By Colleen Coveney
A group of UC Santa Barbara students and other film buffs attended a screening of the movie Save Yourselves! last weekend in Isla Vista, the first Magic Lantern film night to air in person after 19 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Save Yourselves! is a satire horror comedy about a couple who decide to take a break from technology on a romantic getaway in an upstate cabin, and must face matters on their own when earth is attacked by aliens.
The theme of reconnecting by getting away from technology provided an interesting juxtaposition for filmgoers, who are coming together after over a year and a half of mostly Zoom-based interactions.
“It can be kind of isolating,” said Anna Sinko, a first-year student in the audience. “It’s hard to get back into being social.”
The film’s co-writers and co-directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wallace participated in a Q&A after the screening. They said they jumped at the chance to attend a live screening of their film, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2020, but has not screened in many theaters because it was supposed to come out in June 2020.
Save Yourselves! co-writers and co-directors Eleanor Wallace, center, and Alex Huston Fischer, right, discuss their moviemaking experience after a screening at Isla Vista Theater.
Many filmmakers would be more disappointed at this unfortunate turn of events, but Fischer and Wallace said they were just thrilled their film succeeded despite COVID. “This is our first film, so we didn’t have anything to compare it to,” said Wallace.
The couple said they began by using their own relationship as inspiration for the dialogue within the film, but began writing for the lead actors once they had cast them. They joked about living and working together while creating the film.
“We don’t argue on set, we argue in our home,” Wallace said.
For first-time filmmakers they are doing quite well. Save Yourselves! has 89% critic approval on Rotten Tomatoes and received a strong round of applause from the audience at Isla Vista Theater.
Magic Lantern Films has been running for 17 years, headed by Film and Media Studies advisor Joe (DJ) Palladino. It comprises a group of Film and Media Studies students who take a 4-unit class about film screening in order to participate. The program is also sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. Screenings are open to the public.
“The idea for me was to show a movie that I thought was really great that had shown during the pandemic but not really shown in theaters,” Palladino said.
During the thick of the pandemic, Magic Lantern was still active online, putting on a series of movie nights along with discussions with directors. But Palladino described it as “heartbreaking” to have cancelled live events because the final in-person quarter was massively successful, with every show sold out the week before the pandemic hit.
Eleanor Wallace and Alex Huston Fischer, Save Yourselves! creators, joke about their experience creating a movie together.
The first film back in regular format provided a fun alternative to partying on a Friday night for some students. Third-year student Paul Kreymborg learned about the event on a flyer outside the library, and decided it would be a good date to go on with his girlfriend.
“I feel optimistic about it. I’d like to see more events like this,” Kreymborg said.
Luckily for him and others, Magic Lantern Films will be putting on film screenings every Friday and Monday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. at Isla Vista Theater. This weekend’s films are 2021 Godzilla vs. Kong, directed by Adam Wingard, at 7 p.m., and 2006 The Host, directed by Bong Joon-ho, at 10 p.m.
Colleen Coveney is a fourth-year Psychology and Brain Sciences major at UC Santa Barbara. She is a Web and Social Media Intern with the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.