Draft:More Than Just A Party Band Film

More Than Just a Party Band is a documentary film about the 40-year personal and professional journey of a Santa Barbara cultural icon, musician Spencer Barnitz, best known for his band Spencer the Gardener.

Synopsis
The film is personal story about what it means to be a cultural and musical icon in a community. Growing up in an idyllic 1970s Santa Barbara, California, a surfing-basketball-playing tango-dancing musician easily achieves a flash of early fame, but is then forced to rewrite his definition of success when faced with an uncaring music industry, catastrophes, and cultural shifts.

The result is a fun and quirky music and entertainment style, beloved by the community, that some say sounds like the soul of Santa Barbara, California.

Friends, neighbors, musicians, and national media such as Good Morning America, join Spencer in telling the story of his music and its inspirations against a backdrop of personal setbacks, comebacks and successes while living in Santa Barbara, London, Peru, and Mexico.

Stories from Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket) and Marko DeSantis (Sugarcult) describe Spencer’s role in the raucous Santa Barbara music scene of the 1980’s and 90’s in his bands The Tan and Spencer The Gardener.

While making the film, Spencer sees his many past lives focus into a coherent story just in time to face another existential crisis.

The film explores several themes including the meaning of creative success, an artist's influence within the community, and the role of fun and love in songwriting.

Themes
Within the backdrop of Spencer's life history, the following themes are explored:


 * Fun
 * Community Fabric
 * Love and Loves Lost
 * Mexico as a muse
 * Songwriting
 * Comebacks after Catastrophes
 * What's Next?
 * Making it as an artist

Film festivals
The film played in international film festivals including the Riverside International Film Festival, Roma Short Film Festival (winner Feature Documentary Award) , the Maryland International Film Festival , Seattle Film Festival and the Ojai Film Festival

Production
Research and story development began in February 2021 and primary photography occurred between the summer of 2021 and October 2022.

Soundtrack
The film contains 21 original songs from The Tan and Spencer The Gardener and available on a Spotify playlist.