2024 Points North Pitch

A live recording of the 2024 Points North Pitch

Spotlight

Apple Cider Vinegar

A retired narrator from iconic nature documentaries with names like "Planet" and "Earth" embarks on one last global treasure hunt. Inspired by her kidney stone's curious oval shape, this familiar voice guides us on a whimsical journey, unveiling the hidden wonders of rocks and their gravitational pull on those who dare to look closer. Both lyrical and playful, Sofie Benoot's aesthetic creation is a visual poem—a love letter to our planet etched in stone. (mg)

A Fidai Film

A film is a Fidai’ act, inspired by the Arabic word "Fida," meaning to give oneself fully in service of another, and linked to the Fidayyin, the freedom fighters of the Palestinian revolution of the 60s and 70s. This film embraces that revolutionary spirit by recentering the 1982 looting of Palestinian archives in Beirut. Building on this premise, Kamal sabotages Israeli  archives to make visible what was/is Palestinian in the image. The result is a captivating cinematic practice of reclamation and resistance, countering historical appropriation and above all, amnesia.

The Flamingo 

Mary Phillips is a 60-year-old divorcee exploring her pleasure, freedom, and power. Her avenue of exploration: the bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism community. This observational portrait of her life unfolds through intimate vignettes and glimpses into the community that whipped Mary’s life back into shape. (ch)

I'm Not Everything I Want to Be

In an act of female kinship, the artistic, personal, sexual, and political lives of remarkable photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková unfold through her own diary entries and photographs. Her striking compositions come to life, animating the moments she captures in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Prague and its eventual fall. Self-portraits meld with the thousands of faces Libuse captured, unveiling a wild, daunting, and freedom-seeking journey. This film is not only a tribute to the extraordinary photographer that Libuše is but also to the artistic process in all its wonder and absurdity.

Mother Vera

After two decades in a Belarusian Orthodox monastery, Vera reflects on her unexpected path to nunhood, rooted in a history of addiction. Facing her lingering guilt, she finds herself at a crossroads between her monastic sanctuary and an uncertain future. Directors Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson’s stark black and white observational approach reveal Vera's quiet journey of self-examination, offering an intimate glimpse into the complexities of faith, recovery, and personal transformation within cloistered walls.

The Stimming Pool (Plays with Four Holes)

From a B-movie enthusiast running a film club, to eye-tracking tests, to a cosplayed superhero dog, The Stimming Pool articulates several neurodivergent forms of perception via its poetic 16mm hybrid recreations. Co-authored by the Neurocultures Collective, a group of autistic directors, and artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood, this film challenges conventional narratives about autism. Combining magical realism and lyricism, this screening invites you to find your own stimming state and comfort.

Union

Outside the JFK8 Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, a group of current and former Amazon employees huddle together under pop-up tents in an effort to form the company’s first union in the United States. Though a global pandemic has made their jobs both “essential” and riskier than ever, their demands for higher wages and better working conditions are met with surveillance and disinformation. UNION is a story of struggle, solidarity, and the realities of building power for working people in the 21st century.

Wilfred Buck

Moving between earth and stars, past and present, this hybrid feature documentary follows the extraordinary life of Wilfred Buck, a charismatic and irreverent Indigenous elder who overcame a harrowing history of displacement, racism, and addiction by reclaiming ancestral star knowledge and ceremony.

Feature

SHORTS: Dirigo Docs 

SHORTS: The Cosmos in Us 

SHORTS: The Light of Flickering Fire 

Short

20th Anniversary: All that Breathes

20th Anniversary: Betting the Farm

20th Anniversary: Foragers

20th Anniversary: I Didn't See You There

20th Anniversary: Lots of Kids, a Monkey and Castle

20th Anniversary: Narrowsburg

Narrowsburg​ follows a French film producer and a mafioso-turned-actor as they turn a tiny town upside down, peddling Hollywood dreams and persuading the town it can become the “Sundance of the East.”

20th Anniversary: Night Shot

20th Anniversary: Purple Sea

20th Anniversary: Terranova

20th Anniversary: The Russian Woodpecker

20th Anniversary: There Will Be No More Night

20th Anniversary: Two Gods

20th Anniversary: WHOSE STREETS?

20th Feature

20th Anniversary: Shorts X: The Hermit

20th Short

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CIFF Box Office

The 20th edition of the Camden International Film Festival will be held throughout venues in Maine from September 12-15 and online from September 16-30, 2024

Here's what's coming up soon. Can't make it? No sweat. Many live streams will be available for on-demand viewing as well.