The Cost of Silence:
Date and Time:
Sunday, September 14, 2025, at 4:00 PM
Location:
Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 East Cota Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93102.
Community Action Forum & Film Screening on Offshore Oil’s Hidden Health Threat in the Santa Barbara Channel.
About the Event
With offshore drilling resuming off the Santa Barbara coast by Sable Offshore Corp, the Marjorie Luke Theatre’s Green Film Series will host the West Coast premiere of The Cost of Silence, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. This searing documentary exposes how government and industry concealed the toxic aftermath of the 2010 BP oil spill that sickened tens of thousands, and how that cover-up has become the playbook for any future spills. Today, the film reveals that every coastal community, including Santa Barbara, faces a largely unknown and potentially deadly threat.
Following the screening, the filmmakers will be joined by the Environmental Defense Center and other special guests for a community forum on the ongoing Santa Barbara offshore oil fight. The event will also debut a first-of-its-kind action platform empowering Santa Barbara audiences to engage directly in the issue.
The Cost of Silence
“Revealing, thoroughly-researched, and enraging.” – Variety
Credit: Paul Wellman
The Santa Barbara Connection: Today, Santa Barbara faces a pivotal moment in its decades-long fight to protect its coastline, as Sable Offshore Corp. pushes to restart oil production from the Santa Ynez Unit — including the pipeline that ruptured in the 2015 Refugio oil spill. The restart has triggered multiple legal battles over permit transfers, safety waivers, and the lack of full environmental review.
Sable Offshore Corp’s attempt to restart the dangerous and aging oil pipeline on our coast - is part of a broader effort to revive the Santa Ynez Unit, including three offshore platforms and extensive onshore processing facilities. This restart has so far advanced without any environmental review or public input, as required by law.
While the public debate has centered on worker safety, environmental oversight, and regulatory compliance, one critical danger remains under-reported: the immediate and long-term health risks to communities and first responders from toxic oil spills and chemical response operations. These risks and consequences were systematically hidden in the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and remain hidden from communities across the globe.
The Cost of Silence is the only film to expose the full scope of this public health threat, the coordinated effort to cover it up, and the immediate danger to all coastal communities. What followed the BP oil spill wasn’t just a failure to protect the public, it was the quiet construction of a global strategy: a system designed to shield polluters from accountability by suppressing evidence, manipulating science, and blocking victims’ access to health care and legal remedies. Now, that system is embedded in the national response plan for all spills. As the Trump administration rolls back oversight measures and reopens all U.S. waters to offshore drilling, every coastal community, including Santa Barbara, faces a dire yet invisible threat: dangerous procedures approved without research into long-term health consequences.
Upcoming Events:
The Cost of Silence: Community Action Forum & Film Screening
Sunday, September 14, 2025, at 4:00 PM
In Coordination With
Press Release
Download the official press release for event details and media inquiries.