Modern Master Award for his career accomplishments. The talk of the town on Feb 2^nd was the screening of An Inconvenient Truth at the Arlington Theatre followed by the presentation of the David Attenborough Award to Al Gore and director David Guggenheim. It was the place to be.