This year’s Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) promises to be a good one for women filmmakers. According to a press release, the documentary fest boasts full gender parity among its films’ directors, and then some. “Half or more of the selections are directed or co-directed by women, across every category of the 2018 CIFF lineup, including features, shorts, competitions, artist programs, and immersive and VR installations” the festival, one of Points North Institute‘s programs, announced.
“Our organization has always embodied a spirit of inclusivity, and this spirit goes all the way back to our very first program in 2005, which featured a majority of remarkable women directors,” said fest Founder Ben Fowlie. “This year, we’re honored to showcase over a hundred of the most inspiring and creative voices from across the globe working in nonfiction storytelling today. Our 2018 slate underscores documentary as a creative, diverse, thriving, and political art form, one that provides unique opportunities to engage with the world around us.”
“Programming at parity celebrates the contributions of the many formidable women in the field, while also emphasizing the fact that, in a century of documentary filmmaking, we’ve largely known one dominant perspective,” added Senior Programmer Samara Chadwick. “At CIFF we’re drawn to directorial approaches from outside the canon, and we value all the creative voices and cinematic languages that have been otherwise underrepresented.”
Among the selected features are Janet van den Brand’s “Ceres” and Alba Sotorra’s “Commander Arian – A Story of Women, War & Freedom,” both making their U.S. premieres “Ceres” centers on four children learning to work a farm, and dreaming of the day when they will be the ones running it. “Commander Arian” is a “tale of emancipation and freedom” that sees a young, severely wounded Syrian commander reconsidering her identity after reclaiming an ISIS-controlled city alongside her female battalion.
“Where the Pavement Ends,” Jane Gillooly examination of race relations in America, will make its world premiere at CIFF. The project explores the roles race and racism have played in the U.S., beginning with a roadblock that separated then-white Ferguson from black Kinloch in the 1960s.
Also screening is “Free Solo,” directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. “Free Solo” tells the story of Alex Honnold, who, with no ropes or safety gear, became the first person to ever free solo climb the 3,000 feet-high El Capitan Wall in Yosemite, “arguably the greatest feat in rock climbing history.”
Chai Vasarhelyi, Sotorra, and Gillooly will be among the filmmakers to attend the festival.
CIFF will take place September 13-16, 2018 in Camden, Rockport, and Rockland, Maine. Check out the fest’s website for its full lineup and more information.
