Kevin Hartford is a Canadian film director from Halifax, Nova Scotia, whose debut feature film Lemon Squeezy was released in 2022.[1]
Hartford began making short films in 2016,[2] with his film Breakout receiving a Screen Nova Scotia award nomination for Best Short Film in 2022.[3]
He made Lemon Squeezy, a comedy film about a gay teenager who fears he may have triggered the apocalypse when he turns to religion after being rejected for a date, as an independent microbudget film after having difficulty securing production funding.[4] The film debuted at the 2022 Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and had its Canadian premiere at the Atlantic Film Festival.[2] The film was a nominee for Best Picture at the 2023 Screen Nova Scotia Awards.[5]
He returned to the 2023 Atlantic International Film Festival with Slay, a short film which he says he made without ever actually realizing that the character's sexual orientation never actually comes up in dialogue. According to Hartford, "hopefully, this is a sign that we’ve advanced enough as a society that even I, as a gay filmmaker, very intentionally making a gay short, unwittingly considered the character’s orientation so irrelevant to just telling a good story that I neglected even to bring it up onscreen."[6]
His second feature film, To the Moon, is slated to premiere at the 2024 Atlantic International Film Festival.
Filmography
edit- Charlie's P.O.C. - 2016
- Wait for Rescue - 2016
- I Love You More - 2017
- Dorothy - 2018
- My Mother's Armenian Christmas Bread Recipe - 2018
- You Too, Chuckles - 2019
- Le Balcon - 2020
- Disco Apocalypse - 2020
- Breakout - 2021
- The Dog Owner - 2021
- Lemon Squeezy - 2022
- There's a Giant Baby on the Roof - 2022
- Slay - 2023
- To the Moon - 2024
References
edit- ^ Morgan Mullin, "FIN 2022: When life gave director Kevin Hartford lemons, he made Lemon Squeezy". The Coast, September 17, 2022.
- ^ a b Jordan Parker, "Haligonian’s absurdist comedy closes FIN". CityNews, September 21, 2022.
- ^ Kelly Townsend, "Night Blooms leads nominations for Screen Nova Scotia Awards". Playback, May 19, 2022.
- ^ Morgan Mullin, "These indie filmmakers are changing the face of film in Halifax". CBC Arts, September 21, 2022.
- ^ Ahmed Dirie, "Bystanders leads nominations for Screen Nova Scotia Awards". Playback, April 12, 2023.
- ^ Mark Robins, "In search of a new BFF in Kevin Hartford’s Slay". Halifax Presents, September 8, 2023.