Roger Durling, the Executive Director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) loves film. This conversation with Mark Sylvester delved into how this passion started as he gives us a Master Class in Film Appreciation. There was a lot of ground covered in this conversation, including:
- Why he has watched Lost in Translation more than 20 times
- His strong attraction to teaching and why (He’s been teaching Film Studies at Santa Barbara City College for 13 years)
- Don’t ask him to choose between the Film Festival and Teaching
- How he is the product of teaching opportunities
- How a teacher from 1978 deeply affected his life until just a couple of years ago
- Why he’s so passionate about young people gaining a deep appreciation for Broadway and how he funds an initiative that does just that at his former prep school.
- His college days at Syracuse and his drama teacher – and the impact of him on his path in life
- A deep dive into the Film Studies and other educational programs at SBIFF
- Mark gives Roger a superpower: The ability to see things that directors do that no one else ever consciously notices.
- According to Roger, great directors do this:
- Understand the power of color
- Proximic patterns (this is very cool, listen to hear his explanation)
- Sound
- Movement – who knew about left > right and right > left