Filmshift Festival

The festival "is dedicated to creating positive social change in local communities by supporting the art of film, filmmakers themselves and small businesses of all kinds," writes Hammel in Filmshift's mission statement. "Strong, vital and diverse local communities are essential to both our country's and our global community's prosperity. Economic, environmental and artistic progress for our planet must start locally and be built from the ground up.

"Many independent productions already use small businesses and vendors to create their films, and the Filmshift Festival is a tool to highlight their success. (It) is an event primed for the times, a cutting-edge common ground for art, entertainment and business to come together to create positive social change for all."

The lineup features the Boston-area premiere of Hammel's film "Legacy."It  recently won the Best Comic Related Film at the Comic Con International Independent Film Festival in San Diego.

Other festival films include "Split Estate," a documentary about the effects of natural gas drilling by large corporations on communities in the western United States; "Artistic License," a comedy starring the Emmy Award-winning David Lago about a man who tries to maintain his artistic integrity while working at a California motor vehicles registry; and "Speaking In Code," a locally made documentary about a married couple's mission to create a techno-music scene in Boston.