Hamilton Film Festival set to light up screens
The 19th edition of the event will feature plenty of local talent, along with national and international shorts and features. It is a sure-fire way to beat the ordinary fare of your social media algorithm, says founder Nathan Fleet.
The 19th edition of the Hamilton Film Festival (HFF19) kicks off on Oct. 18 and founder Nathan Fleet couldn’t be more thrilled for this year’s lineup.
“I’m most excited to have audiences see these indie films in a theatre,” says Fleet. “I have been saying that this event is really a way to beat the algorithm of a social media feed that keeps serving you what it thinks you want. This festival is full of gems that you would never be served from an algorithm.”
With more than 100 films, industry panels, and talks, HFF19 has something to offer for everyone, and as always, Fleet is eager to highlight made-in-Hamilton talent. In fact, there are so many Hamilton-area submissions that Fleet is a little reluctant to mention just one or two that stand out.
“I’d worry that I might miss something, but I don’t believe we have a day in the festival that doesn’t have Hamilton cast, crew, or locations. We have everything from 8- to 12-year-olds’ films in the Kids Can Film program, to the seasoned veteran George Mihalka’s series Ominous, and everything in between.”
One entry this year that has been generating buzz is Magnetosphere, directed by the award-winning New York-based, Sorbonne-trained director Nicola Rose. Set in 1997 during the appearance of the Hale-Bopp Comet, the coming-of-age film centres on Maggie, a young girl with synesthesia, a rare neurological condition that allows her to see sounds and hear colours.
Rose has enjoyed accolades at several film festivals for features and shorts such as her 2022 debut feature Goodbye, Petrushka and the award-winning short Gabrielle, and now brings added prestige to HFF19 with Magnetosphere.
“I had heard great things about the festival,” says Rose, “and how well Nathan Fleet runs his ship, before we ever submitted the film. I'm pleased we're premiering in Canada, particularly in Ontario, where Magnetosphere was produced and shot (in Sault Ste Marie). It's a bit of a homecoming.”
Audiences will certainly recognize a few faces in the cast, notably lead actress Shayelin Martin, Colin Mochrie, Steven He, and Hamilton’s own Patrick McKenna and Zooey Schneider.
“I stumbled upon Patrick via The Red Green Show when I was in high school,” says Rose “and wanted to work with him from that moment on. In real life, while there's silliness to him, he also strikes me as having a highly serious, perfectionist side, ever driving him to hone his characters to perfection. He's also one of the kindest souls I've met.”
Rose describes Schneider, who plays Maggie’s little sister Evie, as “a tiny, intrepid dynamo and old soul who — if we're lucky — will one day run the world.”
As with many of Rose’s films to date, Magnetosphere centres on themes of coming of age and being different, but brings a unique twist with synesthesia being the key driver of the story. Rose cites the 2021 Ann Hu film Confetti, about a little girl with dyslexia, as an initial and indirect inspiration.
“I was intrigued and moved by how the cinematography depicted life through the girl's eyes,” says Rose. “Synesthesia was a topic that had been in the back of my mind. I merged it with a screenplay I already had lying around about an odd little girl growing up, and the even odder adults around her. Magnetosphere was born.”
During Rose’s subsequent research into the condition, a surprising thing happened: she discovered she herself had experienced synesthesia.
“One of the people I talked to was a composer named Michael Torke. He had written a suite for the New York City Ballet whose movements each evoked a different colour for him. Michael was talking about how the instrumentation of such-and-such a movement made it more blue, or purple, and suddenly I had a vivid flashback to childhood,” she says.
“When I was about five, I would go to bed listening to a cassette tape of classical music. One of the pieces was a movement from the Florida Suite by Frederick Delius and I suddenly remembered how, 30 years ago, that particular piece would play for me in blue, orange and green lines. So it turns out I had synesthesia as a child, though I apparently lost it somewhere (maybe between the couch cushions). Still, I was glad to realize I had that kind of personal tie to the film.”
Magnetosphere is produced by Rusty Halo Productions, Pine Pathways Productions, and Baum 18 Media, in association with Parka Pictures, and premieres at HFF19 on Sunday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. at the Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre. You can also watch Rose’s debut film Goodbye, Petruska in Canada on Tubi and Amazon Prime.
Even before this edition of the film festival has begun, Fleet has already started prepping for 2025, which will mark the festival’s 20th anniversary.
“We’ll be heavy on building local filmmaking with our film pitch program, and panels,” says Fleet. “The film/TV scene in general is dictated by the bigger productions that are in Toronto that head our way, and that is currently unpredictable. I have always felt that you need to grow your base (local filmmakers and companies) so we don’t have to wait around for the big players to come to town. It’s harder, but it can work.”
HFF19 runs for 10 days from Oct. 18 to 27, with shows screened primarily in the Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre, and secondarily at the Playhouse Cinema, The Westdale, and its original venue at the Staircase. Some events will be broadcast live on Cable 14.
