My hometown of Bay City, Michigan, has wrapped its annual Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival (HHM) after four fun days—Sept. 21-24.

Hell’s Half Mile was named one of the coolest film festivals in the world by Movie Maker earlier this summer. [article]

Though I couldn’t be there in person this year, I was able to watch a bunch of the dozens of short and feature films, trailers, and documentaries through HHM’s virtual experience. And all for a mere $10. What a bargain!

I’d have loved to watch more but, owing to a page-one rewrite I’m two-thirds of the way into, I was only able to allocate a half-day on Sunday.

It’s been a crazy-busy summer!

Still, I was able to watch some very entertaining pieces.

I started with the Hell’s Half Mile slate of Michigan-made short films.

First on the roster was The Bad Trip Home, a comedy about a guy who buys some drugs—a freaky looking cupcake to be exact—and tries to get home with his snacks and sanity intact.

I really loved this one. It felt like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets Half Baked.

And, am I wrong, or was the funny-as-hell drug dealer influenced by Mitch Hedberg?

Either way, a fun little flick. And, lucky you, you can watch the entire thing on YouTube here: The Bad Trip Home.

Next was The Shepherdess, which could have been either documentary or fictionalized account of a sheep farmer. Either way, it was very professionally done, impactful, and had beautiful cinematography.

Samurai Ty vs Corporate Cyborgs was a cool animation which reminded me of Aeon Flux and Robo Cop. Definitely like something you would’ve seen on MTV’s old Liquid Television arthouse offering.

The next one I watched was called Oh Hey, a Horse, a very weird and very short movie about a stickman floating in space who meets a messed-up horse. It’s best I say no more. Check it out for yourself here.

The Package Thief is another one that’s best going in to see blind. Check out the trailer here.

Then I moved on to feature-length films.

First, I watched Objects, a documentary about the strange and seemingly meaningless things people cherish as keepsakes.

This was really a first-rate doc. Entertaining, quirky, neat. Something I wouldn’t have sought to watch but am glad I did.

I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t win a bunch of awards.

And let me just say: oh, the saga of the sugar egg. Ha!

Everybody wants to be loved is a foreign feature film. I’m sorry to say I only had time to watch about the first third but it’s my kind of weird dramedy. Very A24-ish meets I’m- not-yet-sure-what … but it’s good. Check out the trailer here.

According to the movie description on the Hell’s Half Mile online experience, Everybody Wants to be Loved is, “[a] blisteringly hot summer day. Psychotherapist Ina notices something is wrong with her. But she doesn’t have time to worry about it: patients are waiting at the practice, her daughter is threatening to move in with her father, her boyfriend wants to emigrate to Finland, and her self-centered mother is celebrating her 70th birthday. Ina wants to please everyone. But then everything changes.”

I really enjoyed many of the films I watched … but I loved loved loved Peak Season.

Seriously, it’s Lost in Translation meets Before Sunrise set in the gorgeous rural landscape of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Here’s a conversation with the filmmakers behind the movie.

The Pragmatics was really fun and really short. The trailer’s description says it best: “In this horror movie trailer spoof, The Pragmatics are moving to a new neighborhood, but only if the situation is just right.”

The last one I had time for was Benji’s Hour.

I’m a huge fan of darker relationship dramas. This one featured a young man and a middle-aged woman—refreshingly about friendship rather than romance.

It’s a good movie with a different take on dysfunction, loneliness, attempts at redemption, and friendship. Here’s Director Gabriel Kahane discussing it in brief.

One of my longtime collaborators and I hope to have a short horror film ready for Hell’s Half Mile come 2024.

Here’s to hoping.

Until then, please do yourself the favor of checking out as much indie filmmaking as you can.

It really is the future of original, meaningful cinema.