Camden International Film Festival
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The Trees are Calling: The Films and Pitches of Camden International Film Festival 2018
Most film festivals can claim a thing or two: A dramatic location, a slate of coveted premieres, fancy fetes, unique guests, a platoon of industry heavies making the rounds, and, for better or worse, the media spotlight. I’ve never attended any film festival where I had the chance to wrap my arms around a tree–in a public park, no less, and in full view of pedestrians–and plant my ear firmly to its bark, as one of its official selections. And yet, there I was, in Camden, Maine, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, tree-hugging away. The four selected trees on the […]
by Steve Dollar on Sep 24, 2018 -
Camden International Film Festival Announces 2018 Festival Slate and Storyforms VR Lineup
The Camden International Film Festival announced today its 2018 lineup, which includes 37 features, 43 short films, one episodic series and 20 virtual reality and immersive experiences from over 30 countries. Included among the features are three world premieres: Young Men and Fire, by Kahil Hudson and Alex Jablonski (a latter one of our 25 New Faces); Lana Wilson’s series, The Cure for Fear; and Jane Gillooly’s Where the Pavement Ends. The Opening Night film is Morgan Neville’s Orson Welles doc, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead. Significantly, the festival is reporting that there’s gender parity across all sections, with […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 24, 2018 -
“A Straight Shot into the Vein”: Pitching Documentaries at Points North Pitch at the Camden International Film Festival 2017
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 […]
by Steve Dollar on Oct 6, 2017 -
Finding Communion at the 2017 Camden International Film Festival
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 […]
by Martin DiCicco on Sep 21, 2017 -
“The Line Between Industry and Filmmakers is So Blurry Here”: Previewing the 2017 Camden International Film Festival and Points North Forum
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, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 14, 2017 -
Camden International Film Festival Announces 2017 Slate and Expanded VR Section
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 […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 22, 2017 -
Festival Beat: Toronto, Camden and Fantastic Fest
Toronto International Film Festival By Scott Macaulay Following 2013’s The Flag, Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker returned to the Toronto International Film Festival this year with an entirely different meditation on national identity, Karl Marx City. Here Epperlein, who emigrated to the States following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, travels back to her East German homeland, attempting to uncover the reason for her father’s suicide in 1999. Evidence he may have been a Stasi informant deepens the urgency of her journey, with a visit to Stasi archives revealing thousands of hours of footage, somewhere in which may be the clue […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 20, 2016 -
2016 Camden International Film Festival and Points North Winners Announced
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 […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 23, 2016 -
Cinema Eye Announces 2017 “Shorts List”
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,” […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 15, 2016 -
Inside the New Points North Institute for Nonfiction Storytellers
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 […]
by Michael Dunaway on Aug 8, 2016
