SDFF 2023 Opening Night Kicks Off With Opening Night Screening and Celebration

DATE: Thursday, March 16, 2023 5:30 PM PD
LOCATION: Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA

When Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival kicks off its 16th season with an Opening Night celebration on March 16, Sebastopol will once again be teeming with filmmakers, film patrons and energized voices from around the world.

Hosted by Sebastopol Center for the Arts, this red carpet event will begin with a welcome reception at 5:30 p.m., featuring an array of small bites by Chef Bob Simontacchi of Gravenstein Grill and libations from Mercury Wine (Geyserville) and other Sonoma County wineries and breweries. The reception will be immediately followed by a 7 p.m. screening of Exposure, a gripping and cinematic adventure doc from director Holly Morris. As visually stunning as it is thrilling, the film captures the unbelievable adventure of a group of women from the Arab and European worlds who met, trained, and became the last team to date to ski to the North Pole. Their story of pitfalls and determination is set against the breathtaking backdrop of a natural world that is slipping away. The screening will be followed by an exclusive video interview with filmmaker Holly Morris, done by SDFF Directors Jean McGlothliin and Jane Winslow.

The evening’s festivities will wrap with the presentation of the 2023 Franklin J. Schaffner Jury Awards for Best Feature, Short and Mini-Doc. SDFF is an Academy Award^® Qualifying Festival. So, the jury award winners in the Short and the Mini-Doc categories are eligible for Oscar^® nominations for Best Documentary Short. This is an exciting moment for all. You can find a breakdown of the nominees by category here.

Tickets to Opening Night are $50 and can be purchased now at sebdocs.org, along with tickets to all SDFF 2023 films. Live and Virtual Passes are also available. The 16th Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival runs March 16-19, 2023, followed by a Virtual Festival March 20-29, which features a selection of films from the live fest.

Exposure Image Gallery

(click on thumbs to access full-sized images)

Close-up of Anisa Al Raissi, a member of the polar expedition whose journey is captured in *Exposure* (Holly Morris, 88 mins), which opens the 16th Sebastopol Film Festival on March 16. The screening is part of an Opening Night celebration that includes an exclusive video interview with the film’s director Holly Morris, an opening reception and an announcement of the 2023 jury award winners.

Official poster for *Exposure* (Holly Morris, 88 mins), which documents the journey of an audacious group of women from the Middle East and Europe, as they become the last team to cross the Arctic Sea to the North Pole on skis. A screening of the film will be featured at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival’s Opening Night celebration on March 16, along with an exclusive video interview with the film’s director Holly Morris, a catered reception and an awards ceremony for juried winners.

Day 2 on the Arctic Sea ice for the last team to cross to the North Pole on skis, from Holly Morris’s new doc *Exposure* (88 mins). The film documents a diverse group of women from across the world as overcome threats that range from frostbite and polar bear attacks to sexism and self-doubt in order to make this breathtaking journey.

Director Holly Morris, whose visually-stunning, adventure doc *Exposure* (88 mins), will open the 16th Sebastopol Film festival on March 16. The film’s screening will be followed by a video interview with Morris by SDFF co-directors Jane Winslow and Jean McGlothlin.

The 16th Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival runs March 16-19, 2023, followed by a Virtual Festival March 20-29, which features a selection of films from the live fest. Details and tickets are available at sebdocs.org.

Opening Night Details/Tickets

Exposure Film Details