Even though Hollywood North Magazine is based in Vancouver and covers Vancouver in general, all the main operative work (aka me) happens completely in New Westminster. There’s a New West Film Fest, but as of recently they added International in the middle. Once a grass roots organization that wanted to bring attention via film to environmental issues and climate activism, and eventually it expanded. Expanded slightly, but still is a good festival even with the duration of three days and minimal screeners. The event’s president Cathy Sostad said “I think that it was time for people to be aware that we have a lot of local but we are an international film festival so if you see a program of shorts, you’re going to see shorts made by a New Westminster filmmaker, an Ontario filmmaker, and an Iranian filmmaker” and that the reason this festival lasted so long is due to the help of volunteers. I haven’t had much of a chance to cover NWFF these past couple years. Maybe it’s because there’s a clash and coincide of events going on. Maybe it’s because there’s other writers filling up space on here. Maybe it’s because last time I went, my neighbour Mr. Carter from down the street was in attendance and snored loudly through every single screening. But I made some time for a screening for this one because it focused on a very important subject: Mental Health. At this particular screening, 2 half-hour films showcased each speaking about these matters. I will get into them now.
Buddy Check for Jesse – Opening up in the lush hills of Victoria, and featuring some very old footage from years ago, the film mainly told the story of Jesse Short-Gershman, who had a huge interest in sports, mathematics, and hiking. The majority of the doc is Jesse’s dad Dr. Stu Gershman telling the story of what Jesse was like as a kid, and how he eventually got a job in coding for Google. However, despite his high level of intelligence, Jesse struggled to get along with co-workers and got fired. Shortly afterwards, he took his own life. Stu then decided to discuss mental health with the hockey team he was coaching, and by spreading awareness, more youngsters got more help. Seeing something created to help those who are struggling was amazing and this documentary was beautifully made. There’s plenty more details to check out here. Everybody needs to help each other out, you know.
Common Law – Based on a true story, Common Law features a young man named Kagan (Berlin Lu) who writes all kinds of content despite his parents telling him to rest. He continues to get more paranoid and eventually this leads to bipolar episodes as he worries his work isn’t good enough or that his girlfriend Daniela (Claire Filipow) is going to leave him. Funny stuff, but then things get out of hand and even rough for Kagan. Some of the humour helped smooth out the roughness of this serious topic.
The Q&A afterwards was full of truth and made for a great segment of the festival. While I couldn’t attend the whole thing, I still enjoyed it and am playing to cover the entirety of NWIFF for its sweet 16 next year. I should really get more involved in attending this every year.