A baby shower during the apocalypse, a day at the beach and more at the Hamilton Film Fest | CBC News
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From a baby shower during the apocalypse to why a day at the beach is no day at the beach, local filmmakers have a variety of work on offer at this year’s Hamilton Film Festival.
The festival goes from Oct. 21 to 29 and will bring 150 independent films to local screens, according to organizers. Movies will play at Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre, The Westdale, Playhouse Cinema and be broadcast on Cable 14.
Many of the films were created by people in and from Hamilton. Here’s a look at three Hamiltonians who helped create short films showing in the festival.
Anna Barsky, writer and executive producer of Beach
Featured VideoAnna Barsky on the issue that inspired her to write a short film: Hamiltonian Anna Barsky says Beach, a short film she wrote that’s playing in the Hamilton Film Festival, is inspired by the struggle she and others have building confidence to go to the beach.
Hamiltonian Anna Barsky wrote Beach. Directed by Yeimy Daza, it follows the main character as she gets ready for a planned day at the beach, and “prepares to be in a really bright, vulnerable, sweaty, uncomfortable [place] with a bunch of strangers, basically half naked.”
People don’t usually talk about all the stress and work that can go into a beach day, Barsky says. “We would love to think that it’s just the beach and enjoy something so beautiful and natural and fun, but in this day and age, that’s not the story for most people.”
Barksy said she goes through that stress before swimming anywhere, and after listening to someone else share a similar experience on a podcast, she wanted to explore that.
“I also wanted to make it like light and fun and funny because it is a really sensitive topic for a lot of people,” Barsky said. “At least we can laugh about it.”
Barsky said that being a long-time Hamilton resident, showing this film in the festival was one of her goals while making it. “I’m just excited to have my friends and family be able to actually see it on the big screen. It means a lot.”
AJ Bate, writer and director of Alone
Featured VideoDirector AJ Bate says his Hamilton Film Festival short ‘Alone’ depicts trauma honestly but not gratuitously.
At the last HFF, AJ Bate won funding to make Alone, a story about a stranger who finds a seriously injured woman when out for a walk and realizes she’s likely the only one who can help her.
The film deals with suicide and it’s graphic. Bates said he sought a balance. “I think there is a very thin line that you can tow between taking advantage of it. But then there’s also the line where you sanitize it way too much that you don’t really show it honestly.”
For much of the film, the camera focuses on the face of the wounded person (who is dying by suicide) not showing the face of the stranger who finds her. “I felt like it was really important to focus more on the person that’s going through a traumatic experience as opposed to the other side, because there’s a lot of shame that comes with it,” Bate said.
He said his co-producer, Joe Bothelo, is the one who came up with the initial idea, which they developed together. “Everybody has kind of been dealing with mental health issues in one way or another. He drew inspiration from things that have happened in his own personal life and he brought it to me. I also have some of that stuff going on in my own family.”
Bate, who lives in Toronto now, but spent eight years in Hamilton after immigrating from Libya, said this city is where he started out as a filmmaker and comedian, so being part of the HFF is “humbling and overwhelming.”
Aviva Armour-Ostroff, director of You’re Invited
Featured VideoAviva Armour-Ostroff, director of ‘You’re Invited,’ usually makes serious dramas, but her short in the Hamilton Film Festival is “very silly.” She discusses making that switch.
Local director Aviva Armour-Ostroff warns the short film she directed that’s showing in the HFF is “very silly.”
Created with Arc Stage (a theatre group she’s long worked with) and written by Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton, You’re Invited is the story of a young woman attempting to host a TikTok-perfect baby shower during the apocalypse – complete with cutesy-filters.
Armour-Ostroff says she usually makes serious dramas, one of which (Lune) won awards in the 2021 HFF. She said making a comedy was “a pleasure.”
She said the writers were inspired by a real-life invitation they received to a baby shower earlier into the pandemic. “I think it’s, there’s a comment on some of society’s reaction to the pandemic, ignoring it and living through it,” Armour-Ostroff said. “When you already sort of have established a baseline of what the truth of the situation is, the comedy can arise from it much more effectively.”
For Armour-Ostroff, who moved to the city a couple years ago, the HFF is a great way to get involved in the local film community. “More and more stuff is being shot here and filmed here, and it’s nice when the actual creativity comes from Hamilton as well as exported or imported work.”
The HFF schedule is available on its website.
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