Lethbridge Independent Film Festival Goes Out With a Bang(s)
Editor- Apr 14
- 2 min read
Bangs says so much with so little.
It’s a 13-minute comedy about a woman who gives herself bangs with a hesitant few snips over her bathroom sink just moments before friends arrive for her 30th-birthday dinner.
But her friends don’t notice.
It’s a story about being (or not being) seen, and the things we do to become seen. But also hints at how ungratifying the validation can be when it does come, pointing to a power in self-acceptance. But the film adds a post-credits scene that pulls the audience back around to feelings of being unseen—an inescapable loop.
And it does all that while being a genuinely funny comedy. The theatre was filled with laughs throughout the screening at the Lethbridge Independent Film Festival this past weekend. It was the Montreal-made film’s Alberta premiere, closing out the three-day festival.
“There aren’t a lot of comedies these days that are doing it all, you know?” said director, writer, and producer Nancy Webb in the late-night Q&A after the screening, joined by starring actor, writer, and producer Emelia Hellman.
Bangs does it all. In addition to having laughs and a relatable subtext, the film is a product of Webb and Hellman’s Hellgirl Productions, which centres LGBTQ+, nonbinary, and women’s voices and visions both in front of and behind the camera.
“We want to make you happy. We want to make you feel good. And we want to also make queer audiences feel seen and safe,” Hellman explained. “We work in a community and we treat everybody with respect. We want the process of making the film to be as important as the final product.”
With that approach, we can expect more amazing productions to come out of this Montreal-based community of filmmakers.
The Lethbridge Independent Film Festival featured 54 films, including 37 premieres. The selections came from countries around the world, including many from Canada, and 13 from local filmmakers found right here in southern Alberta.
The three-day festival kicked off Friday evening at Galt Museum, followed by a full day of programming on Saturday, also at Galt Museum, and another full day on Sunday at The Movie Mill.
“We’ve felt so welcomed here. We’re just going to treasure this weekend,” Hellman said as moderator Kels Valenzuela Delamarter closed out the conversation late Sunday night. “This is an exceptional festival. You should all be so proud to have this here.”
