Steelers Big, Ed's a Little Tired

The crowd at the Hotel Santa Barbara was a little bit thinner Sunday morning – perhaps the effects of too much late night partying? And as the dedicated staff of edhat.com stood on the sidewalk in front of the hotel examining the day, we thought that Santa Barbara had its sleepy little home town feel back. The air was unusually warm, and was twinkling with snippets of Superbowl smack talk, as locals and tourists sauntered past.

Lulled by the soft air and team loyalty, we forgot for just a moment that we had another big day of film festivaling to attend to. First on the list was the Director’s Panel at the Lobero Theatre. Nicole Friere attended and reports. During the question and answer period, because Edhat asks the questions that people really want answered, Nicole stood up and asked the panel of high-powered directors if it wasn’t really empowering to yell, “Cut!”

Sunday was Filmgoer Line Survey Day. For the third year in a row, we went up and down the line asking fun survey questions to all folks willing and able. Although the results have already been tallied, we’re going to hold off on reporting them in order to give our dedicated subscribers a chance to answer the questions themselves. You can take the survey online on today’s contest page.

While we were standing in front of the Metro Four, we bumped into Cevin Cathell, program director for the festival. She and Roger Durling are on hand to introduce all of the films at the festival. Cevin was chatting with the filmmakers responsible for one of her favorite films this year – The West Wittering Affair. They all graciously posed for a picture, huddling into a corner to avoid the bright sunlight.

At Metro Four, we also met up with a friend from last year, actress and SBIFF volunteer Deborah Cristobal. Just our luck, the Ed Carpet was in the camera bag! We gave her an interview right on the spot. Remember if you want to get your story on Edhat, all you have to do is get on the Ed Carpet. Today, the carpet will be in front of the Hotel Santa Barbara waiting for you.

Kate Rottman was at Opal for the Social Justice Awards banquet. She took some pictures for Edhat. This award is given by the Fund for Santa Barbara to a documentary film that makes a particularly valuable contribution to advancing social justice. The banquet was for the nominated filmmakers.

Our day was long, but many of the dedicated staffers managed to get together to check out a movie, Temporado De Patos (Duck Season). It is a fun movie about two teenaged boys and their Sunday afternoon. It’s full of quirky humor and symbolism. Ed says, check it out!

Before we left, we stopped by the Press Room at the Hotel Santa Barbara to take our daily photo of Press Room food. Yesterday, it was pretzels – a half empty bag artistically displayed in a small wicker basket.

Check out more festival Coverage on Edhat.

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