Each year, the Points North Institute magnetizes the fog-kissed landscape of coastal Maine to lure the best and brightest of the non-fiction universe to the towns of Camden, Rockport and Rockland. The Camden International Film Festival offers an immersive overlay of screenings, panels, workshops, virtual reality installations, parties and intensive personal encounters that elevate the proceedings far above the standard festival formula of films and frolic. Exhibit A: What other festival turns a pitch session into a kind of centerpiece presentation? Staged under the banner of the Points North Institute, the festival’s umbrella organization, the program invites a group of […]

When I arrived at CIFF in 2012, I was attending the Points North Forum Pitch, which runs concurrently with the festival and is the centerpiece of a weekend of panels and discussions. I came to Maine from Los Angeles, a first-time director who somehow couldn’t get the last four union days to join Local 728 and thus decided that shooting my own film would be a perfect antidote to hearing my buddies brag about the shows they worked on — shows that, finally, their friends had heard of. I perfectly remember the anxiety I felt when I arrived. Everyone knew each other, nobody stood […]

An opening night world premiere, more North American film premieres, an expanded Storyforms VR section, and the return of its popular Points North Forum are all notable elements of the 2017 Camden Film Festival, which runs today through September 17 across Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine. Hot on the heels of Toronto, CIFF is a growing festival that is luring more and more filmmakers as well as funders to take part in discussions about non-fiction in an enviably bucolic environment. “The line between industry and filmmakers is so blurry here,” says Ben Fowlie, Executive Director of the Points North Institute, […]

The Camden International Film Festival, which takes place September 14 – 17 throughout Camden, Rockport and Portland, Maine, announced its 2017 lineup today. Opening the festival is a world premiere, Dustin Nakao Haider’s basketball doc, Shot in the Dark, and the lineup also contains eight films, including The Reagan Show, All That Passes By Through A Window That Doesn’t Open and Whose Streets?, that received support from parent organization Points North Institute’s Artist Programs. “Screening at CIFF this year feels like a homecoming,” said Sabaah Folayan, Director of Whose Streets?, in a press release. “This community believed in our project […]

Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced the winners of the 2016 Festival, which ran from September 15-18 in Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine. For the second year, Conservation Media Group partnered with the Points North Institute to select projects from filmmakers and organizations alike that use video to create measurable action in ocean conservation or sustainable energy. 2016 CMG Action Grant finalists included: Alex Finn’s Whale Heritage Sites, Jeff Talbot’s Protect the Great Bear Sea, and Doug Woodring’s Global Alert – Floating Trash.  This year’s $10,000 CMG Action Grant cash prize was awarded to Whale Heritage Sites. The 2016 class of […]

Cinema Eye today announced the ten nonfiction short films that have been named as semi-finalists for the 2017 Cinema Eye Honor for Nonfiction Short Film. The announcement of the annual Cinema Eye “Shorts List” was made on the eve of the 2016 Camden International Film Festival (CIFF), a key festival partner and sponsor of the Cinema Eye Honors. For the third year in a row, all ten films will screen this weekend at CIFF on the coast of Maine. “In the past few years, the short form has been one of documentary’s most exciting modes to engage subjects and stories,” […]

I first met Caroline von Kuhn when she was working for Tribeca Film Festival, and we became fast friends. Eventually our friendship grew to include professional collaborations — I had a small role in her directorial debut, Like the Water; when she joined the team at Camden International Film Festival, I rushed to cover it for Paste; she produced a short documentary I directed about Albert Maysles; and we are in development on a major scripted feature. So when she told me that the Camden International Film Festival had big news to announce, I knew it was going to be […]

As the photo above indicates, Camden, Maine in the fall is a pretty idyllic place to get one’s head out of an urban edit room and gain perspective on one’s project. Apropos of that, the newly formed Points North Institute — a year-round organization that will produce the Camden International Film Festival as well as other events in Maine — has made its first major announcement: a new shortform editing residency. The week-long residency takes place during the Camden International Film Festival (September 15 – 18) and brings four selected filmmakers and/or journalists to Maine to work on their doc […]

The Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) is now accepting submissions for its Points North Fellowship, which provides grants bringing six teams of filmmakers to participate in the Points North Pitch at the Camden International Film Festival from September 15-18, 2016. For the first time in 2016, all selected Points North Fellows will receive a $2,000 cash grant sponsored by the Chicago Media Project and an individual donor. The six projects selected for the Points North Fellowship will receive two All Access passes to the festival, five nights of accommodations and a round-trip flight to Maine. The Fellowship takes place before, during and even […]