Our Mission
The Hamilton Black Film Festival is an annual film festival that showcases cultural and traditional films of African/Caribbean, Native, Asian, Middle Eastern filmmakers and other films of ethnic inclusion. The Hamilton Black Film festival will give people from different parts of the world and ethnic backgrounds an accessible platform to showcase films that are made by and with visible ethnic minorities, demonstrating that Hamilton welcomes all people.
Our festival is distinct from other festivals because its primary purpose is to explicitly welcome ethnic minorities, nurturing their creative aspirations, providing support and resources to them such as training and mentorship on producing, directing, writing, and other film-related resources.
Our goal is to give everyone equal opportunity and motivate people in this field to continue doing what they do.
– HAMILTON BLACK FILM FESTIVAL
The Lincoln Alexander Centre
The Lincoln Alexander Centre is an event space venue in the heart of downtown Hamilton. The LAC is named after the Honorable Lincoln MacCauley Alexander 24th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and a beloved Hamiltonian. The LAC is surrounded by restaurants, hotels, shopping and convenient parking. Inside the LAC we offer a beautiful soft seated theatre seating 360 with excellent visuals and sound. A stunning Ballroom with modern finishes and fixtures suitable for a variety of events, and smaller meeting rooms with full food and beverage services.
Hamilton Black Film Festival is an opportunity for all aspiring or established Filmmakers & Cinematographers across the world, to showcase their work in front of a large audience.
The Westdale Community
The Westdale Theatre has been an important part of Westdale (Canada’s first planned neighbourhood) since it opened in 1935. It was the first theatre in Hamilton built expressly to show sound motion pictures. The theatre remained in operation until it was put up for sale in December of 2016. The newly incorporated Westdale Cinema Group (WCG) submitted an offer to purchase the building that was accepted on January 27, 2017.
The full purchase and restoration budget was raised in Hamilton, by Hamiltonians, both residents and the City of Hamilton. After over 18 months of restoration and modernization of services (washrooms, wheelchair access, heating and air conditioning, etc.), the theatre reopened its doors on February 14th, 2019 as a cultural hub showcasing films, talks, music, performance and special events.
Our Story
The City Of Hamilton
The city of Hamilton is a vibrant city full of warm-hearted people, as an artist I find the city fascinating in many ways, the upper and lower Hamilton gives the impression of living in two cities. There are many great artists in Hamilton more than anyone can tell, the most amazing thing about them is that they do it for the love of art.
Our Team
Our Team is made up of dedicated people who work around the clock to make sure our dream of fostering unity through the annual film festival comes to reality. We are all from different background and we do believe that the core of culture is courtesy.
New Generation
Hamilton Black Film Festival’s main goal is to invest in our new generation of people of color to carry on the traditions of their ancestors by way of knowing much about their roots through films. Our Centre will nurture and teach them not only how to make films, but also how to conduct themselves in the film industry. The young generation is our pride who will take our present Barton to other generations.
Today we welcome a genuine artist to our board, Abdelhamid Mosbah. He is an experienced artist having worked in the Visual Arts trade for the last 30 years. He was born in Tunisia, North Africa, where he studied art and design. He also continued studying Arts in France, USA and Canada. Abdelhamid is one of the finest artist today.
Today we are thrill to introduce our new member, Mr. Green is a retired drama teacher and is currently an actor, singer/songwriter and producer of his own original music. He has served as a teacher for the Hamilton-Wentworth School Board in Hamilton, Ontario for 37 years. He initiated the Drama program at his high school and became the Assistant Head of the English department. teaching Drama and English in Canadian schools.
Mr. Green has won the Excellence in Education Award and in the past been nominated for the Reverend John C. Holland Award, and participated in presentation for the Ontario Black History Society and The Speakers Corner for Emancipation Celebration Picnic 2014.
Actors We Admire
Showcasing culture and traditional films from filmmakers of African/Caribbean, Native, Asian, and Middle Eastern descent.