The Hill is a short documentary about the Creekside Encampment, a community of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara, California. Created by a group of UC Santa Barbara students through a Social Justice Film fellowship with the Safe Haven Clinic Institute/Collective, the film documents the lives and experiences of those living on The Hill and the city’s efforts to resolve the encampment.
Submitting the film to the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival is just the beginning. The Safe Haven Clinic Institute will use The Hill to spark community conversations with local groups and stakeholders. The goal is to move beyond the question of “resolution” to ask, “How might we improve homeless encampment experiences and life cycles in Santa Barbara?” These discussions will not only provide opportunities for continued storytelling but will also lead to new community-led solutions, fostering a deeper understanding of homelessness in Santa Barbara County.
Short Local Documentary
(Santa Barbara)
23 minutes
English
The Safe Haven Clinic Institute (SHCI), a Santa Barbara-based non-profit, is dedicated to finding new solutions for unsheltered homelessness in California. As part of this mission, its action arm, the Safe Haven Clinic Collective, is producing a short documentary film called The Hill.
Supported by the Pisacano Leadership Foundation of the American Academy of Family Physicians, The Hill was created as a project of the SHCI Social Justice Film Fellowship. The Fellowship was offered to students from UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College. Starting in April 2024, the students began a year of filming the Creekside Encampment resolution campaign.
Amelia Kazmierczak is a UC Santa Barbara Film and Media Studies student passionate about impactful projects in media production and storytelling. As Student Director for The Hill, she spearheaded guerilla documentation of encampment resolution in Santa Barbara, overseeing interviews, footage, and promotional content. Amelia was born in Toronto and has lived in the Santa Ynez Valley since 2018. She is an active contributor to the local student film community, navigating between roles of director, writer, actress, and costume and makeup artist. She is motivated by the potential of storytelling to amplify diverse perspectives and foster community engagement through creative and meaningful projects.
Alex Yong is a professional narrative film, commercial, and documentary editor with an emphasis on socially impactful films. With an affinity for emotional depth and impactful narrative structure, Alex’s work on The Hill successfully highlights the unheard, distinct voices of Santa Barbara’s displaced houseless population. This work, in combination with the vision of director Amelia Kazmierczak, aims to provide clarity and empathy to Santa Barbara’s current and pressing social issues.
Keola Kapulani Holt (they/she) is an artist, educator, performer, and writer from Seattle, Washington. Keola studied theater at Grays Harbor College, a small school in their hometown of Aberdeen. Through the benefit of a strong local community of artists and creators, Keola grew to become the creative person they are today. They believe in a somatic approach to art and take every opportunity to tell stories through a lens of honesty and vulnerability. Keola is a strong advocate for investing in communities and caring for the people who reside in them, housed or unhoused. In addition to their work on this project, Keola is currently researching and writing programming for children’s arts education programs, in addition to co-composing and choreographing various new works.
Matthew Doohan is a musician, organizer, and writer. He is a founding member and vocalist for the band Fortress of the Bear, and works with his partner Keola Kapulani Holt to produce new theatrical works in Seattle, Washington. Matthew is inspired by activists and writers such as Jane Jacobs and Susane Pharr, and believes organizing and storytelling generate the underlying strength of human societies. As a street musician Matthew comes into direct daily contact with at-risk homelessness, and through exposure and interaction has developed a powerful empathy for those of us suffering an insecurity of place.
