sbiff

I went to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and volunteered on the red carpet. Although I had volunteered in the past years, this year I also decided to attend a screening of a film and talk to the festival go-ers around me. Since I am in the film studies department, I have come to realize how much work goes into a film and how many hours and money it takes to make an independent movie.

I went to see "Sugar", which is the story of a guy who lives in the Domincian Republic and is recruited to the Minor Leagues in America. Although he is deeply passionate about baseball, he realizes that American baseball is a business, and he must learn to fit in.

While I thought it was a great movie (I LOVE baseball...), the most interesting thing about the film was the audience around me. Film festival audiences are usually much different than a regular movie theater. Unlike a regular theater, the audience was very quiet, attentive, and did not talk during the film. A few weeks later I saw "Slumdog Millionare", and the audience was noisy, rude, spoke in the film, and texted or let their phones vibrate throughout the movie. It was interesting to be in "Sugar" and explore and observe the audience around me. I would even go as far to say as I was personally the rudest audience member (I accidently dropped a box of lemon drops and we were in an elevated theater- the lemon drops all fell out and it sounded like marbles were being thrown around the floor!!!)