By Kaitlyn Clark
The Haldimand Press
CAYUGA—The third annual Watch Local Week is kicking off this Sunday, bringing a wide variety of local creative minds to screens in Haldimand and Norfolk. Graeme Bachiu of Cayuga’s Windecker Road Films, a founder of the event, is just one of those minds.
Along with the 75-minute version of Canfield Roots, a documentary showcasing the once-forgotten Street Cemetery that is the final resting place of various freedom seekers who settled in Canfield, Bachiu has “a new short with a name that you can’t put in a family newspaper!”
This short documentary “depicts a Friday night with a local guy who is obsessed with pizza,” teased Bachiu, adding, “Obviously, on one hand, it’s kind of funny and definitely entertaining. There’s always an element of voyeurism when we depict peoples’ lives in documentary films, especially if they’re quirky types…. But my goal is always to bring the dignity in while also not ignoring what’s going on in front of the lens.”
He admits that many of the shorts he produces are done quickly as he doesn’t “really like to screw around”, so he has his camera with him at all times to be proactive and shoot whenever the opportunity arises for one of his “dozens of ideas or projects.”
With this in mind, Bachiu warns: “Interesting people who come into my orbit should be aware that I’ll want to make a short film about them. If they’re really interesting, it’ll be a longer film. That’s basically it; these folks were wonderful, interesting people.”
For this film, having found his subjects, he kept the crew small to work within a confined space.
“Basically (we) just rolled throughout the night,” he explained. “Derrick and Dawn, the subjects of the film, asked me to shoot certain things and I suggested other things; it was a fairly collaborative process. And we ate pizza.”
Bachiu values Watch Local Week for the chance to do in-person screenings of his projects for a local audience, who he hopes will “give me some feedback and enjoy it and relate, in some way, to the subjects on screen.”
While Bachiu is feeling “pretty good about the finished product”, he is waiting with bated breath to see what the audience has to say: “They’re the ones who matter!”
He encourages residents to check out the various events at Watch Local Week to see the breadth of films.
“The other submissions are great! There’s a fair amount of variety in them and I’m always impressed to see what kinds of creative film production happens in Haldimand and Norfolk,” he concluded. “It’s wonderful to see the variety and I think that speaks well of the talent in our community.”
Watch Local Week runs April 16-22. The events include an opening Meet the Filmmakers live stream on April 16, screenings at the Cayuga Library on April 19 for short films and April 20 for a feature film, along with a brand-new 24-hour Youth Film Challenge. See the full list of events and more details at bit.ly/2023WLW.
