Driftless is a feature-length drama about Nova Abbey, a park ranger at work during a state government shutdown on a busy 4th of July weekend, protecting the park from the people and the people from each other.
It's 1999 and the Middleview Ducks high school basketball team are about to play the most low-stakes game of their lives. As the team prepares for another certain loss, the dramas around the game become more of a focus than the score. Pot-smoking, existentialism, radical theatre kid protests, and a dog on the loose, all unfold before, during, and after the high school basketball game.
All Access Pass Holders, Sponsors, and Guests are invited to attend the Saturday Happy Hour reception for great times, tasty treats, good tunes and the 6th annual Crowdfunding Rally!
**PASSHOLDERS ONLY**
Time to give all our visiting filmmakers another warm Bay City welcome! Of course, that means drinks, snacks, music, and fun! All Access, Guest, and Sponsor pass holders are welcome to attend.
Featuring the music of Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor !!!!
In this Program
- The Drink
- Cosima Spender12mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- Cells
- Raymond Wood12mEnglish Narrative Short
- Sven
- Christopher Rucinski11mEnglish Narrative Short
- The Great Record Hunt
- Ethan Minsker, Shayne Kamat25mEnglish Documentary Short
- Dough
- Kurt Schneider9mEnglish Narrative Short
- THE WIND PHONE
- Kristen Gerweck16mJapanese (English Subtitles)Narrative Short
- Too Late
- Clayton Dean Smith4mEnglish Narrative Short
- Fuck you, Steve
- 9mEnglish Narrative Short
Creating immersive experiences for the dome theater has become a popular new field for creative filmmakers. The wrap-around VR-like environment allows for transformative experiences in art, nature and storytelling. Here you’ll see a sampling of award-winning short pieces from world-recognized Fulldome Film Festivals, including the Jena Festival in Germany. Approx 40 minutes.
FREE SCREENING. Limited seating.
*Comedy*
A tough lady trucker trains her wimpy best friend to compete in the National Ladies Arm Wrestling Championship.
Faced with a split custody break up, a family's older daughter kidnaps her hostile younger sister to embark on a journey to reconnect before they part.
In this biting satire, an aspiring teenage comedian joins a theatre group and is cast to play a school shooter. Will this "funny man" be able to pull off such a heavy role? A film that satirizes the way buzz culture feeds national tragedies and reckons with the way social media shapes our engagement of violence and comedy.
Héctor, a man in his fifties with a good job and a family, is in the middle of a midlife crisis. His twin brother Rafael is his total opposite: a relaxed and eccentric life long partier who refuses to settle down. What if Héctor could be Rafael without anyone knowing? What would it do to him and those around him?
*Biography*
In 1970s New York, photographer Martha Cooper captured some of the first images of graffiti at a time when the city had declared war on it. Decades later, Cooper has become influential to the global movement of street artists.
A Mother struggling with mental illness and financial strain mentions her plan to impulsively move across the country, again. Her Son learns with each question that he, alone, has literally one-shot to save his mother from a potentially deadly setback. We witness the true story of two complex minds fighting to find love, and their loved one, in the darkness.
Donna has recently been convicted of Driving while Impaired and is ordered to perform community service at the local animal shelter. When an elderly dog is scheduled to be euthanized, Donna decides to take the dog home and quickly realizes his companionship can ease her loneliness. In a futile attempt to fill the emptiness she feels, Donna begins to take home more and more animals and she is soon in over her head.
This is the next step after defining your audience with our Crowdfunding to Build Independence workshop: "If you build it, they will come" isn't true until you invite them! We’ll show you how to make that invitation irresistible for existing audiences and new ones alike. We’ll teach you how to approach marketing as pre-production, from leveraging your existing network to the best ways to reach your target audience via social media, email, and more.
Socially out of touch Eddie is obsessed with old school pinball. When he's not fantasizing about 1970s pinball champs he's working as a repair man. After discovering a mysterious old pinball table, Eddie starts a quest to repair it and learn of the game's origins. As his focus deepens and his desire to fix the machine turns into paranoid obsession, he seeks out help to uncover the game's secrets. Is this the greatest game ever made?
Three women at different stages of life - Suzy Hotrod, Evilicious, and Captain Smack Sparrow - struggle to balance their lives in New York City with the dedication and stamina needed to maintain their place on the world's best roller derby team.
In this Program
- Running Out
- Avi Kaye9mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- That Was Ray
- Jordan Gorman, Brenten Brandenburg, Kaustubh Singh18mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- Immortal
- Natalie Metzger, Robert Allaire11mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Sad Sally
- Doug Purdy12mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Run
- Emma Miranda Moore13mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- Vanishing Louisiana
- Adam Chitayat9mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- Repo
- Aaron Rovner11mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- My Other Suit is Human
- Andrew Paul Montague18mGBEnglish Narrative Short
The weekend's peak of music events for the 16th annual Hell's Half Mile Film & Music Festival happens here. The Saturday, September 24th event is taking place at the Dunlop Building (located at 517 Washington Ave., Bay City, MI), and per usual is bringing 3 amazing bands! This year's lineup features Party Nails (Los Angeles), Ratboys (Chicago), and Sugar Tradition (Detroit).
The show is open to all ages for Pass holders, or admission is $10 at the door.
As a festival we're thrilled with the opportunity to use the Dunlop Building and transform it into a HHM-style venue for one evening, and bring 3 very different bands together to make it's mark on "Midtown Bay City"!! It's Hell's Half Mile's sixteenth birthday, and we need to celebrate it the way we know how. 🎵🎙🎸👩🎤🎹🎶
This is a listing of all short films for 2021 --- HHM15! Individual program blocks will be announced soon!
In this Program
- 7AM Wednesday
- Julie Herlocker10mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- A Fresh Perspective
- Aaron Hosé12mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- A Gray One
- Matt Enlow8mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- A Visitor
- Bret Miller5mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Alina
- Rami Kodeih25mUSAEnglish, German, Polish (English Subtitles)Narrative Short
- Babs
- Celine Held, Logan George13mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- Big Bons
- Katherine Montgomery19mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- Blocks
- Bridget Moloney12mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Boxes for Rox
- Chelsey Raegen Knapp5mUSAEnglish Animation Short
- Burnt
- Colton Fromhart5mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Buyer's Remorse
- Karen Stefl, Garrett Jafano6mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Cerdita (Piggy)
- Carlota Pereda14mSpainSpanish (English Subtitles)Narrative Short
- Daddy Baby
- Steve Greist, Allie Long14mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Dieorama
- Kevin Staake11mEnglish Documentary Short
- Ellipse - Felixe
- Alexandre Richard5mCanadaEnglish Narrative Short
- The Exit Plan
- Angus Wilkinson14mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- Fantasy Pony
- Caitlin Carleton20mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Feeling Flush
- Erin Brown Thomas10mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Fire Flower
- Stephan Leeper6mUSAEnglish Animation Short
- Girls Are Strong Here
- Scott Burkhardt16mUSAArabic, English (English Subtitles)Narrative Short
- Ice Fishing in a Climate Crisis that Precedes a Global Pandemic
- Peter Johnston9mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- Immortal
- Natalie Metzger, Robert Allaire11mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Jeep Boys
- Alec Pronovost20mCanadaEnglish, French Narrative Short
- Landgraves
- Jean-François Leblanc23mCanadaEnglish Narrative Short
- Last Day for Videos
- Chad Campbell8mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- Life on Mars
- Troian Bellisario12mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Limited Time Offer Act Now
- Aaron Wertheimer9mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Lockdown
- Logan George, Celine Held13mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Making Samantha
- T Cooper, Allison Glock-Cooper11mEnglish Documentary Short
- Mind Mending
- Markus Schröder17mGBEnglish, Portuguese (English Subtitles)Documentary Short
- Misfits
- Ciani Rey Walker19mEnglish Narrative Short
- Mother Tongue
- Jessica Li12mAustraliaEnglish, Chinese Narrative Short
- My Other Suit is Human
- Andrew Paul Montague18mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- The Other Morgan
- Alison Rich14mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- PEW! PEW! PEW!
- Loren Dunn13mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- PHX
- Jon Felson8mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Porch Light
- Julia Bergeron9mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- The Projectionist: Portrait of a Reel Artist
- Peter Johnston7mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- Relationship Deli
- Ian Van der Werff4mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Replica
- Christopher Jarvis11mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Repo
- Aaron Rovner11mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- The Ring Light
- Barret Bowman4mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Run
- Emma Miranda Moore13mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- Running Out
- Avi Kaye9mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Sad Sally
- Doug Purdy12mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Slingshot
- Robin Haig16mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- Smelly Little Town
- Zach Neumeyer26mEnglish Documentary Short
- Something Blue
- Brennan Huizinga23mEnglish Narrative Short
- Sorry For Your Loss
- Tina Carbone, Jaclyn Jasgur7mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Soy Hombre
- Juan Pablo Blanco24mMexicoSpanish (English Subtitles)Narrative Short
- Space Rocks!
- Damien Donnelly3mIrelandEnglish Narrative Short
- Sundays at The Triple Nickel
- Jessica Colquhoun13mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- There will be MONSTERS
- Carlota Pereda5mSpainSpanish (English Subtitles)Narrative Short
- That Was Ray
- Jordan Gorman, Brenten Brandenburg, Kaustubh Singh18mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- Transfer
- Sage Mears, Aaron Pagniano12mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- Under the Lights
- Miles Levin11mEnglish Narrative Short
- Vanishing Louisiana
- Adam Chitayat9mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- Waffle
- Carlyn Hudson11mEnglish Narrative Short
- The Way I See Maria
- Jeremy Berkowitz9mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
- What Happened to Henry?
- Andrew Acciaioli24mUSAEnglish Documentary Short
- We Got a Monkey's Paw
- Aaron Pagniano9mUSAEnglish Narrative Short
Detroit Psych-Rock
Sisters of your Sunshine Vapor are a Detroit psych-rock band known for their immersive records and DIY work ethic. The band's recent album "Good Goddamn" released is their fifth in 12 years under the SOYSV moniker. Their expansive career has been filled with extensive touring of North America and Europe all while maintaining the same original line-up. The COVID-19 locked down halted early progress on recording and the band was forced to work on new approaches to writing and collaboration. The result led to the band’s most poignant and melodic record of their career.
In this Program
- Cold Storage
- Thomas Freundlich9mFinlandEnglish Narrative Short
- The Slows
- Nicole Perlman20mEnglish Narrative Short
- Behave, Kids
- Tripp Crosby10mEnglish Narrative Short
- La Merde
- Ben Adam-Harris8mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- Vanished At the Finish
- Jason Cooper17mEnglish, Italian (English Subtitles)Documentary Short
- The right night (Le bon soir)
- Jeremias Nussbaum9mFranceFrench (English Subtitles)Narrative Short
- I, Rose
- Daniele Guerra13mGBEnglish Narrative Short
- Seven
- Benjamin Saad11mGBEnglish, Norwegian, Russian (English Subtitles)Narrative Short
- Asparagus Tips
- Sam Bailey4mEnglish Narrative Short
*Music Focused Documentary*
Story of trailblazing American rock singer-songwriter Suzi Quatro, who helped redefine the role of women in rock 'n' roll when she broke out in 1973.
*Suspense/Drama*
A woman returns to her estranged family, and reconnects with a former lover. When the robbery they plan goes awry, she must choose between abandoning her family again or taking responsibility for the chaos she's created.
Wayne, a struggling method actor, inherits the city's last porno cinema from his estranged father, Al. Seeing this as an unconventional opportunity to reconcile their relationship, Wayne absorbs himself in the underworld of the pornography business. While running the cinema Wayne meets a cast of characters. Each character acts as a piece of a puzzle in helping Wayne rediscover the father he barely knew. But the old cinema turns out to be much more than Wayne anticipated.
Will, the estranged son of a conman, was left holding the bag, literally. His shady Russian neighbor, Roman, asked him to hold a million-dollar stamp collection, then swiftly disappears. Driven by fear and the desire to "do the right thing," Will goes on the hunt for Roman with the intention of returning the valuable goods. But when a significant piece of the collection goes missing, the filmmakers are forced to reexamine Will's capacity for honesty.
Unlucky at love, Josie joins a lesbian soccer league in hopes of meeting more single women. She hits the jackpot in Emma and in a brief musical montage, the two fall in love and get married. When Emma's cancer takes a turn for the worse, she presents her new wife with a deathbed order: find someone new while Emma is still around to approve of her choice. Can a story with heart, humor, and a dying spouse have a happy ending?
A deep dig into the crates of the vinyl record resurgence to discover what an old technology says about our relationship to music and each other in a divided time in America.
Vinyl Nation & Panel Discussion
Following the screening of Vinyl Nation listen to the conversation as director & producer Kevin Smokler joins Jay Glysz of Lightning Licks Vinyl Preservation Society, Jim Gleason of Radio Wasteland (Midland), and Jordan Pries of Electric Kitsch (Bay City) in a panel discussion guided by Peter Rose-Barry, festival programmer.