The SPACE (Su’nan Protection, Art and Cultural Education) will be hosting a poignant double-feature film screening at the Alhecama Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara on July 26, showing two films that explore the impacts of deportation and colonization, including The Doctrine of Recovery documentary and Santa Barbara–based film Salisipuedes Street, which follows the lives of three siblings trying to support each other following the deportation of their parents.
Mia Lopez, former tribal chair of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and the director and organizer behind The SPACE — which was created as a place for the community to learn about and celebrate Santa Barbara’s deep cultural roots — put together the event as a way to open up a conversation about immigration, settler colonization, and the lasting traumas that occur in the Indigenous and Latino communities who feel the impacts of these firsthand.
The double screening came together quickly over the past couple of weeks after Lopez and her grandmother attended a sold-out showing of The Doctrine of Recovery at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura in June, hosted by Peace and Dignity Central Coast and co-sponsored by The SPACE. The screening was packed, and Lopez was inspired to put on another similar event in Santa Barbara to show the film, which features four Indigenous women leading the charge to reverse the damage of colonization with a new doctrine of environmental justice, the sacred feminine, and harmony among living species