On Entertainment Getting SBIFF-y

by Steven Libowitz

Here comes the Santa Barbara International Film Festival: more than 200 movies, including 52 world premieres and 78 U.S. premieres, representing more than 40 countries and just about every film genre ever invented, including a wide swath of documentaries elucidating myriad topics. The usual Oscar nominee-decorated/movie star actor tributes and an even more Academy Award-hopeful adorned series of industry seminars – featuring something like nine of the 10 nominated screenwriters, about half of the 20 nominated actors, three-fifths of the directors up for Oscars, and dozens more artisans and others. Free screenings of some of the most anticipated films, free filmmaker panels, and more community education and outreach programs. There’s also the heartwarming Mike’s FieldTrip to the Movies (named after the late Montecito filmmaker/nature cinematographer Mike deGruy), which this year features an in-person Q&A with celebrated director Guillermo del Toro, following a screening of Pinocchio

Yes, it’s time to once again roll out –not only the Red Carpet to welcome the paparazzi-pulling movie stars – but also roll back your regular life to partake in everything else SBIFF, as the 38th annual film festival takes over town once again.

Below, find interviews with filmmakers from two of the docs focusing on icons of the 1970s and today, as well as a completely unscientific selection of a few more films we find intriguing for any number of reasons. But don’t take it from me. Heck, I haven’t even seen a movie inside a theater since the pandemic started. Rather, dive in sight unseen, as at least half the fun of the fest rests in scanning the program guide, picking something that strikes your fancy for any reason at all, and let your mind and eyes go dancing in the dark.

Fearless Fauci Focus on Film

You thought the COVID crisis was tough on you? Imagine being Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had experienced some controversy when he was the Chief Medical Advisor to the president during the AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s, but nothing like the rancor, vitriol, and threats of violence as the physician-scientist and immunologist continued serving through the COVID pandemic.

In the two-hour documentary Tony –A Year in the Life of Dr. Anthony Fauci, which makes its world premiere at SBIFF before airing on PBS on March 21, director Mark Mannucci captures Fauci at work and at home for just shy of two years, spanning Inauguration Day 2021 through his retirement after 50 years last December, with the doctor showing sides few have seen before.

“In my first meeting with him, he told me ‘I don’t want a hagiography. I want the wart and all.’ That’s what we shot and what’s in the film,” Mannucci said.

Over the long shoot, Mannucci said he developed a relationship of trust, partly through two-hour discussions the pair would have when the cameras weren’t rolling.

“I was struck by the fact that he’s a real guy,” he said. “He’s a tough boss. He’s passionate about his work, but he doesn’t hesitate to call people out if they’re doing something that displeases him. He’s a charming and entertaining person, not the unflappable guy who delivers every word cautiously that you see on CNN. He’s like your buddy from Brooklyn.”

Sharing being native New Yorkers is what allowed Fauci and Trump to actually make it through the four years of the latter’s presidency.

And we also get to see a moment in a poignant scene toward the end of the film where Fauci ’fesses up about one or two things he might have gotten wrong during the early days of the pandemic.

“That’s one of the dividends of having gotten to know him, that he felt comfortable admitting a mistake to me (on camera),” Mannucci said. “I was pushing him to be honest, of course, but it was quite a remarkable moment for him to be confident enough in the fact that he had done enough right to be able to say he was wrong about that. I was gratified by his candor.”

The director believes audiences will be too.

“Besides being entertained by a very witty, colorful, and funny guy, they’re

Putting on the serious ritz were guests Rona Barrett, Karolyn Hanna, Terri Diamond, Louise and David Borgatello, Matt Lum , Karen Chackel , Board President Cynder Sinclair, Executive Director of Easy Lift Ernesto Paredes, Holly’s husband, Rick, and daughter Marissa; First County Supervisor Das Williams, SB City Council members Kristen Sneddon and Joe Holland, All Saints by the Sea the Rev. Vicky, Easter Moorman, Jan Ingram, Henry Garrett, David Selberg, Judy and Vincent Wood, and Penny and Wayne Covert.