Ever since the so-called Deltopia riots during Isla Vista’s yearly unsanctioned street party in 2014 — which resulted in injuries, arrests, and deputies deploying tear gas and rubber bullets on crowds of people — Isla Vistans have worked hard to make the community a safer place.
Now, many residents are concerned that an upcoming movie loosely based on Deltopia has the potential to overshadow nearly eight years of dedication to those efforts.
“Over time I have been involved in trying to make Isla Vista a better place, and there have been a lot of harmful narratives stalling our progress,” Isla Vista Community Services District President Spencer Brandt told Noozhawk. “This is the most harmful iteration of that that I have seen to date.”
The movie Deltopia follows a group of high schoolers from Southern California as they travel to Santa Barbara County to party at Deltopia and is “loosely based” on real events from the 2014 Deltopia, Deadline first reported.
The movie is written and directed by Michael Easterling and Jaala Ruffman, and stars young actors Luna Blaise, Madison Pettis, and Charlie Gillespie.
The directors have said that teenage rebellion is the driving force of the film, and that they want to showcase “the pivotal moments that teenagers face whether beautiful or heartbreaking,” according to Deadline.
When the Deadline article was released on July 6, it caused a quick uproar on social media sites, with many Isla Vista residents posting about it on Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook.
The initial “hype” about a movie centering around Isla Vista then began to transition into concern for the community as local public officials began to use social media platforms to speak out against the film.
Jonathan Abboud, general manager of the Isla Vista Community Services District, shared his personal views about the movie on Facebook, listing 10 reasons why he is “100% against” its production.
“It is exploiting a horrible experience (2014 ‘riot’) and making money off of a community during its darkest year, without any connection to it or way to give back. That is degenerate,” he wrote. “While covering such an event in our history, the movie doesn’t even cover the parts about it (that) the community was actually concerned about at the time — the terrible police response, the community response afterwards towards a better future, etc.”
The movie could be a catalyst to reverse seven years of community work in just one year, he added.
“It definitely hurts the image of Isla Vista to the general public. No matter how much good is done by the community, it is hard to counteract the marketing and publicity efforts of a movie like this,” Abboud wrote. “This is what most people will see and think of Isla Vista. This town doesn’t deserve that.”
Brandt said that the movie is exploiting “such a traumatic time” in the community for profit, and it was “really gross” to see that story being exploited.
IVCSD Vice President Catherine Flaherty said that the plot being centered around under-aged high schoolers causes another layer of concern. “It was already problematic, but telling an incomplete story of 2014 through the lens of a teenager creates another list of issues,” she told Noozhawk.
On her official Instagram page, Flaherty said that “the film glorifies out-of-towners and high schoolers coming to party in IV, directly challenging the years of work to keep Deltopia safe and local.”
Both Flaherty and Brandt told Noozhawk that the official Deltopia movie Instagram page had blocked their accounts, even though Flaherty and Brandt did not follow the account or make any interactions with its posts, they said.
“I didn’t follow them, I didn’t even like their posts so it is very odd to me that they blocked me. I can’t believe that,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty also shared a link to an open letter that will be sent to the movie’s directors, producers, and cast highlighting how detrimental the film could be to the Isla Vista community.
“The Isla Vista Community Services District, along with our partners, has worked diligently to make Isla Vista safer, utilizing non-sworn student community service officers, peer-to-peer education, and envisioning an organized community festival,” the letter states.
“To glorify an incomplete image of the brutality that occurred on Deltopia in 2014, through the lens of teenagers, is exploitative and harmful. This film will have a deleterious effect on our efforts, and open the door to more out-of-towners, heavier police enforcement, unhealthy behavior, and set a poor example for our youth.”
The goal of the letter is to make the directors, actors, cast, and producers of the movie aware that what they are doing is “harmful of the work to make Isla Vista a safer place, to make it a place where the community is able to enact the vision that we have for festivals and social gatherings that are safe, that reflect our diversity and our culture,” Brandt told Noozhawk.
“This is a distraction from that work and we are very opposed to it,” he said.
Within 24 hours, nearly 500 past and present Isla Vista residents had signed onto the letter, Flaherty said. The IVCSD board considered signing onto the letter at Tuesday night’s board meeting.
Three members of the public called in to voice concern over the damage that the movie could have. “It is contributing to this dominant narrative that there is about Isla Vista and UC Santa Barbara, and contributing to this narrative that substance abuse is okay and that it’s the norm,” said Amber S. “This movie would overwrite any history that has been built around how the community is not just partying.”
IVCSD Director Jay Freeman said that, while he has no issue with how the letter was written, he does not have enough information about the actual premises of the movie to agree to sign on.
Ultimately, the board approved signing onto this letter by a 5-1-1 vote, with Freeman in opposition and Director Kirsten Deshler abstaining.
This is not the first time Isla Vista residents have rallied against the creation of a movie about the community.
In 2017, more than 28,800 people signed a Change.org petition expressing outrage about the movie Del Playa, a horror movie inspired by the 2014 Isla Vista massacre.
On May 23, 2014, a month after the Deltopia riots, six Isla Vista residents and UCSB students were murdered and 14 more people were injured during a stabbing and subsequent shooting spree along the community’s streets.
While the movie was still released, the community’s response prompted an apology from director and UCSB alum Shaun Hart.
“First and foremost, I would like to publicly apologize to everyone who has been offended in any way by our making of this film,” Hart wrote on Facebook. “It was never our intent to monopolize on the tragic shootings in Isla Vista that took place last year.”
Based on the press surrounding the Deltopia movie, Brandt said that it appears filming has already been completed and his biggest hope going forward is to reclaim Isla Vista’s narrative and work through some of the problems that already existed in Isla Vista.
“We’re hoping that it really impacts (the directors) and gets them to think more critically about the harmful narratives that they are telling about our community that are not consistent with our reality,” he said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
