Camden International Film Festival 2019
-
“If You Have Racist Beliefs, They Want You to Say So at Dinner”: Yaara Sumeruk on Her Doc Short, If We Say That We Are Friends
Making its world premiere at the recently concluded Camden International Film Festival was New York-based, Argentinian/South African director Yaara Sumeruk’s short doc, If We Say That We Are Friends, which, in a taut 17 minutes, sits the viewer down into the midst of a warmly unusual conversation on race taking place across dinner tables in the Cape Town South African township Khayelitsha. The organizers of Dine with Khayelitsha arrange for relatively well-off South Afrikaners from the city to hear first-hand about life in the townships by joining residents for dinners of African food in their homes. (Formed in 2015, the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2019 -
Avoiding Festivalitis: 2019 Camden International Film Festival and Points North Pitch
Every year, the Camden International Film Festival manages a nifty magic trick. Its ambition swells within the concise duration of what amounts to a holiday weekend (if the second Friday of September was deemed, say, National Non-Fiction Day), with the same handful of venues, including two opera houses and a gorgeous vintage bijou, in three adjacent towns in northern seaside Maine. Marking its 15th year this September, CIFF–produced under the umbrella of the Points North Institute – consistently ups the stakes for filmmakers and audiences, without suffering from the dreaded festivalitis: the condition that arises when film festivals become all […]
by Steve Dollar on Sep 27, 2019 -
“Opening Up a Space Where the Questioning of Power is Normalized Instead of Invisibilized”: Discussing the 2019 Camden International Festival
“Who is this film made for, in what way is power present, how does the film understand its relationship to its subjects, and who benefits from the film being made?” That’s Samara Chadwick, Senior Programmer at the Camden International Film Festival, on this 2019 edition’s theme of “Story and Power.” But if you’re attending the festival, don’t look for this theme to be a didactic one, she says. “It’s less a series of affirmations and arrival points and more about the process of questioning — opening up a space where the questioning of power is normalized instead of invisibilized.” The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 12, 2019 -
Points North Institute Announces 2019 Forum and Artist Programs at Camden International Film Festival
Having already revealed the Foucauldian dynamic that will run through this year’s Camden International Film Festival — a focus on “story and power” — the festival’s parent organization Points North Institute unveiled today the forum and artist programs that will take place over the event’s mid-September weekend. The annual Points North Forum will ask “critical questions about how the documentary film and media community reflects existing power structures, including questions of racial equity, access, funding, and which stories are being told, how, for whom, and by whom,” according to the press release. Other highlights and programs include masterclasses by Apollo […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 29, 2019 -
With a Focus on “Story and Power,” Camden International Film Festival Announces Its 2019 Program
The Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) announced today the 38 features, 51 short films, and 17 virtual reality and immersive experiences that comprise its 15th edition, taking place September 12-15, 2019 throughout Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine. “Story and Power” is the theme of sorts for this year’s festival, which aims to prompt industry-wide conversations that examine “the ways in which power structures deeply embedded in society have continued to shape the documentary field, including which stories are told, by whom and for whom.” “Our 2019 slate celebrates documentary as a reimagining of the ways we engage with stories from […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 19, 2019
