By Madison Terry and Nikki Chamberlain
On May 23, 2014, the community of Isla Vista experienced unspeakable tragedy when six people i were killed and an additional 13 were left injured by a mass shooting.
Now, five years later, UC Santa Barbara film students are revisiting this devastating event to create a documentary called “Not One More,” to premiere next March, at the Pollock Theater on UCSB’s campus. The title for the film comes from a speech given by Richard Martinez on the day following the massacre. Martinez’s son, Christopher Michaels-Martinez, was a victim of the shooting.
UC Santa Barbara student film producer Lexi Lunchick.
The documentary, by Cameron Leingang and Lexi Lunchick, is being made as a part of a Film and Media Studies course called Crew Production. Chris Jenkins, the course instructor, says the film beat out other student project ideas to be chosen for production.
“It’s a very competitive class and only 12 students pitch their ideas in the Pollock Theater. They then get up on stage and have ten minutes to talk about what they want to do and a group of industry professionals make the choice,” Jenkins said.
The rampage began around 6:00 pm when the killer attacked his three roommates. He then drove to the Alpha Phi sorority house and when his attempts to gain entry failed, he shot and killed two members of Tri Delta sorority as they walked by. His attack continued as he drove erratically through Isla Vista shooting wildly and striking pedestrians before crashing his car and killing himself inside. In a chilling YouTube manifesto, the killer revealed that he had wanted to enact his revenge on the women of Isla Vista who had denied his romantic advances.
UC Santa Barbara student film director Cameron Leingang
“Not One More” will tell the story of the victims, some of whose voices can no longer be heard. Lexi Lunchick, a senior at UC Santa Barbara, is the producer, and her vision puts the survivors and their families at the center of the documentary. “The Isla Vista Massacre happened five years ago, yet it stopped getting talked about four years ago,” she said in a recent interview. “While it was being talked about, they only talked about the shooter. We want to tell the stories of the victims and survivors of that night.”
Lunchick and the other students working on the project have been reaching out to survivors of that night and their parents, along with university administrators and the local police department.
The student filmmakers understand the gravity and sensitivity of the subject matter and have exercised care when approaching all steps of production. “Part of what we’re teaching is about how to approach people, how you would do this in a respectful and careful way,” said their instructor Jenkins. He also advised the students that documentaries have a voice and often can influence a certain perspective, so the students have to make sure the film is shot from the correct angle.
Students taking in the aftermath of the 2014 rampage. Photo by Irfan Khan, courtesy of NBC 4.
“It is rare that we have a situation where we have to take as much care as we do with this one,” Jenkins said. “When it comes to the documentary side of things with guns and death, then suddenly we’re in a situation where we want to tread lightly and be very careful about how we approach it.”
The aftermath of the 2014 shooting. Photo by Zack Warburg, courtesy of The Guardian.
Lunchick said she was motivated by how commonplace it has become to see reports of mass shootings on the daily news and by gun violence that struck Thousand Oaks, California last fall, the city where she is from. Twelve people were killed in that mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill.
“When my community was affected by the shooting there last year, I knew of multiple people who were at Borderline that had also lived through other mass shootings, whether that be Isla Vista or Las Vegas,” she said. “I hope we are able to create a documentary that gets people talking and thinking about how we can end this violence.”
Lunchick and Jenkins say the documentary include interviews with UC Santa Barbara administrators, as well as the family members of both survivors and victims. The film will question how we got to the point that students could be at risk while attending university.
The documentary is now in production. Lunchick and Leingang have already chosen a full crew of about 20 students, including the camera operators, sound department, editing, and other production team members who will continue to work through winter quarter.
The students say they are aware this is an important project for the Isla Vista community and say they are not taking this lightly. “We want to open people’s eyes to what happens in a massacre like this, and allow people to think deeper about their stances on gun rights, especially as the 2020 elections are just around the corner,” Lunchick said.
Madison Terry is a senior at UC Santa Barbara majoring in Communication. Nikki Chamberlain is a senior at UC Santa Barbara majoring in Global Studies.
They co-wrote this article for the Writing Program course Journalism for Web and Social Media.