By Mabel Pais

Featuring

• SHAUNAK SEN’S All That Breathes
• GEETA GANDBHIR & SAM POLLARD’S Lowndes County And The Road To Black Power
• NEHAL VYAS’S Dapaan
• SOHIL VAIDYA’S Murmurs Of The Jungle
• SHRUTIMAN DEORI’S My Courtyard (Ne Sotal)
• KAVITA PILLAI’s Weckuwapok (The Approaching Dawn)

The Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) for its 18th edition presents feature and short films and documentaries. The festival takes place in person from September 15-18 at venues in Camden and Rockland, Maine, and online from September 15-25 for audiences across North America.

A program of the Points North Institute, CIFF remains widely recognized as a major platform championing the next generation of nonfiction storytellers and one of the hottest documentary and industry festivals on the festival and awards calendars. This year’s edition is the most international and formally adventurous to date and includes 34 features and 37 short films from over 41 countries. Over 60% of the entire program is directed or co-directed by BIPOC filmmakers and this is the 6th consecutive program the festival has reached gender parity within the program and across all competitions. Nearly half of the feature program will be US or North American premieres, including several new titles fresh from Venice, Locarno, and TIFF premieres, alongside award-winning films from Sundance, Rotterdam, Cannes, and Visions du Reel.

This year’s program celebrates the diversity of voices and forms in documentary and cinematic nonfiction,” says Ben Fowlie, Executive and Artistic Director of the Points North Institute, and Founder of the Camden International Film Festival. “These films help us make sense of an ever-changing world, and do everything we expect from great art – they ask provocative questions and interrogate the form. This year’s program emphasizes the international that represents the ‘I’ in CIFF, and reminds us time and again of the limitless creative potential and potency of the documentary form. Just as we have been for each of the past seventeen years, we are grateful to the filmmakers who have made these works of art and shared these stories.”

CIFF 2022 FEATURES

5 DREAMERS AND THE HORSE

Dirs: Aren Malakyan & Vahagn Khachatryan | Armenia, Georgia, Germany |

US Premiere

A COMPASSIONATE SPY 

Dir: Steve James | USA, United Kingdom

AFTER SHERMAN

Dir: Jon-Sesrie Goff | USA

ALL OF OUR HEARTBEATS ARE CONNECTED THROUGH EXPLODING STARS

Dir: Jennifer Rainsford | US Premiere

ALL THAT BREATHES

Dir: Shaunak Sen | India, USA, UK

BURIAL

Dir: Emilija Škarnulytė | Lithuania, Norway | US Premiere

COWBOY POETS

Dir: Mike Day | UK, Scotland, US | World Premiere

CROWS ARE WHITE

Dir: Ahsen Nadeem | Japan, Ireland, USA

DAY AFTER…

Dir: Kamar Ahmad Simon | Bangladesh, France, Norway

DESCENDANT

Dir: Margaret Brown | USA

DETOURS

Dir: Ekaterina Selenkina | Russia, Netherlands | US Premiere

DOS ESTACIONES

Dir: Juan Pablo González | México, with France, USA

EAMI

Dir: Paz Encina | Paraguay, Argentina, Mexico, USA, Germany, France, The Netherlands | North American Premiere

FORAGERS

Dir: Jumana Manna | Palestine | North American Premiere

GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE

Dir: Jacquelyn Mills | Canada

Dir: Carlos Pardo Ros | Spain | North American Premiere

HERBARIA

Dir: Leandro Listorti | Argentina, Germany | North American Premiere

I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE

Dir: Reid Davenport | USA

IN HER HANDS

Dirs: Tamana Ayazi, Marcel Mettelsiefen | USA, Afghanistan | US Premiere

IT IS NIGHT IN AMERICA (É Noite na América)

Dir: Ana Vaz | Italy, Brazil, France | North American Premiere

LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER

Dirs: Geeta Gandbhir, Sam Pollard | USA

MATTER OUT OF PLACE

Dir: Nikolaus Geyrhalter | Austria | North American Premiere

MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY (Mi País Imaginario)

Dir: Patricio Gúzman | Chile, France | Sneak Preview

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER

Dir: Jason Kohn | USA

POLARIS

Dir: Ainara Vera | Greenland, France | North American Premiere

REWIND & PLAY

Alain Gomis | France, Germany

Dir: Chris Smith | USA

SUBJECT

Dir: Jennifer Tiexiera, Camilla Hall | USA

TERRANOVA

Dirs: Alejandro Alonso & Alejandro Pérez | Cuba | North American Premiere

THE AFTERLIGHT

Dir: Charlie Shackleton | UK

THE TERRITORY

Dir: Alex Pritz | Brazil, Denmark, USA

THIS MUCH WE KNOW

Dir: Lily Frances Henderson | USA | World Premiere

WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND (LO QUE DEJAMOS ATRÁS)

Dir: Iliana Sosa | USA, Mexico

CIFF 2022 SHORTS

ARALKUM

Dirs: Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko | Germany, Uzbekistan |

North American Premiere

THE ARK

Dir: Amira Louadah | Algeria, France | North American Premiere

THE ARTISTS

Dirs: Noah David Smith, Elizabeth L. Smith | USA | World Premiere

BELONGINGS

Dir: Alex Coppola | USA

BIGGER ON THE INSIDE

Dir: Angelo Madsen Minax | USA | Sneak Preview

BRAVE

Wilmarc Val | France | US Premiere

CALL ME JONATHAN

Dir: Bárbara Lago | Argentina | US Premiere

CONGRESS OF IDLING PERSONS

Dir: Bassem Saad | Lebanon, Germany

CONSTANT

Dir: Beny Wagner, Sasha Litvintseva | Germany, United Kingdom

DAPAAN

Dir: Nehal Vyas | USA

DEERFOOT OF THE DIAMOND 

Dir: Lance Edmands | USA | World Premiere

ECHOLOCATION

Dir: Nadia Shihab | USA

EVERYTHING WRONG AND NOWHERE TO GO

Dir: Sindha Agha | USA, United Kingdom | World Premiere

THE FAMILY STATEMENT

Dir: Grace Harper, Kate Stonehill | USA

FIRE IN THE SEA

Dir: Sebastián Zanzottera | Argentina | North American Premiere

THE FLAGMAKERS

Dirs: Cynthia Wade, Sharon Liese | USA | World Premiere

LA FRONTIÉRE (THE BORDER)

Dirs: Katy Haas, Megan Ruffe | USA, Canada | Sneak Preview

HANDBOOK

Dir: Pavel Mozhar | Germany, Belarus

IRANI BAG

Dir: Maryam Tafakory | Iran, Singapore, United Kingdom

LA FRONTIÉRE

Dirs: Katy Haas & Megan Ruffe | USA |  work in progress

LIFE WITHOUT DREAMS

Dir: Jessica Bardsley | USA, France

LUNGTA

Dir: Alexandra Cuesta | Mexico, Ecuador | North American Premiere

MASKS

Dir: Olivier Smolders | Belgium | North American Premiere

MOUNE 

Dir: Maxime Jean-Baptiste | Belgium, French Guiana, France

MURMURS OF THE JUNGLE

Dir: Sohil Vaidya | India

MY COURTYARD (NE SOTAL)

Dir: Shrutiman Deori | India | North American Premiere

NAZARBAZI

Dir: Maryam Tafakory | Iran

ONE SURVIVES BY HIDING

Dir: Esy Casey | USA, Philippines

PACAMAN

Dir: Dalissa Montes de Oca | Dominican Republic

PARADISO, XXXI, 108

Dir: Kamal Aljafari | Palestine, Germany | North American Premiere

SEASICK

Dir: João Vieira Torres | Brazil, France | North American Premiere

SOLASTALGIA

Dir: Violeta Mora | Cuba, Honduras | North American Premiere

SOMEBODY’S HERO

Dir: Morgan Myer | USA

THE SOWER OF STARS (EL SEMBRADOR DE ESTRELLAS)

Dir: Lois Patiño | Spain | US Premiere

SUBTOTALS

Dir: Mohammadreza Farzad | Poland, Germany, Iran | North American Premier

SWERVE

Dir: Lynne Sachs | USA

UNSINKABLE SHIP

Dir: Lamia Lazrak, Josie Colt | USA | North American Premier

WECKUWAPOK (THE APPROACHING DAWN)

Dirs: Jacob Bearchum, Taylor Hensel, Adam Mazo, Chris Newell, Roger Paul, Kavita Pillay, Tracy Rector, and Lauren Stevens | USA

WECKUWAPASIHIT (THOSE TO COME) Weckuwapasihtit (Those Yet to Come)

Dir: Geo Neptune, Brianna Smith | USA

WHEN THE LAPD BLOWS UP YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Dir: Nathan Truesdell | USA

TICKETS

For Tickets and Passes, visit pointsnorthinstitute.org/ciff/box-office

Online registration for pass holders began on September 1. General tickets for screenings will open on September 8.

POINTS NORTH INSTITUTE

To learn about the Points North Institute, visit pointsnorthinstitute.org.

(Mabel Pais writes on Social Issues, The Arts and Entertainment, Health & Wellness, Cuisine and Spirituality.)