MSF Film Festival

About the Festival

In conjunction with the Maine Social Forum, a film festival will also take place at the Lewiston Marsden Hartley Cultural Center.  This event will be centered on the  Forum’s theme, “Another Maine is Possible.”  Historically, social forums are well-attended events, and we hope that this film festival will be as much a space for viewing as well as discussion.

Film Festival Schedule

The MSF Film Festival Committee is excited to announce the schedule for the Maine Social Forum Film Festival. All of the selected films are by Maine filmmakers and cover a great range of important issues such as free trade, consensus building, factory farms, discrimination, genetic engineering, and more! Many of the filmmakers will be present to discuss each film’s content or the filmmaking process.

At 2:00 pm on Saturday, there will be a special presentation of The Future of Food with visiting director Deborah Koons Garcia to answer questions.

FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP

FILM DESCRIPTIONS

(In Order of Presentation)

Black Fly Remedies – Directed by Lew-Ann Leen
Some people joke that the Black Fly is the Maine state bird. How can this tiny little black insect hold the whole state hostage in May? This short and charming documentary was shot in Lincoln, Maine with good ole country people talking about a bad ole country problem.

Departure – Directed by Kelly Bellis
Departure is a short poetic piece that presents viewers with a visual representation of how many American lives have been lost in the Iraq War.

Free Trade At What Cost? – Directed by Hannah Semler, Daphne Loring, Elsie Flemings
This documentary, produced by students from the College of the Atlantic, studies Maine’s involvement in the international dialogue on trade negotiations. The video documents different levels of understanding on how Free Trade Agreements affect Maine and the world as they are currently being crafted.

Death Before Slavery – Directed by Victor Damian
This film brings to life, in vivid focus, the current situation in Bolivia, with the rising indigenous opposition to foreign corporations that exploit resources and leave the local populations chronically impoverished.

Growing Together – Directed by Melissa Paly
Growing Together explores a new approach to making land use decisions that is based on consensus building rather than conflict. Through the work of people in four communities throughout New England, we see how difficult issues about community change can be approached collaboratively to create growth that strengthens, rather than divides, communities.

Fowl Play – Directed by Currier Stokes, Sam Haaz, and Nathan Dorpalen
Fowl Play explores the gruesome yet sadly legal conditions in which many eggs are produced… in factory farms. The film focuses on a particular factory farm in Turner, ME and also compares this style of egg farming to the kinder method of free-range farming.

Maine Video Activists Network – Directed by Craig Saddlemire
This segment from episode 4 of the Maine Video Activists Network tells the story of how students at Bates College brought the issue of discrimination to the forefront of the campus dialogue through numerous direct action events.

Trap - Directed by Nicolle Littrell
Set in the backwoods of 1920’s Maine, Trap follows “Anna” as she tries to break free from the physical and emotional confines of marriage to her husband, the “Trapper.” Trap explores themes of the relationship between creativity and marriage, co-dependency and love, fantasy vs. reality.

Iraq War Cloth – Directed by Patricia Wheeler
This video documents the occupation of representative Tom Allen’s Portland office on March 18, 2005 for 5 hours by concerned Maine citizens protesting the Iraq War on grounds that is illegal and immoral. During those 5 hours the names of all the US soldiers killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war and occupation of that country were read with an equal number of Iraqi civilians killed during the same period.

Million Dollar Bigot – Directed by Mike Reynolds
This documentary explores the mainstream perception of the lives of people with disabilities, as they are portrayed in the film Million Dollar Baby. Through footage of panel discussions, interviews, and presentations, the film challenges the myth that the life of a disabled person is not worth living.

Olive Pierce: Maine Master – Directed by Richard Kane and Robert Shetterly
This documentary-portrait is one in the on-going series of the Maine Master’s Project, documentaries of Maine artists interviewed in their studios discussing their lives and work. This film introduces viewers to Olive Pierce, an artist whose photographs document the spirit of community whether she finds it in high school kids, or among Maine fishing families, or with children in Iraq. She never sensationalizes. Instead, Olive Pierce seeks to portray the intersection of the dual mysteries of individuality and collective spirit, to make visible the fabric of community. Directed by Richard Kane and Robert Shetterly.

The Future of Food – Directed by Deborah Koons Garcia
Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today. The SPECIAL PRESENTATION of this film includes a Q&A with out-of-state guest director Deborah Koons Garcia.

For questions about the Maine Social Forum Film Festival write to Craig at Roundpoint Movies