SBIFF
SBIFF’s partner ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) of Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties announced today that it has awarded its ADL Stand Up Award at the 2024 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) to The Last Daughter, a feature documentary about an Australian woman’s quest to piece together memories of two loving families — one white and one Aboriginal — that a government program separated her from.
A jury of ADL staff and supporters annually present the ADL Stand Up Award to a film in the festival that exemplifies the impact storytelling can have in fostering mutual understanding and respect, consistent with ADL’s over 100-year-old mission “to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” The award is sponsored this year by the Skinner Social Impact Fund and Steve and Cindy Lyons.
“The Last Daughter is a chilling account of injustice revealed through Brenda Matthews’ investigation of her own memories fogged by trauma, discrimination, and government disinformation,” said ADL Regional Director Dan Meisel. “The impetus for Brenda’s exploration of the past remarkably was not anger, but rather a naggingly pleasant memory of affection that she ultimately weaves into a triumph of love over injustice and racial tension. Our jury is pleased to honor this filmmaker and her team for their stand on behalf of many similarly harmed children and families.”
“We at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival are thrilled that The Last Daughter is being recognized for the profoundly moving, important and deftly-told story it weaves,” said SBIFF Director of Programming Claudia Puig. “We are very proud to introduce this tenderly crafted and uplifting documentary to American audiences. The Last Daughter grapples with institutionalized racism as it recounts an indigenous woman’s search for truth, reconciliation and healing. We are deeply grateful to Brenda Matthews for sharing her journey.”
The Last Daughter was directed by Matthews and Nathaniel Schmidt, and it was produced by Brendon Skinner and Simon Williams. It is a nominee for the 2024 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Best Documentary Award. “I humbly accept the ADL Stand Up Award,” said Matthews. “I thank my black and white families for their love, support and for being there for me while going back to such a hurtful time in all of our lives, so that we can share truth and forgiveness. The Last Daughter documentary is a lived experience, a story that invites others in, where they can find their entry point into the circle. Finding a connection to the story through their own lived experience.”
The Last Daughter will make its North American premiere in an ADL-sponsored screening on Tuesday, February 13, at 5:40pm at the Metro 4 Theatre, followed by a Q&A with Matthews. The film is scheduled to screen again on Thursday, February 15 at noon at Metro 4. Passes and tickets can be purchased at sbiff.org or on the SBIFF festival app.
ADL’s jury also expressed appreciation for MADU, a touching and beautifully told documentary of an aspiring and previously bullied ballet dancer from Nigeria, and One Life, a gripping and heartwarming portrayal of Nicholas Winton’s and his colleagues’ heroic success in saving hundreds of Central European children from the horrors of the Holocaust by transporting them to safety.
This is the eighth year ADL Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties has sponsored its Stand Up Award. Previous winners explored the lives of a drag performer in Cuba (Viva, 2016), Polish migrant workers in Sweden (Strawberry Days, 2017), Syrian refugees seeking passage to Berlin (Sky and Ground, 2018), a team of basketball players with disabilities (Campeones, 2019), courageous women leading Britain’s resistance efforts in occupied France (Liberté: A Call to Spy, 2020), a harrowing dramatic portrayal of four women’s struggle to survive the Rwandan Genocide (Trees of Peace, 2021), Los Angeles teens expressing the challenges they faced through spoken word poetry (Our Words Collide, 2022), and an Irish story of a girl finding affection from an extended visit with extended family (The Quiet Girl, 2023).
