Below is a teaser for the “The Hill”, a UC Santa Barbara student made short Documentary.
Currently in post production, the final cut is coming in Fall 2025!

Learn more about the production crew on the River Health project page.

Starting in April 2024, the Safe Haven Clinic Institute/Collective began production of this film through a UCSB film student fellowship program funded by Safe Haven Clinic Institute (SHCI). Meet our crew on this River Health project page.

Acting as documentary film producers, SHCI engaged a group of University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) students as Social Justice Film fellows to make a documentary film called “The Hill” about the Creekside Encampment resolution campaign in Santa Barbara, CA. The lead film fellow is student director Amelia Kazmierczak, who in 2024-25 is a senior in film studies at UCSB. This film, “The Hill” will be submitted for entry into the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) in the local, short documentary category. The film will then be used by SHCI as a starting point for convening discussions with Santa Barbara community groups and other stakeholders to collectively ask the question “How might we improve homeless encampment experiences and life cycles in Santa Barbara?”. These community convenings will provide future opportunities for further filmmaking and group innovation exploring Santa Barbara county encampment experiences and life cycles; and will facilitate community engagement around homeless encampments and their “resolutions”.

Battle Lines by Seattle based, Fortress of the Bear Band is the musical soundtrack for The Hill!
The music and lyrics, by Matthew Doohan, is about growing up in Santa Barbara amidst escalating wealth disparity, climate change (fire/drought), and homelessness. Heroes Around is their new album, listen now! 

The Safe Haven Clinic Institute (SHCI)  is a 501c3 non profit organization based in Santa Barbara County, CA with a mission focused on promoting local innovations to improve the seemingly intractable problems surrounding unsheltered homelessness in California. 

The Safe Haven Clinic Collective is the action arm of the SHCI. The first project of SHCC is the creation of a short documentary film called “The Hill” about the 2024 Creekside Encampment resolution campaign in Santa Barbara.

The SHCI Social Justice Film Fellowship is supported in part by awards from the Pisacano Leadership Foundation. The Fellowship supports student documentary filmmakers from the University of California Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College to make short documentary films highlighting the experiences and life cycles of Street Level Homelessness in Santa Barbara CA.