One of the stronger components of the illustrious Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) is its senses-awakening reality fixes, imparted via documentaries, which have gained increasing significance in the fest’s overall cinematic agenda. From Friday, September 28, through Thursday, October 4, SBIFF’s documentary cause increases its foothold thanks to the compact new Call to Action Film Festival, held at the Riviera Theatre. Like the Wave Festival, held twice per year, the brief but substantial Call to Action aims to showcase films focusing on social, environmental, political, and other real-world causes and to include community-engaging panel discussions with artists and community leaders in the mix.
The mini-fest has been on the drawing boards for some time, according to SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling, roughly inspired by the 2016 elections and the frightening rise and rankle of Trump. “Natalie Orfalea [of the philanthropic Orfalea Foundation], Lynda Weinman, and I met with the staff [after the election] and felt that it was important to do a social-justice-film-driven festival,” he said. “[We] hoped to have launched sooner, but the Riviera renovations last summer took longer than expected. We all agreed from the beginning that it needed to be more than just a display of films. We want to create a dialogue; we want audiences to hear from local nonprofits that are dealing with the subject matter. We understand well that film has the strength and power of creating a community, and we feel that a healthy discussion after each film can help an audience understand how we can all be involved and help with each pressing subject.”
According to programmer Michael Albright, all of Call to Action’s film selections “address timely social justice issues and offer ways to confront and overcome various forms of discrimination and injustice. We hope to connect these filmmakers with audiences so that we can discuss these issues together and can gradually make positive changes in our own communities.”