A baby shower during the apocalypse, a day at the beach and more at the Hamilton Film Fest

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. 

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."

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." 

Local director Aviva Armour-Ostroff warns the short film she directed that's showing in the HFF is "very silly."