Here is the schedule and film descriptions for our 7th annual MIFF By-the-Sea Film Festival, coming up September 18 - 21, featuring films from across the state of Maine and across the globe. We are looking forward to welcoming several filmmakers to Bar Harbor over this film-packed weekend, and screening 16 different programs (each, save two (a music video workshop and ImproVision), shows twice) over the four days of the festival. If you'd like to hobnob with our honored guests and sponsors, we encourage you to join us for our Friday afternoon opening catered celebration, featuring delicious hors d'oeuvres from Sassafrass Catering, beverages from Atlantic Brewing and Sweet Pea winery, and musical accompaniment by one of the talented combos in MDI's High School Jazz program. Tickets for all events, including three choices of discount cards if you want to take in more than one or two films, will be on sale starting this weekend at our box office (not today, didn't get to it - on tomorrow's to-do list!) Enjoy looking this information over during the long holiday weekend. We have printed (green) flyers with basically this same information (not so detailed film descriptions) with the movie schedules out front of the theater and around the island in the usual places. Next Friday we will have the color brochures available. A tip - last year for the first time we had sell-out shows. So you may want to consider getting your tickets in advance if you really want to see something. You are the only people I have told this to. So use it to your advantage!
Looking forward to this! See you soon~
-Lisa
FRI 4:00 - 6:00 CATERED OPENING NIGHT CELEBRATION (tickets $15) Screen one 6:00 - 7:30 THE STRANGE EYES OF DR MYES (guest) 7:45 - 9:00 THE LIVING GREEN (guest) 9:15 - 10:45 IN THE CROSSWIND
Screen two 6:15 - 7:45 COME TO MY VOICE 8:15 - 10:10 THE CONGRESSMAN (guest) 11:00 - 12:25 IMPROVISION
SAT Screen one 2:00 - 3:15 THE LIVING GREEN (guest) 3:30 - 5:00 THE EPIC OF EVEREST 5:15 - 7:05 ASTRAEA 7:30 - 8:50 HANCOCK COUNTY SHORTS (guests) 9:15 - 10:45 THE STRANGE EYES OF DR MYES (guest) Screen two 2:00 - 3:30 AFTER WINTER, SPRING 3:45 - 5:20 QUEBEKOISIE 5:30 - 7:00 IN THE CROSSWIND 7:15 - 8:35 ANGKOR'S CHILDREN (guest) 9:00 - 10:35 THE HUNGRY YEARS SUN Screen one 2:00 - 3:20 ANGKOR'S CHILDREN (guest) 3:30 - 4:50 HANCOCK COUNTY SHORTS (guests) 5:15 - 6:45 AFTER WINTER, SPRING 7:00 - 8:35 THE HUNGRY YEARS 8:45 - 10:15 THE EPIC OF EVEREST
Screen two 1:00 - 2:00 YOU ARE LOVED (guests) 2:30 - 4:10 THEEB 4:30 - 6:05 CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC 6:15 - 8:10 THE CONGRESSMAN (guest?) 8:30 - 10:05 QUEBEKOISIE MON Screen one 5:30 - 7:05 CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC 7:30 - 9:20 ASTRAEA Screen two 6:00 - 7:30 COME TO MY VOICE 7:45 - 9:25 THEEB 10:00 - ? CLOSING PARTY AT LOMPOC CAFE*= guest speaker
DOCUMENTARIES:
AFTER WINTER, SPRING France/USA 2014 74min [partly in French with subtitles] Sat 2:00; Sun 5:15 trailer
In the Périgord region of southwestern France, a rural community grapples with a profound question: will they be the last generation of family farmers in a region continuously cultivated for over five thousand years? After Winter, Spring is an intimate study of these French farmers as they struggle with that issue. Shot over three years, the film captures the daily lives of Nanou, Guy, and others with deep roots in the Périgord. At their kitchen tables and in their fields, these family farmers communicate a profound attachment to the land. But the film's characters also share their day-to-day challenges and their fears that small-scale operations such as theirs may be no match for the multitude of 21st-century threats. A gorgeous, pastoral film by their American-born neighbor, director Judith Lit, whose sympathetic and simpatico touch makes After Winter, Spring an unforgettable, moving, thought-provoking, and lovely experience. Sponsored by Sweet Pea's Farm Winery
*ANGKOR'S CHILDREN Cambodia/USA 2014 66min [partly in Khmer with subtitles] Sat 7:15; Sun 2:00 trailer
In a country ravaged by the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed over two million people during its four-year reign in the 1970s, Cambodia's wounds are still fresh. But what of the generation that was born after the genocide? In a land where half the population is under twenty years old, how can they rebuild the spirit of the nation to "not just a country of tears, but a country of dreams," to quote one of this film's subjects. Angkor's Children tells three stories of young women hoping to heal through the arts: Phunam, a "vagabond child" who now goes to Phare Ponleau Selpak, a school founded to help children express the trauma of war, where she studies circus arts and performs as an acrobat; Sreypov, a performer of smot (an ancient form of Buddhist poetry sung at funerals), who travels and teaches internationally with the organization Cambodian Living Arts; and the women of the Messenger Band, an all-female pop group that performs protest songs for the downtrodden and disenfranchised. Through injuries, hardships both personal and political, and the horrors of the past, these young women and their mentors emerge as beacons of a brighter future. Central Maine part-time resident and MIFF veteran Lauren Shaw (Maine Women Living on the Land) has made an inspiring film on art's capacity to revitalize both individuals and communities. Sponsored by Morning Glory Bakery
CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC Switzerland/USA 2015 94min [partly in Inupiaq with subtitles] Sun 4:30; Mon 5:30 trailer
Children of the Arctic is a year-in-the-life portrait of five Native Alaskan teenagers coming of age in Barrow, Alaska—the northern-most community of the United States. As they embark on their journey into adulthood in and outside of Barrow, they wrestle with their roles as inheritors of a culture. Their decisions are tied to the fate of their community. Who will carry the Iñupiat torch? Who will choose a more individualistic path? And what hangs in the balance? For the Iñupiat teenagers of Barrow, growing up has become a little more complicated than it was for their ancestors who originally named this place "Ukpiaġvik" ("a place to hunt snowy owls"). They are the 21st-century descendants of a culture that has endured for more than a millennium on this isolated, but now rapidly changing, tundra. The trappings of western civilization betray a fusion of cultures that can appear seamless. When a polar bear wanders toward town nowadays, the community is alerted via Facebook. Yet their centuries-old hunting culture is still alive and well. The harvest of the endangered aġviq (bowhead whale) remains at the heart of Iñupiat culture—in the fall, motor boats are used; in the spring, whaling crews use the umiaq, a handmade seal-skin boat. But under the weight of societal and environmental pressures, these promising teenagers find it challenging to sustain the adaptability that has long defined their people in one of the most inhospitable places on earth. This is an engaging and very human story from the makers of past MIFF favorite Darwin. Sponsored by Acadia Weekly.
THE EPIC OF EVEREST UK 1924 87min [Silent with English intertitles] Sat 3:30; Sun 8:45 trailer
A remarkable film record of the legendary Everest expedition of 1924, newly restored by the British Film Institute National Archive. The third attempt to climb Everest culminated in the deaths of two of the finest climbers of their generation, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, and sparked an ongoing debate over whether or not they did indeed reach the summit. Filming in brutally harsh conditions, Captain John Noel captured images of breathtaking beauty and considerable historic significance, including the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet. But what resonates so deeply is Noel's ability to frame the vulnerability, isolation and courage of people persevering in one of the world's harshest landscapes. The restoration has transformed the quality of the surviving elements of the film and reintroduced the original colored tints and tones. The original silent film is brought to life as never before by a haunting new soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner. Revealed by the restoration, few images in cinema are as epic—or moving—as the final shots of a blood-red sunset over the Himalayas. Sponsored by Reel Pizza Cinerama
THE HUNGRY YEARS USA 2015 78min Sat 9:00, Sun 7:00 trailer
The Hungry Years follows a talented but homeless young Portland musician over the course of two years as he struggles against all odds to pursue his dream of rock stardom. The film begins as we're introduced to Joel Carpenter, 21, forming his new band with members he's recently met on Craigslist. Soon he is asked to leave the comfort of his grandmother's house, where he has been staying off-and-on since being kicked out of his mother's house, and his journey into homelessness begins. His girlfriend describes this as Joel's "nomadic lifestyle." Joel lives between his van, his "office" (the band's rehearsal space), and various friends' and relatives' couches. Unable to hold a job for very long, he is soon broke and visiting local food banks to feed himself. All the while, he writes songs and performs with his band, The Effects, in bars and outdoor festivals around Maine. We follow Joel and his band's successes and failures until tensions break the band apart. Joel is then faced with picking up the pieces and coming to terms with where his decisions have led him. Maine-based director Mike Boucher has made a remarkably truthful and insightful film that truly captures a young musician's aspirations, frustrations, and inspirations. Sponsored by The Trailhead Café.
QUÉBÉKOISIE Canada 2014 80min [in French and Indigenous languages with subtitles] Sat 3:45; Sun 8:30 trailer
Thirtysomething filmmakers Mélanie Carrier and Olivier Higgins travel by bike on Route 138 from Québec City to Natashquan on the province's North Shore in search of stories of the region's indigenous peoples and communities along the way. Why, they ask, are so many Québécois ignorant to the plight of First Nations peoples, even though studies show that more than half have at least one Aboriginal ancestor? Québékoisie explores the strength of prejudice, its persistence, and how it can be overcome. Over the course of this lively yet penetrating journey, Québékoisie investigates many forms of identity—French-Canadian, Aboriginal, Québécois, French, and North American—through stories both intense (the heart-wrenching story of the sister of Corporal Marcel Lemay, who was killed during the 1990 Oka crisis yet comes to both forgive and sympathize with the Oka protesters) and light (the story of an Innu man searching for his ancestors in Normandy). Sponsored by The Abbe Museum.
FEATURES:
ASTRAEA USA 2015 93min Sat 5:15; Sun 7:30 Co-Winner of the MIFF 2015 Audience Award (tie) trailer
When an epidemic nearly wipes out the human race, a telepathic teenage girl named Astraea has visions of survivors living in New Brunswick. She leads her doubting brother on a 5000-mile journey through a silent and abandoned America into the snowbound wilderness, hoping to rebuild life as she knew it. As they head north, her clairvoyance intensifies and they encounter a wary young couple, homesteading on a remote lake in Western Maine. The grief and complexity—as well as the excitement and comfort—of encountering other normal humans pits itself against Astraea's desire to keep moving and find her family. This post-apocalyptic film, spectacularly shot in wintry Maine landscapes, uses sensitivity and intellect rather than special effects to show not what humanity is running from, but what we're running towards. Sponsored by Cafe This Way.
COME TO MY VOICE France/Turkey/Germany 2014 90min [in Turkish & Kurdish with subtitles] Fri 6:15; Mon 6:00 Co-Winner of the MIFF 2015 Audience Award (tie) trailer
"A Kurdish girl and her grandmother are placed in the Kafkaesque situation of needing to find nonexistent guns in order to free the girl's father from a Turkish prison in Come to My Voice, a beautifully crafted drama that makes full use of the stunning landscape near Lake Van, in southeastern Turkey, and whose traditional storytelling movingly conveys a sense of a community burdened by loss. A Kurdish village gathers around a bard to hear the narrative that becomes the film. Just as Berfe is telling her young granddaughter, Jiyan, the story of a fox that lost its tail, the Turkish army raids their rustic village, demanding weapons that a spiteful informer claims are hidden in peoples' homes….The community, already depleted and worn down by oppression, is stymied since there are no weapons. Jiyan collects her friends' plastic water guns, hoping that might help. Berfe digs up an old rifle that belonged to her father and the two trek over to the barracks, hoping they can exchange the gun for Temo, the girl's father, but no luck: The captain humiliates the elderly woman, telling her to bring him a real weapon. Bowed but not broken, the resourceful Berfe investigates other options… Stripped to its essence, the scenario has the elemental quality of a modern legend….Contrasting with this sense of anxiety and mistrust is the awe-inspiring panorama, whose majestic peaks and verdant fields just free of snow act as a soothing reminder of something greater than politics and ethnic strife…..Traditional Kurdish music thematically elides with the idea of a folk tale and adds aural pleasures to the visual riches."—Jay Weissberg, Variety. Sponsored by Fiore Artisan Olive Oils and Vinegars
*THE CONGRESSMAN A Work-in-Progress Screening USA 2015 98min Fri 8:15; Sun 6:15 trailer
Shot on Monhegan Island and with the State House in Augusta doubling for the U.S. Capitol building, The Congressman is a film that understands politics all too well—its creator, director/writer Robert Mrazek is a five-term New York congressman who now lives on Monhegan himself!—but which understands Maine and the real people whom politics effects even better. Treat Williams (Hair, Prince of the City) headlines a stellar cast as Maine Congressman Charlie Winship, who's having a bad day. After being caught on video failing to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance, he knocks out another House member, confronts his angry ex-wife, and faces denunciation by the media for attacking one of the most cherished patriotic symbols in America. As his life spirals out of control, Charlie embarks on a journey to the remote Maine island whose eccentric inhabitants are in the middle of a shooting war in defense of their fishing grounds. Here is a home-grown yet world-class, humorous and moving film that raises the important question of what it means to be an American. Sponsored by Crooked Porch Coffee.
IN THE CROSSWIND Estonia 2014 87min [in Estonian with subtitles] Fri 9:15; Sat 5:30 trailer
*THE STRANGE EYES OF DR. MYES USA 2015 76min Fri 6:00; Sat 9:15 trailer
MIFF regular and Maine star filmmaker/animator Nancy Andrews returns to the festival with the local premiere of her first feature film! A hybrid of animation, found footage, songs, dance, and live-action narrative follows the research of Dr. Sheri Myes and her revolutionary attempts to expand human consciousness. Myes attempts to create medical/scientific treatments and body augmentations that elevate an individual's consciousness by enhancing their senses to go beyond the normal human range of vision, hearing, smell and touch. Hers is a plan to change the world as we know it, to make available to humankind a sea of experience and understanding as yet unimaginable. It is a classic gothic horror, mad scientist movie, but with elements of musical, animation and experimental cinema. Sponsored by The Trailhead Café.
THEEB Jordan/Qatar/United Arab Emirates/UK 2014 100min [in Arabic with subtitles] Sun 2:30; Mon 7:45 trailer
"A classic adventure film of the best kind, and one that's rarely seen these days."—Jay Weissberg, Variety. Always a treacherous environment, the Arabian desert becomes even more life-threatening during World War I, the Bedouin homeland now a battleground. Theeb, whose name means "wolf," lives with his older brother, Hussein, following the death of their father, the sheik of their tight-knit community. Their lives are interrupted by the arrival of a British Army Officer and his guide. Bound by custom to offer the visitors refuge, Hussein agrees to guide them to a water well along a pilgrimage route to Mecca. Afraid of losing his brother, Theeb chases after Hussein, embarking on a journey across the harsh terrain for which he is ill-prepared. If Theeb is to survive, he must quickly learn the realities of trust, betrayal and courage, and live up to the name his father gave him. Theeb is a real discovery, a remarkable first film with the sweep of an epic and the intimacy of a story told from the point of view of those who are the "other" in most screen depictions. Sponsored by Bar Harbor Savings and Loan.
*YOU ARE LOVED /PUT YOUR STORY TO MUSIC USA 2015 3+min Sun 1:00 FREE
Working with collaborators from Carly Simon to Natalie MacMaster, Academy Award winner Ernest Thompson has written most of the songs for his recent theatre productions and two newest movies, Time and Charges and Heavenly Angle, which played at MIFF in 2013 and 2014 respectively. At this free screening and the free discussion following, Ernest explores how to use music to enhance the emotion in a film, whether it's 100 minutes long or, in the case of this World-Premiere video, three. "You Are Loved," composed and performed by Maine's amazing Justin Jaymes, takes a simple love song Ernest wrote for his wife and turns it into a cause. "Anyone can say, 'I love you,' unless you grew up in my family, but saying 'you are loved' means that no matter what, through success and joy and their opposites, 'I've got your back'." Shooting (on his iPhone) in Bar Harbor during last year's MIFF By-the-Sea, Ernest, in his community approach to filmmaking, invited the whole town to come out and make air hearts, the sudden, international symbol for "You Are Loved." Capturing additional footage in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and LA, Ernest lets the irrepressible spirit of the song set the tone. If you're a filmmaker working on finding that perfect soundtrack or an audience member in love with both the movies and music, come sing along. Or maybe you will see yourself on the big screen.
SPECIAL MIFF By-the-Sea Programming
*HANCOCK COUNTY SHORT FILMS An Exclusive Presentation of MIFF By-the-Sea All films were made in, by, or about people in Hancock County. 62min Sat 7:30; Sun 3:30
The Baker, Agnes Director Navi Whitten 9min
This is a short documentary for and about Agnes, who has been baking since 1972. It was made in the last two weeks before she closed her shop.
Diving Blindfolded Director Amelia Forman-Stiles 8min
An elegiac work about transformation with narrative taken from the artist's journal and blog entries written during her separation and divorce.
Don't Sleep on Stockholm Director Colin Capers 7min
A music video for imaginary music.
Glucklich Director Katja Fluekiger 13min
Animation built on interviews in which people discuss times in their lives when they were happiest.
Life Director Tom Strehan 5min
An associative video using found footage to reflect on its titular theme.
Outrunning Parkinson's Director Peter Logue 12min
A documentary of Great Cranberry Island resident Michael Westphal's battle with Parkinson's disease.
The Volunteer Dragonslayer Director Steven Bernard 17min
Seventy-one percent of the nation's firefighters are unpaid volunteers. The first in an anticipated series, this is the story of the volunteer fire department of Winter Harbor, Maine -- who they are, what they do, and most importantly, why they do it.
You Will Hate Love This Director Gabriela Niejadlik 3min
Originally part of a multi-media installation on representations of femininity; an odyssey of childhood tribulations.
*JENS JENSEN: THE LIVING GREEN USA 2013 54min Fri 7:45; Sat 2:00 trailer
Jens Jensen The Living Green profiles the unsung pioneering landscape architect who became one of America's most influential urban designers and early conservationists, shaping the Midwest's physical and cultural landscape in an enduring way. Danish born Jensen rose from immigrant street sweeper in the 1880's to "dean of American landscape architects," as The New York Times called him upon his death in 1951. When Jensen arrived in Chicago in 1885, it was one of the fastest growing cities in human history, and one of the least livable, especially for the working poor. Inspired by the Midwest prairie and plains, Jensen believed that urban dwellers needed the beauty of nature in their lives and "green space to survive", and he found creative ways to bring it to them. Jensen revered the region's indigenous scenery and native plants, creating the "Prairie style" of landscape architecture, and leading a movement to conserve threatened natural areas. He created Columbus Park on the western edge of Chicago, now a national historic landmark, as well as over 600 parks and gardens throughout the Midwest and other regions, including at Seal Harbor's Skylands, now owned by Martha Stewart. As a devout conservationist, Jensen led opposition to Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan's industrialization of the Indiana shoreline, a battle that lasted 50 years before becoming the Indiana Dunes National Park. Jens Jensen The Living Green is illustrated with archival footage, photos and interviews, including with Jensen himself, that trace his remarkable rise, career, and lasting influence as a man ahead of his time. Half a century after his death, Jensen is now hailed as a pioneer of sustainable design, an early champion of native species, and an unsung American hero. Sponsored by the Beatrix Farrand Society.
IMPROVISION ~85min Fri 11:00
Check out our wacky collaboration with the talented ImprovAcadia crew! With the sound turned off, this ever-changing group of up and coming comedians improvises the dialogue, music tracks, and sound effects to a cheesy, grade-B movie that they have never seen before! Their talents make the pictures on the screen way funnier than they were ever anticipated. Its a totally new show every time. Don't miss out on all the fun.
