An important part of producing a film and music festival for 14 years has been making a multitude of decisions.
Which films are in, and which films are out?
Which bands will be on the ticket this year and which ones won’t?
Where are we going to have the receptions?
What new features should we add this year?
There are always hard decisions to make, but in the end, we feel like the results make for a great event for our community, our sponsors, filmmakers, and our amazing volunteers. This year, we are tasked with a new and even more challenging decision.
With Covid-19 still active within our state, and all the restrictions, limitations, and hesitations that it has brought to our new reality, the scruffy, yet mighty, HHM Team has decided to do something that we feel flips the year-long parade of event cancellations on its head. We’ve decided to push the big celebration of our 15th festival to the fall of 2021 so we can all join together in Downtown Bay City and do it up big! I mean BIG! We realize that sounds like another cancellation. We prefer to look at this as a temporary reimagining.
We’re not laying low. We’re bringing you Hell’s Half Mile Film 14.5!
We’re switching gears and offering our community lots of fantastic entertainment options. It’s time to put the emphasis on the “More” part of our tagline, “Movies. Music. More.”
Here is some of the great entertainment we’re adding to our summer through fall roster for 2020, all of which are sponsored by Jolt Credit Union.
Popup Drive-In
The Downtown Drive-In will come alive for the first time on Sunday, July 12th and is a collaboration between Hell’s Half Mile and the State Theatre of Bay City. Late 70s and early 80s blockbuster movies will be on the giant inflatable screen in the parking lot near the Pere Marquette Depot on the corner of Fifth and Adams. The screenings will be free to the public but limited to the gathering capacity set forth by the Governor. A pre-registration process to reserve one of the limited spaces will be set up soon. We’re hoping to find some great sponsors to cover the costs so we can make this happen for our community. Contact Alan LaFave for sponsorship opportunities at alan@hellshalfmile.com.
Popup Cinema
Stay tuned for info on outdoor popup cinema experiences throughout the summer and fall. This is different than the popup drive-in, including the type of films we’ll be showing. Expect more indie and rock and roll oriented films!
Hellion Film Club Virtual Cinema
We’re bringing our community some of the hottest indie films out there from various distributors. You’ll be able to watch the films at home with new films added each week. And each rental benefits Hell’s Half Mile.
Virtual Watch Parties with filmmaker Q&A
We’re hitting up some of our favorite filmmakers to join us for virtual watch parties of their films. We all watch and get to ask questions online of participating cast and crew members.
HHM Film Slam
The HHM Film Slam competition is coming back online. Local filmmakers will have the opportunity to challenge each other, win prizes, and share their work with HHM audiences online.
Drydock Beer Garden Hosting
We’re hosting at the Drydock Beer Garden in late July and early August. Join us for some tasty beers in the shaded beer garden as well as the new cafe area streetside. All revenue goes to support Hell’s Half Mile.
Music Events
We’re working on creating some live music events. Stay tuned!
Festival Weekend Events
We intend to bring you a lot of great entertainment options the last weekend of September 2020. Popup drive-in..Hellion Film Club virtual cinema…virtual watch parties…live music. In a nutshell….More.
Events and schedules are subject to change.
We hope you’ll enjoy what we have in store for you. Bringing great entertainment to our community means the world to us and your support is the key to us getting to a BIG celebration for HHM #15 in 2021.
Thanks!
The HHM Team
Hell’s Half Mile Events is the nonprofit organization that produces the Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival and other events in Bay City, MI.
Hell’s Half Mile 14.5 Programming
- Popup Drive-in (in-person events)
- Pop Up Cinema (in-person events)
- Hellion Film Club Virtual Cinema (online programming)
- Virtual Watch Parties with filmmaker Q&A (online programming)
- HHM Film Slam (online event)
- Music (in-person events)
- Drydock Beer Garden hosting
- Festival Weekend Events (in-person and online events)