Yes, it’s true that SBIFF can provide an escape route from prevailing realities for a 10-day period on Santa Barbara’s cultural calendar, an aspect of the festival that residents have taken special note of at this troubled and post-traumatic time. On the other hand, the festival is also a bracing encounter with realities of the world around us, through its international cinema panorama and strong, serious documentary roster — anything but Hollywood fluff.
From the category of docs, one of the more powerful entries is Living in the Future Past, which had its world premiere last night in the Metro movieplex compound. Director Susan Kucera has achieved something masterful with her film, an entry in the growing population of ecological cautionary tales beautiful, nature-affirmative, humanity-questioning imagery and intelligent commentary, akin to Koyaanisqatsi (“world out of balance”) and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth franchise, but expanding the canvas to include psychological and anthropological side trips.
Not at all incidentally, an area connection is Santa Barbara’s own beloved celebrity amongst us, Jeff Bridges, who served as the film’s producer, narrator, and “presenter.” He punctuates the fascinating commentary by a range of scientists, psychologists, and those in the know with more ground-level speech, as when he says, “We are physical and biological beings living in a sea of cosmic energy. That sounds trippy, and it is.” Trippy and true, like the film itself.