Hamilton has become an increasingly popular destination for production companies to film their projects. From Netflix’s Umbrella Academy to Marvel Studios’ The Incredible Hulk, pictures of all genres were created on the streets that we call home. One such movie is an indie project called Speak Your Mind, directed by Hamilton-born Cyrus Baetz.
Baetz called Dundas home throughout his high school years. When he graduated, he decided to pursue a path in public relations at Humber College. At Humber, Baetz tried out an acting for film and television course for a year and then decided to complete a course on intensive film studies at Ryerson University. Since Baetz completed his studies, he has focused on film, writing, directing and editing two short films and two feature-length projects.
Recently, the director has been working on his latest flick, Speak Your Mind. The film revolves around a struggling actor who was told by his therapist to express everything and anything that is on his mind. He struggles to walk the line between what is socially acceptable and what is honest enough to satisfy his own conscience.
“Speak Your Mind came from a desire to work with [Steve Kaszas]. I have worked with him on a short film called Blue Collar Buddha . . . He was so special, so talented in the audition and he showed up for the film and really sort of stole the show . . . so I wanted to work with him and I wrote an entire feature script,” said Baetz.
Writing film is a methodical process for Baetz. He likes to work and write by himself, setting time aside each day to chip away at scripts. However, for this production, Baetz was operating under a tight time constraint as he wanted to film in Hamilton, but he was set to move to Brooklyn at the end of 2017. Since he had started the script at the beginning of the new year, there was little time to make final revisions before going into production.
Indie films work on far different schedules than those of major motion pictures. Although each have their benefits, Baetz looks more to the indie side of the industry.
“The benefits of the more indie style of the film, once we auditioned the actors, we were able to do a pretty intense rehearsal process . . . it let us perfect the scenes and dig deep in the dynamics, that way we showed up on set and the actors felt comfortable and prepared,” said Baetz.
Post-production, Baetz sat down with his laptop and cut together his film from start to finish. This time, he was no longer pressed with a tight timeline. Finishing the final edit of a project that had occupied so much of his time, Baetz was able to reflect on the movie as a whole.
“The film is designed to be provocative but also very entertaining . . . at the end of the day it’s a comedy, a bit of a dark comedy at times but it’s still a comedy,” said Baetz.
Thus far, the film has been well received,. At the Toronto Independent Film Festival, it won the best no-budget feature, an award for films with budgets under $25,000. While the film has been popular with audiences thus far, Baetz hopes that patrons walk away with their eyes opened to the times that we live in.
“[On] a more personal level and more one-on-one based level, the idea is that we assume things about people based on what we see superficially on the fronts they give us and we think we know people who we’ve been in relationships with and [in] friendships with for years, in fact a lot of the time we don’t. Sometimes the only way to really get to know people is to humble yourself and not assume you know them and ask from a place of vulnerability,” said Baetz.
The Westdale movie theatre (1014 King St. W.) will host a screening of Speak Your Mind followed by a question and answer period with Baetz. While everyone is encouraged to come out and watch the film, the director believes that students especially will take something away from it.
“This film is perfect for students because it’s a film about young people . . . who [are] struggling to find their place in society, in their social circles and find their voice and their confidence,” said Baetz. The emotional yo-yo process that comes along with that, it’s also really relevant in terms of the conversations that any socially and politically engaged student inevitably has been having. It deals with that in a way that genuinely attempts to be fair to all parties and tries to point it in a direction where there’s a compassionate dialogue and I think that’s something that could hopefully be a productive and entertaining fable for any student to enjoy.”
Speak Your Mind will be screened at The Westdale (1014 King St. W.) on Thursday, Nov. 14 and will be followed by a question and answer period with director Cyrus Baetz.
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By: Andrew Mrozowski
Stop. Take a second and look up from this article. You’ll most likely see everyone around you on some form of technology, be it on their phones, tablets or computers. We now live in a world where we are so heavily dependent on technology. According to Yvonne Lu, people should be more conscious about how technology affects their identity.
Originally starting off her undergraduate career in commerce, Lu realized her passion laid in a different faculty. Lu began working in marketing and communications but felt like something was missing. She decided to take on a double major between multimedia and theatre and film.
Now in her final year at McMaster, Lu decided to combine her two disciplines into one overall thesis, taking the form of an interactive multimedia installation and a physical performance called interFACE, as part of the School of the Arts Honours Performance Series.
The concept for interFACE came to Lu over this past summer when she was employed by a music video company to be their social media coordinator. Although typically not very active on social media in her own life, Lu found herself getting jealous from the various platforms that she managed as there was an overall feeling that everyone was doing better than her.
“Although there definitely were positive and negative experiences, always being on social media and seeing that people younger than me were doing cooler things than I was, working with huge producers, big companies and getting more responsibility than I was… a lot of the times I felt jealous. It’s why I felt I was a step back, I understood why others were successful and a lot of it was trying to catch up with people,” explained Lu.
interFACE examines how young women interact with technology and how this oversaturation impacts their identity as they grow up. Stemming from a vignette of experiences, the multi-disciplinary art experience allows attendees to delve into the development of identity to look at similarities and differences between how we portray ourselves online versus in person.
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“The question to consider is whether or not social media and digital technology enables us to do more things, or if it consumes us and we are at the whim of the mass media,” explained Lu.
This form of installation is experimental as it features two parts. Viewers will first embark through an audio-visual capsule, which is an audio-sensory experience that saturates the audience in a world that Lu and her team have designed to convey the importance of why we should pay more attention to our own identities. Next viewers will be seated to enjoy the physical portion which expands on what they have observed in the audio-visual capsule.
“This is not something that you would see in traditional theatre. It’s not a narrative or linear piece. We are creating a visceral experience for both our collaborators and audience. We want them to feel that they are in the belly of the beast,” said Lu.
For the thesis student, what the audience takes away from the experience is the primary objective of this piece.
“There isn’t a specific message I want people to walk away with. It’s live theatre and it’s all about interpretation. For us, that’s kind of what I want audiences to walk away with. Questions of what they felt. It’s an emotional journey rather than a narrative,” said Lu.
Show times for interFACE will run on March 28 at 12:30 and 8 p.m. and on March 29 and March 30 at 12:30 and 7 p.m. at the Black Box Theatre in L.R. Wilson Hall. Admission is free.
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By: Donna Nadeem
The Disability Justice Network of Ontario is a Hamilton-based organization launched in September by McMaster alumni Sarah Jama and Eminet Dagnachew and McMaster student Shanthiya Baheerathan.
The co-founders initially got together because of their aligning interests. For instance, Jama was working with the McMaster Students Union Diversity Services as an access coordinator, trying to push the university to create a service for people with disabilities.
“I always think that there is more that could be done, that the institution doesn’t do a good job of supporting people with disabilities in terms of responding to professors who don’t want to accommodate. There is still a lot from what I’m seeing as a person who has graduated,” said Jama.
Last year, the co-founders received an Ontario Trillium grant over 36 months to create and run the organization. The basis of DJNO is to pose questions to the community of people with disabilities to see what it is they want to work on and how DJNO can use their resources to support the community it serves.
One of DJNO’s larger goals is to politically activate and mobilize people with disabilities who consistently get left out of conversations that affect their lives.
“Our goal is to politically activate and mobilize people with disabilities across the city and the province over time and to be able to hold the institutions and places and people accountable for the spaces that they create,” said Jama.
The research committee for DJNO has recently been working on data collection for a study on issues for racialized people with disabilities.
According to Jama, there is a lack of data collection on this subject.
The DJNO also has a youth advisory council that teaches people with disabilities how to politically organize.
In just a few months of being in operation, the DJNO has hosted several events, such as a community conversation event about the Hamilton light rail transit project, a film screening and panel discussion about Justice For Soli, a movement seeking justice for the death of Soleiman Faqiri, who was killed in prison after being beaten by guards.
The film screening and panel discussion was organized alongside McMaster Muslims For Peace and Justice and the McMaster Womanists.
On March 26, the DJNO will be hosting an event called “Race and Disability: Beyond a One Dimensional Framework” in Celebration Hall at McMaster.
This discussion, being organized in collaboration with the MSU Maccess and the MSU Women and Gender Equity Network, will tackle “the intersections of race/racialization, disability, and gender for all McMaster Community Members.”
Next week, the DJNO will also be organizing a rally with Justice for Soli in order to speak out against violence against people with disabilities.
“The Justice for Soli team has been tirelessly advocating for justice, accountability, sounding the alarm of deeply systemic issues in the prison system, namely the violence that it inflicts on racialized peoples, and people with disabilities,” reads part of the event page.
For McMaster students interested in getting involved with the organization, DJNO has some open committees and is looking for individuals to help identify major community issues.
The campaign committee meets at the Hamilton Public Library monthly. Students can email info@djno.ca for more information.
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The Women’s Adventure Film Tour first premiered to a sold-out crowd in Sydney, Australia in May 2017. Since then, the film tour has left its home country and toured across Asia, Europe and North America. This spring, it is coming to Eastern Canada with a stop at Hamilton’s historic Playhouse Cinema on March 21.
The tour celebrates the extraordinary adventures of women by putting on a selection of short films. It is the result of a partnership between Australian company Adventure Film Tours and women-centred outdoors community She Went Wild. The Hamilton screening is open to all and will be two hours long with a short intermission. There will be also be raffle and door prizes offered.
Eastern Canada tour organizer, Benoit Brunet-Poirier got involved with the tour when he met Adventure Film Tours owner Toby Ryston-Pratt on a trip to Australia last year. At the time, Ryston-Pratt had been thinking about expanding to Canada. Brunet-Poirier discussed the opportunity with his partner Jamie Stewart and the two decided to take on the challenge of bringing the film tour home.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9HXWDFs4WM[/embedyt]
Adventure is important for the couple, who met while rock-climbing. The tour also combines their respective industries as Brunet-Poirier works in the entertainment industry and Stewart works for an outdoors retailer.
By showing women-centred films, the tour is helping break down barriers in the outdoors industry. Brunet-Poirier noted that women are historically thought of as individuals to be protected and this series of short films challenges that notion.
“So I really like the idea of having a woman-focused film tour just because… although women are starting to be represented more in adventure stores and in the media and in film, I do think that there still is a misrepresentation or underrepresentation of women. And so this film tour is just putting… the spotlight on women,” Stewart said.
The couple did their first screening for the film tour in Ottawa last fall. They are taking the feedback from that event on the road by increasing the number of films in order to show a few shorter ones and playing well-received flicks.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DE3F336tVQ[/embedyt]
One such film, titled Finding the Line, follows professional skiers and sisters Anna and Nat Segal across Canada, France and the United States. While the film’s humour and thrilling 80 degree slopes make it an exciting watch, it is one of Stewart’s personal favourites because of its narratives of overcoming fear and sisterly bonding. It is these narratives that Stewart and Brunet-Poirier feel will resonate with audiences.
“We let go of some films that were focused on physical achievement to give room to films that are focused on the psychological or social achievement of other women. So there are films about BASE jumping and extreme sports, but there are also films that are more accessible,” said Brunet-Poirier.
In this way, the films should provide something that appeals to everyone, regardless of activity level or interest in extreme sports. The couple hopes that the pictures inspire audiences of all ages to attempt new things or take on a challenge that frightens them.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcWXn_Ydxuc[/embedyt]
Stewart and Brunet-Poirier also focused on ensuring that the films showcases diversity. From a film about an older, blind woman learning to swim for the first time to another about the challenges a lesbian couple faces in a mountain biking community when they open a pizza shop, the films capture a range of identities.
The films were selected from Adventure Films Tours’ global database. While the couple chose some films based in North America in order to be more local, their priority on diversity led them to select films from around the world.
“I am a Chinese woman here in Canada and… we really wanted to showcase diversity and acceptance of everyone… [T]hat's the root of our cause. [We] really try to reach as many people as we can and showing representation in adventure sports of all types of people,” said Stewart.
By centring the diversity of women, Women’s Adventure Film Tour pushes back against the perception of the outdoors community as male-dominated or predominantly white. The films aim to be a comprehensive show of the physical and mental strength of women.
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By: Natalie Clark
When the quaint and beloved Westdale Theatre closed down in early 2017, residents of the Westdale community and many McMaster students were especially upset. Although fairly run down, the Westdale had been the community’s hot spot for Friday night dates, Hollywood’s must-see films and the best popcorn in town for as long as anyone could remember.
On Feb. 14, the Westdale community celebrated the long-awaited re-opening of the Westdale Theatre. Guests were told to dress in period attire for a special event accompanied by cocktails and a screening of the 1942 classic, Casablanca. The event also featured a silent auction, where guests could explore the new and improved venue while admiring local Hamilton art.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtwPnG9B6q9/
With searchlights lighting up the night sky and a red carpet gracing the floor of the doors of the theatre, the Westdale certainly dressed to impress for their grand re-opening. The 350 ticket event sold out in two weeks.
For the past 30 years, the Westdale was owned by an elderly man in Toronto. It wasn’t until he passed away that his family put the theatre up for sale, allowing new owners to claim the theatre, known as the Westdale Cinema Group.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Battr_XFwIc/
“An enormous amount of changes were made… the theatre was in terrible condition, we spent 2.5 million dollars restoring it,” mentioned Fred Fuchs, chairperson of the Westdale Cinema Group.
“Besides equipping it with state-of-the-art projection, screens, new seats, new sound, new acoustic panelling, we also had to completely redo the air conditioning and the heating, the electrical system, the roof, the bathrooms — it was a complete overhaul of the entire theatre,” said Fuchs.
About two years later, the Westdale Theatre is back open for business, and the community is thrilled. Westdale resident and Silhouette alumnus, David Simpson, had one word to describe the re-opening event, “fabulous”.
“I think that the re-opening will be great for Westdale and for McMaster too, creating a hub for the community,” said Simpson.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Brkq2vjhA1y/
Members of the Westdale community are thrilled about the re-opening of the theatre but are also admiring the other advantages that the theatre welcomes to the community.
“It’s wonderful to see it revitalized, and to see hundreds of people in the theatre is great,” said Vivian Lewis, a member of the Westdale community.
“I think that the theatre is going to bring a diversity of films to the community,” mentioned Lewis. “Right now in Hamilton we just have lots of box theatres that are showing the same thing on every screen, and so this theatre will be our chance to see more art films and more alternative films that aren’t currently available in Hamilton.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrA4RzxB7e_/
Aside from standard film movies, the Westdale Theatre will also be hosting frequent live music shows, talks, performances and other special events.
“I’m excited about the idea that it’s not just a movie theatre anymore and that it’s also performance based,” said Sue Trerise-Adamson, another Westdale resident.
“I think that is a really good idea, and it expands all the possibilities of the theatre… I think it’s a real anchor for the whole community of Westdale,” mentioned Trerise-Adamson.
Westdale locals have already begun visiting the theatre for their regular screenings and are grateful to have the theatre back in the community.
Experience the new and improved Westdale Theatre on your own and check out all available screenings and shows on their website: https://www.thewestdale.ca/now-playing/
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[spacer height="20px"]The AGH BMO World Film Festival is Hamilton’s largest Festival of international, independent, and Canadian film. This year over 60 films will be screened between October 11-21, and in honour of its 10th anniversary there are some extra-special things happening throughout the 10-days.
AGH Film Curator, Ryan Ferguson, works year-round selecting an impressive program of films that not only celebrate the power and beauty of film, but also highlight different issues in our present-day society.
There are many films for the LGBTQ+ audience this year. Love, Scott is a documentary about Scott Jones, a gay musician who was the victim of a hateful attack and is now paralyzed from the waist down. Scott will be attending the screening on October 17 for a Q&A period and will talk about his journey. Other highlights include: The Miseducation of Cameron Post (October 15) , starring Chloe Grace Moretz, and Rafiki (October 19), a film banned in its home country of Kenya. The closing-night party of the Festival will feature a screening of the documentary Paris is Burning (October 20) with a drag-show hosted by Hamilton’s own queer event planners #AdamandSteve.
If you like a little fun with your films, one of the Festival’s cult-classic themed events are sure to be an excuse to get a group of friends together. On October 13, join Girl on the Wing for a romantic screening of the 90s classic Romeo and Juliet set in a church filled with candles and other atmospheric touches. For another blast from the past, grab tickets to see Spice World on October 17, featuring the Spice Girls during their peak in the 90s. To cap off the evening, join us for 90s karaoke afterwards at Toast, a local wine bar, hosted by The Eye of Faith.
A film festival that takes place in October wouldn’t be complete without some horror flicks! You can expect classics like the haunted ballet academy flick Suspiria (October 11), unexpected beauty in the offbeat November (October 21), and a don’t-mess-with-me Nicholas Cage in the action-packed Mandy (October 13). These are all sure to get your Halloween season off to a spooky start.
To find out more information about the AGH BMO World Film Festival, head to www.aghfilmfest.com for the full schedule and to buy tickets. Follow along on Instagram @at_theagh or with the hashtag #aghfilmfest. Remember the days where you had to go to a video store to pick out a movie? Check out the Film Festival Video Store Pop-Up at Redchurch Cafe & Gallery (68 King St East), an interactive experience complete with retro VHS cases for each film! Take a look – with so many options at this year’s Festival, you’re bound to find a film that speaks to you.
Screening Locations:
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Local filmmakers are making waves with their breakout movie, Chesterfield.
Aptly named, Chesterfield is a movie about a couch. Much more than that, however, it is a movie about friendship, adventure and the opportunities that come out of saying yes.
Chesterfield takes audiences on a trip through Toronto. Lead character, Lewis, is new to the city and has found a couch on Kijiji to furnish his new apartment. When the only person that Lewis knows in the city is unable to help, he resorts to moving the couch from one end of the city to the other on his own.
From the kindness of strangers, the places he sees and the friends that he makes along the way, Lewis ends up with more than a couch, but a feeling of home in this new city.
The film was derived from a true story. Florence B, Director, says that when they shared an apartment with their brother, who suffered from a neurological disorder and was unable to walk, they found a perfect couch online.
“I had to figure out a way to carry the couch from downtown Hamilton to our home in the North end of the city,” said B.
B began imagining all the ways in which transporting their new couch could turn into an adventure.
“I loved the idea of carrying a couch across town. My imagination got away with me and I thought of all the exciting times that could be had; making pit-stops to visit friends, taking coffee breaks, inviting people to come sit and talk. I could imagine a whole day of good times.”
When B asked their friends for help, however, they weren’t interested in the adventure that could take place.
“I got nothing but negativity and I remember feeling so taken aback by their responses,” said B. “No one saw the adventure that could be had. You really find out who your friends are when you got to move a couch. That moment really inspired me to tell the story I knew existed.”
The team behind the film, which consists of local filmmakers Christoph Benfey and Gabriel Patti, launched Chesterfield on May 14 at Toronto’s Future of Film Showcase where they won awards for Best Film and Audience Choice. They also won an award for Best Film at Hamilton’s Fringe Festival this past July.
“We really didn’t know how well this film would do,” said B. “We put our hearts into it and just hoped that people would connect with our message. The response we got truly blew us away. People loved our film. Everything that we hoped to achieve with our film seemed to hit a home run with the audiences we shared it with. People approached us with amazing positivity. The reviews were outstanding.”
The team has submitted the film to other festivals to take place throughout the year, and will continue to submit the film to various festivals until next summer.
Chesterfield has also been selected for two upcoming festivals, including Toronto Independent Film Festival and the Toronto New Wave Film Festival.
“Having the opportunity to make a film with my best friends has been incredible,” said B.
“We’ve grown so much through this project and we’ve made so many amazing connections. I feel like we’ve found our footing and a place in the industry, and I’m so excited to see what we can do next.”
By: Hess Sahlollbey
Two anthropomorphic dog-women lay on a Grecian style bed in bliss while a cherub plays a horn amidst a mustard yellow background. The cover of J’aime les filles (I Like Girls) by Diane “Obom” Obomswin firmly establishes its surreal presentation.
A Montréal-based comics creator, Obomsawin originally lived abroad in France for 20 years before moving to Quebec permanently in the 80s.
Rent made Montréal more affordable than Paris, Obom found a home in the LGBTQ+ community.
Working as a graphic designer for magazines and advertisements, she was all the while studying animation in the late 1990s. A student at Concordia University, Obom was amongst one of the last groups of students to study traditional hand-drawn animation.
“It’s funny, I always seem to arrive at the end of things and beginnings of new ones,” said Obom.
The medium was shifting from colored plastic cells to hand-drawn sheets that computers and digital colours would then bring to life. As digital consumed the medium, Obom would use her newfound foundations and technology to shift her comics and storytelling to the screen.
“I got used to drawing on a graphic tablet… but I really miss that I have lost the opportunity to work with ink and paper,” said Obom.
While creating comics, Obom would soon fall in with the other creators in the arts scene of Montreal where the atmosphere was less cynical than France.
In Montreal, artists would openly discuss the poetry or their paintings without being looked down upon or facing pretention.
“It was a very collaborative time, but it was also the beginning of individualism, a time where collectively working on a project was on the decline,” said Obom.
This individualism would lend itself perfectly to comics and animation.
The mediums that call upon a tremendous amount of devotion, cartoonist and animators are often working in isolation for hours on end as they transition their characters through a story.
J’aime les filles, which is Obom’s latest collection published by Drawn and Quarterly, recounts short stories of lesbianism, first loves, affection and romantic expression. In 2016, Jaime les filles was adapted into a National Film Board of Canada short film.
“I was not aware of sexuality or of homosexuality as a child, but I knew I was attracted to girls and I would learn more about it later in life.”
With an equal distribution of weight distributed to each panel of a page, the heart and emotion of the stories that Obom conveys take precedence over flashy, superficial art.
“[I find comics] more difficult because you always have think panels and find the relationship between each panel whereas in animation I simply have to think about the scene and what I want to convey.”
Obom often finds herself working for hours on end when animating. Her passion for the medium makes it easy for her to lose track of time.
“With comics I have to think so much more… so when I make a comic I often look for excuses to get up and eat and maybe talk to my dog,” explained Obom.
While many coming-of-age tales in cinema or books may evoke a certain pathos where the viewer shares in the trials and tribulations of the characters uncertainties and anguishes; Obom flips the script with her unique style.
Characters are rendered as anthropomorphic funny animals with unique physical traits that amplify their personality.
Telling her own stories and those of her friends became a more straightforward process once it was divorced from artistic realism.
No longer a victim to the conventional artistic rules of proportion, anatomy and perspective, she is liberated to take more creative risks.
This subversive aspect also allows Obom to inject a distance into the characters that allows her friends to personify their favorite animals and share their personal experiences with first loves and feelings while still maintaining a certain level of anonymity.
Sharing her own stories alongside her friends, Obom creates a solidarity amongst all the tales as they recount a childhood full of revelations and new experiences.
Adapting her comics into animation and vice-versa, Obom’s use of gentle animal figures to tell stories has netted her multiple awards including the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
A member of the National Film Board of Canada, Obom’s films and comic collections are readily available online and will be on display in May at the Montreal Comic Arts Festival.
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Read the full story here: https://www.thesil.ca/
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You can find more information about the exhibition at this site.
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