Films to Preview Camden International Film Festival Course

Two documentary films being screened March 21 at the Collins Center for the Arts are also previews for the fall 2013 Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) course at the University of Maine.

“Downeast” and “Betting the Farm,” both set in rural Maine, will be on the big screen Thursday at 5:30 and 8 p.m., respectively. Question-and-answer sessions will be held after each film. Admission is $5 per film and open to the public. Tickets are available through the Collins Center for the Arts box office or online. For more information or to request a disability accommodation, call the box office, 207.581.1755/800.622.8499.

The films introduce the three-credit CIFF course offered by UMaine’s Continuing Education Division that meets four Saturdays during the fall 2013 semester: Sept. 14, Sept. 21, Nov. 9 and Dec. 7. Students enrolled in the course also gain admission to films, shorts, panels, workshops, special events and networking opportunities with filmmakers Sept. 26–29 at the Camden International Film Festival.

“Downeast,” by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, follows Italian immigrant Antonio Bussone’s efforts, despite grumblings of some locals, to open a lobster-processing factory in a shuttered sardine cannery in Prospect Harbor. Many laid-off workers are women in their 60s. After the film, District 37 Rep. Ralph Chapman, a research scientist who serves on the Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources, and Tony Brinkley, a UMaine professor of English who teaches film, will take part in a question-and-answer period.

“Betting the Farm,” by Cecily Pingree and Jason Mann, captures struggles and victories of dairy farmers who helped create MOO Milk (Maine’s Own Organic) after a national milk company didn’t renew their contracts. After the film, Mann, as well as Vaughn and Laura Chase of Chase’s Organic Dairy in Mapleton, Richard and Janet Lary of Windy Acres Farm in Clinton, and Aaron Bell and Carly DelSignore of Tide Mill Organic Farm in Edmunds will be available to answer questions.

More information about the two documentaries, including trailers, is on the Collins Center website.

More information about the Camden Film Festival is online at camdenfilmfest.org. For more information about the UMaine CIFF course, call Marlene Charron at 207.581.4095 or go online. To register for UMaine’s CIFF course, call 207.581.3143.