PANELISTS:
Emily Kassie, Sugarcane (Director)
Diane Warren, The Six Triple Eight (Songwriter)
Paula DuPré Pesmen, Porcelain War (Producer)
Smriti Mundhra, I Am Ready, Warden (Director)
Victoria Warmerdam, I’m Not A Robot (Director/Writer)
Suchitra Mattai, Anuja (Producer)
Suchitra Mattai – Anuja – Producer
“It sheds light on child labor but really sheds light on the bond between sisters.”
“I center women and I tell stories of people that haven’t been shared.”
“Casting within the community and providing roles to those who we were writing about.”
“Who knew a short could take three years? Not so short.”
“It’s art that carries us, its art that heals us.”
Paula DuPré Presmen – Porcelain War – Producer
“The artists in Ukraine are 9 miles from the fighting line.”
“We checked in on them to see when they were leaving, we are not leaving, we are continuing to make our art at night.”
“We smuggled in cameras through Poland and zoomed to teach them how to use them.”
“There was many days we could not reach them and were worried about them.”
Emily Kassie – Sugarcane – Director
“The film follows several characters and survivors who are not only excavating the truth but also through the recess of their own memories.”
“I grew up in a community of holocaust survivors and my mom was a social worker.”
“This is not just a story about trauma, its a story about reclaiming”
Diane Warren – The Six Triple Eight – Songwriter
“From the sizzle reel and her telling me what happened, I stated writing the chords and the chorus wrote itself.”
“I know this could be one of the best songs that I wrote in my life and I think it is.”
“My Oscar is lonely, he needs a boyfriend.”
Victoria Warmerdam – I’m Not A Robot – Director/Writer
“The Turing test is annoying us everytime we want to buy something on Amazon.”
”I was super intrigued by this Truman show kind of aspect to it.”
“We are all programmed by our upbringing and the people that we meet and the country we are born in.”
“I have this sort of love and hate relationship with chat gpt.”
Smirti Mundhra – I Am Ready, Warden – Director
“I was struck with his sense of remorse and this feeling within him that he had never gotten to convey to his victims family how remorseful he was.”
“His case had gone to the Supreme Court over religous rights because he had asked a priest to lay his hands on him and Texas denied it.”
“A week before John’s execution he decided that he wanted to be apart of the story”
“You always hope that your work will have an impact but to present the work in that environment and have those men tell me that they had felt seen in a way that they had never been seen before.”
About the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and educational organization dedicated to discovering and showcasing the best in independent and international cinema. Over the past 39 years, SBIFF has become one of the top 10 film festivals in the United States – attracting 100,000 attendees and offering 11 days of 200+ films, tributes and symposiums, fulfilling their mission to engage, enrich, and inspire the Santa Barbara community through film.
Sponsors of the 40th SBIFF include: Lexus, Manitou Fund, FIJI Water, DAOU Vineyards, Sonos, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Panavision, Santa Barbara City, US Bank, Yardi, Montecito Bank & Trust, Kaleidoscope Productions, Fujifilm, The Fund for Santa Barbara, ADL Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties, National Endowment for the Arts, Black Market Spirits, American Society of Cinematographers, John C. Mithun Foundation, Audrey Hillman Fisher Foundation, The Veraison Fund, Northern Trust, Netflix, UCSB, Bentson Foundation, Volentine Family Foundation, Toad&Co, Topa Topa Brewing Company, and many more generous supporters.
SBIFF continues its commitment to education and the community throughout many free educational programs and events. SBIFF’s programs support over 18,000 kids, students and families in our local community by introducing film as an art form to young children with programs like AppleBox and Mike’s FieldTrip to the Movies; teaching film analysis to highschool and college students with programs like Rosebud and the Film Studies Program; and teaching the craft of screenwriting and filmmaking with Film Camp and 10-10-10 Mentorship programs. Most importantly SBIFF’s programs are always directed towards the under-represented and under-served communities within Santa Barbara County.
More recently, SBIFF secured a long-term lease for the iconic multi-plex at 916 State Street in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. This landmark acquisition paves the way for the creation of a state-of-the-art Film Center — a vibrant, year-round destination that will serve as a central hub for cinema enthusiasts and the heart of SBIFF’s renowned Film Festival. Building on the success of the Riviera Theatre revitalization in 2016 and the opening of its own Education Center in 2019 in the downtown area, SBIFF continues to strengthen its commitment to the cultural fabric of Santa Barbara.
