MIFF-at-a-Glance Schedule

from 22nd Maine International Film Festival Program Guide

by watervillecreates

miffonedge vol 7

Venues

WOH Waterville Opera House (810 seats)

RR1 Railroad Square Cinema screening room #1 (150 seats)

RR3 Railroad Square Cinema screening room #3 (50 seats)

Date WOH RR1 RR2

Friday, July 12 6:30 p.m. Blow the Man Down 9:30 p.m. The Fate of Lee Khan

Saturday, July 13 12:30 p.m. One More Spring 3:30 p.m. Before You Know It p.m. Cassandro, the Exotico! 9:30 p.m. The Dreamers

Sunday, July 14 12:30 p.m. Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm

3:30 p.m. Sunny Side Up

6:30 p.m. South Mountain & Mid-Life Achievement Award Ceremony 9:30 p.m. [Censored]

Monday, July 15

3:30 p.m. The Sticky Fingers of Time

6:30 p.m. After Hours p.m. Insulaire (Islander)

12:30 p.m. Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm

3:30 p.m. The Cranes are Flying 6:30 p.m. Stephanie Daley 9:30 p.m. In Fabric

12:30 p.m. Aquarela

3:30 p.m. Vita & Virginia

6:30 p.m. Before You Know It 9:30 p.m. Medium Cool p.m. La Flor Part 1

12:15 p.m. Ága

3:15 p.m. What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

6:15 p.m. It’s Rough Out There! Shorts p.m. Kardeşler (Brothers)

12:15 p.m. International Shorts

3:15 p.m. Los Miembros de la Familia (Family Members)

6:15 p.m. Winchester ‘73

9:15 p.m. Cassandro, the Exotico!

3:30 p.m.

American Factory

2:00 p.m. Pupille (In Safe Hands) p.m. Midnight Family

6:30 p.m.

Vita & Virginia

Last Tango in Paris p.m. Stephanie Daley

The Passion of Joan of Arc

In Fabric p.m. Enamorada (Enamored)

6:30

9:30

3:30 p.m. Maine Shorts

3:15

6:15 p.m. Uncommon Visions Shorts p.m. His Master’s Voice p.m. Maine Student Film & Video Festival p.m. Maine Shorts

Mike Wallace is Here

We’ve made every effort to ensure the schedule and information in this publication is as accurate as possible and that all screenings and performances take place as planned. We cannot be responsible for inadvertent errors and changes in the schedule that are beyond our control.

9:00 p.m. Los Tiburones (The Sharks) 8:30

12:00 p.m. La Omisión (The Omission)

3:00 p.m. Familia Submergida (A Family Submerged)

6:00 p.m. The Wind/Waterfolks

12:00 p.m. Have You Seen My Movie?

3:00 p.m. Kardeşler (Brothers)

3:00 p.m. Change the Subject

6:00 p.m. Los Miembros de la Familia (Family Members)

2:00 p.m. La Flor Part 2

6:00 p.m. Jay Myself

12:00–7:00 p.m.

8:30 p.m. Opening Party for MIFFONEDGE, Old Post Office Saturday, July 13

11:00 a.m. MIFF Bioblitz at the RiverWalk

Sunday, July 14

8:30 p.m. Party for Hilary Brougher, OPA, 139 Main Street

2:00–7:00 p.m. MIFFONEDGE

8:30 p.m.

9:00 p.m. La Omisión (The Omission) MIFFONEDGE

9:00 p.m. Centerpiece After Party, Me Lon Togo, 220 Main Street

Monday, July 15

Tuesday, July 16

2:00 p.m. La Flor Part 3

6:00 p.m. Hier (Yesterday)

2:00 p.m. La Flor Part 4

6:00 p.m. Ága

9:00 p.m. What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

2:00–7:00 p.m.

9:00 p.m. Uncommon Visions Shorts MIFFONEDGE

Wednesday, July 17

6:00 p.m. Hjärtat (The Heart)

9:00 p.m. It’s Rough Our There! Shorts

3:00 p.m. Cetáceos

6:00 p.m. Change the Subject 8:00 p.m. Chronicle of the Years of Fire

12:00 p.m. Teoria do Ímpeto (Theory of Impetus)

3:00 p.m. Familia Submergida (A Family Submerged)

2:00–7:00

MIFFONEDGE 4:00

MIFFONEDGE—Narcissa

2:00–7:00 p.m. MIFFONEDGE

Thursday, July 18

Friday, July 19

12:00–7:00 p.m. MIFFONEDGE 2:30 p.m. Student

8:00 p.m. MIFFONEDGE

Saturday, July 20

10:00–6:00

MIFFONEDGE 9:00

Closing Night Party, Mainely Brews, 1 Post Office Square Sunday, July 21

Ága

Bulgaria/Germany/France—2018—DCP—96 Minutes

In Yakut with English subtitles

Director: Milko Lazarov

Screenplay: Simeon Ventsislavov, Milko Lazarov

Producers: Veselka Kiryakova

Cast: Mikhail Aprosimov, Feodosia Ivanova, Sergei Egorov

Print courtesy: Big World Films

In a yurt on the snow-covered fields of the North, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. Alone in the wilderness, they look like the last people on Earth. Nanook and Sedna’s traditional way of life starts changing–slowly, but inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable deaths, and the ice has been melting earlier every year. Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection to the outside world and to their daughter, Ága, who left the icy tundra a long time ago due to a family feud. When Sedna’s health deteriorates, Nanook decides to fulfill her wish. He embarks on a long journey in order to find Ága. There’s little question that director Milko Lazarov names his protagonist after Robert Falherty’s Eskimo hero in his pioneering film Nanook of the North, and this Nanook—and his wife Sedna—are perfectly heroic, too. Though this is the same world, it is also a changed one from the time of Flaherty and Nanook, nearly 100 years ago.

France/Australia/UK—2019—DCP—103 Minutes

In French with English subtitles Director, Screenplay: Josephine Mackerras

Cast: Emilie Pipponier, Martin Swabey, Chloé Boreham

Print courtesy: Visit Films

This understated, always surprising French film was the winner of the Grand Prize at the SXSW Film Festival this year. From director/writer Josephine Mackerras, it’s a film with a sensational subject that never goes where you think it will, and never lets its lurid aspects take over a very human, very female-centered focus. After discovering that her husband’s secret addiction to escorts has left their family penniless and her marriage apparently over, Alice finds herself drawn into the world of high-end prostitution as a means of caring for herself and her child. Those are just two of Alice’s many surprises.

American Factory

USA—2019—DCP—113 Minutes

In English Directors: Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar

Producers: Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar, Jeff Reichert, Julie Parker Benello

Print courtesy: Netflix

In post-industrial contemporary Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America. Using short, engaging, telling scenes to tell a huge story in very human, modest ways, brilliant longtime documentary whizzes Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar (who have been doing this since the ’70s with great, politically-committed documentaries like Seeing Red and Union Maids) have made not only their greatest film but one that in the most non-sensational, un-Trumpian manner nails where we find ourselves today.

Aquarela

UK/Germany/Denmark/USA—2019—DCP—89 Minutes

In English and in Russian and Spanish with English subtitles

Director: Viktor Kossakovsky

Writers: Viktor Kossakovsky, Aimara Reques

Producers: Aimara Reques. Heino Deckert, Sigrid Dyekjaer

Print courtesy: Sony Pictures Classics

An experiential film not unlike, say, Koyaanisqatsi, but for a different time, Aquarela seems a force of nature itself. Water is the main protagonist, seen in all its great and terrible beauty. Mountains of ice move and break apart as if they had a life of their own. Director Viktor Kossakovsky’s film travels the world, from the precarious frozen waters of Russia’s Lake Baikal, to Miami in the throes of Hurricane Irma, to Venezuela’s mighty Angel Falls, in order to paint a portrait of this fluid life force in all its glorious forms. Fragile humans experience life and death, joy and despair in the face of its power. There is certainly an environmental message here, though nothing is overtly stated in the midst of the element’s awesome power.

East Coast premiere! Director Oliver Krimpas and Screenwriter

Jonathan Kiefer introduce: Around the Sun

UK—2019—DCP— 98 Minutes

In English Director: Oliver Krimpas

Screenplay: Jonathan Kiefer

Producers: Oliver Krimpas, Jonathan Kiefer

Cast: Cara Theobold, Gethin Anthony

Print courtesy: Jonathan Kiefer, Oliver Krimpas

“Sort of a British, female-driven Before Sunrise crossed with an episode of Cosmos?” is how screenwriter/producer Jonathan Kiefer once tried describing Around the Sun. As good as anything else, at least, which is to say that this genuinely low-budget yet sumptuous indie is really not like much of anything else but itself. Bernard (Gethin Anthony, of Game of Thrones), a film location scout, tours a repossessed and crumbling French château. Over the course of an afternoon, he falls for both the place and its owner’s flirtatious representative, Maggie (Cara Theobold, of Downton Abbey), who recounts the story of an influential popular-science book written and set there. But is their present-tense connection for real, or just a projection of the book’s 17th-century characters? A pleasure for lovers of talk, life, love, châteaux, and/or summer. That’s everyone, right?

You Know It

USA—2019—DCP— 98 Minutes

In English

Director: Hannah Pearl Utt

Screenplay: Hannah Pearl Utt, Jen Tullock

Producers: Mallory Schwartz, Josh Hetzler, James Brown

Cast: Hannah Pearl Utt, Jen Tullock, Judith Light, Mandy Patinkin, Mike Colter, Alec Baldwin, Ben Becher

Print courtesy: 1091

Director, star, and co-writer of Before You Know It, Hannah Pearl Utt comes to MIFF to introduce her terrific new film. “Before You Know It is the story of a family that lives above a small community theater that they own in New York City. It’s a comedic drama about a clan of creatives: patriarch and has-been playwright Mel (Mandy Patinkin); his oldest daughter, Jackie (Jen Tullock, whose comedic performance shines), a quirky actress stuck in adolescence and single mother of a 12 year-old named Dodge; and Jackie’s sister, Rachel (Utt), the only real grown-up in the family, who holds the family and the theater together and has just a few control issues.Their lives and livelihood revolve around the theater and putting on its mediocre plays, and when Mel’s death reveals the mother they thought was dead is actually alive, Rachel and Jackie are forced out of their comfort zone and onto their own belated coming-of-age journeys in their 30s. Part of the reason Before You Know It is so entertaining is that it feels very familiar, yet the specificity of the world of the family established here elevates the film into something we haven’t seen before. It’s a drama that takes up serious subjects like death and abandonment but is also very funny, not because of punchlines but because of candor”—Beandrea July, Hollywood Reporter.

World premiere! Maine made!

Brian Zemrak and Derek Zemrak introduce: Bongee Bear and

the Kingdom of Rhythm

USA—2019—DCP—82 Minutes

In English

Director, Screenplay: Brian Zemrak

Producers: Derek Zemrak, Leonard Pirkle, Matt Kierscht

Cast: Rob Paulsen, Dom DeLuise, Ruth Buzzi, June Lockhart, Debi Derryberry, Julian Sands

Print courtesy: Derek Zermrak

Winslow, Maine-based Brian Zemrak and his California-based brother Derek have been at work on this charming animated family film musical for a decade and a half—and here it is at last! In a land known as The Kingdom of Rhythm, a young orphan bear, Bongee (voiced by Emmy winner Rob Paulsen), becomes the life-long friend of the young Princess Katrina (voiced by Debi Derryberry) and vows to protect her with his life. When the evil witch Bandrilla (voiced by Golden Globe winner and multi Emmy nominee Ruth Buzzi) casts a spell on the people of the kingdom, Bongee sets out, with the aid of his wacky friend Myrin (voiced by Golden Globe and two-time Emmy nominee the late Dom DeLuise) and the wise owl Mindy (voiced by two-time Emmy nominee June Lockhart), to break the spell and return singing and dancing to the land while Bandrilla and her henchmen, Barnabas and Ivan, do all they can to stop them. Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm is a tender, fun-filled musical romp in the tradition of classic fairytales.

[Censored]

Australia—2018—DCP— 66 Minutes

In English Director: Sari Braithwaite

Producer: Chloé Brugalé

Music: Munro Melano and the End

Narrated by: Sari Braithwaite

Print courtesy: Icarus Films

Deep in the vaults of the Australian National Archives lie thousands upon thousands of celluloid scraps: scenes that were cut by government censors from films imported into the country between the years of 1958–1971. Peppered through this collection are banned scenes from some of the most influential directors in history, including Godard, Polanski, Bergman, Varda, and Fellini. Censorship extended to hundreds of forgotten films—from avant-garde and documentary films to Hollywood B-movies. When Sari Braithwaite, who narrates this film, gained unprecedented access to this mysterious collection, she thought she could create a work to liberate this censored archive, to honor these displaced frames, and condemn censorship. After years of bearing witness to these fragments of film, this archive became challenging and unnerving. It felt almost impossible to celebrate or reconcile. [Censored] is a work stitched entirely from these never-before-seen artifacts of censorship: it is the story of how one filmmaker confronted an archive in order to reckon with film, censorship, and the power of the gaze. Featuring an acclaimed soundtrack by Munro Melano and the End, [Censored] is an entertaining and provocative polemic, challenging audiences with questions that defy easy answers.

Change the Subject

USA—2019—Digital Projection—55 Minutes

In English

Directors: Sawyer Broadley, Jill Barron

Producers: Melissa Padilla, Óscar Rubén Cornejo Cásares

Print courtesy: Sawyer Broadley to be shown with:

In the Dartmouth College library one day, a student doing research discovers that information on the topic of undocumented U.S. immigrants is filed under the subject “Illegal Aliens.” Realizing that that term is a political and xenophobic one, she asks the college librarian if that could be changed—only to find out that the term originated not at Dartmouth but in the Library of Congress. Thus begins a literal and otherwise journey to try to overturn a seemingly small but tellingly large part of how loaded and racist terminology affects even “objective” language and categorization in our culture. In this remarkably tightly made documentary, the students and their faculty allies’ quest to change the “subject” becomes a quest to change the country.

Within You Without You

USA—2018—Digital Projection—5 Minutes

Director: Judy Irving

Producer: Bruce Kaphan

Music: Mark Bittner, Beth Lyons

Print courtesy: Judy Irving

From the director and subject of MIFF Audience Award Winner and Indie theatrical phenomenon The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill comes this delightful, American folk/mountain version of George Harrison’s classic song, with Parrots star Mark Bittner and his sister Beth Lyons singing. The movie was filmed on and near Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.

Divino Amor (Divine Love)

Brazil/Uruguay/Denmark/Norway/Chile—2019—DCP—101 Minutes

In Portuguese with English subtitles

Director: Gabriel Mascaro

Screenplay: Gabriel Macaro, Rachel Daisy Ellis, Esdras Bezerra, Lucas Paraizo

Producer: Rachel Daisy Ellis

Cast: Dira Paes, Julio Machado

Print courtesy: Memento Films

Divino Amor (Divine Love) is set eight years from now. Brazil has become a fully Evangelical nation in all but name, as if the newly elected, right-wing and “pro-family” president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro—note that middle name!— had had his way with the nation for the two four-year mandates to which he could theoretically be elected. There’s plenty of sex in the film and in the country, but in this neon-colored, semi-futuristic Brazil, coitus has become perverted and unnatural; it may be sensual to watch, but its goals are anything but sexy. Joana is a woman hitting early middle age who still longs for a baby. Despite a lot of lovemaking with Danilo, her other half, they still haven’t managed to conceive. Danilo even regularly hangs himself upside down in front of an infrared lamp naked using a special fertility contraption. They haven’t had any luck so far, which makes Joana wonder why God is ignoring her prayers. Joana works for the state as a registry office clerk and as such comes into contact with a lot of people who want to divorce. She takes it upon herself, as a good Christian woman, to try and mend the couples instead of registering the end of their sacred union. She does this by suggesting they come and visit Divine Love, a cultish self-help group that Joana and Danilo are involved with and that has helped them in the past work through their own issues. In rising young phenom director Gabriel Mascaro’s (Neon Bull) bold new film, this is just the start.

Have You Seen My Movie?

USA—2018—DCP—124 Minutes

In English

Director: Producer: Paul Anton Smith

Print courtesy: Paul Anton Smith

Told entirely with found footage, Have You Seen My Movie? is a love letter to the magic and power of cinematic experiences as shared by strangers in the dark. From the audience members’ rush to get seats to the cool command of the projectionist in the booth, director/editor Paul Anton Smith tells the story of movie-going by turning the camera back on the audience. Smith uses iconic and obscure scenes from over a thousand movies of every genre, spanning eighty years of cinema, to hold up a mirror to all of the romance, mystery, and mayhem of our collective imaginations. You will be sitting in the dark of the theater, experiencing yourself experiencing what you’ve experienced all the other times you’ve sat in the dark doing the same thing, compressed into one thrilling two hours!

Hier (Yesterday)

Hungary/France/Netherlands/Morocco—2018—DCP—119 Minutes

In English and in French and Arabic with English subtitles

Director: Bálint Kenyeres

Screenplay: Bálint Kenyeres, Tamás Beregi, András Forgách, Éva Zabezsinszkij, Matthieu Taponier

Producers: Andrea Taschler, Jamila Wenske

Cast: Vlad Ivanov, Féodor Atkine, Jo Prestia

Print courtesy: Hungarian National Film Fund

“In this paradoxical psychological thriller, Romanian actor Vlad Ivanov (Toni Erdmann Sunset) plays Victor Ganz, an architect/builder who fetches up in North Africa on a business trip that will lead him into a place of unreliable memories and exotic characters. Slowly he plunges into a labyrinthine world where present and past collide, as the future gradually closes in on him—or so it would initially seem. Hier is a strange and beguiling thriller with a tense undertow that makes it watchable and compelling. Shooting in Super 16, director Bálint Kenyeres achieves just the right grainy ’90s feel without it being a retro affair. The characters Victor meets in his alien surroundings prove to be increasingly more solid and reliable than he is.”—Meredith Taylor, Filmuforia. Reminiscent of Antonioni’s great The Passenger with Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, Hier is a memorable journey for the viewer as well.

Sponsored by Barbara Allen and Lenny Reich

His Master’s Voice

Hungary/Canada—2018—DCP—108 Minutes

In English and in Hungarian with English subtitles

Director: György Pálfi

Screenplay: György Pálfi, Zsófia Ruttkay, Gergő V. Nagy, based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem

Producers: Ferenc Pusztai, Michael A. Dobbin, Charles V. Bender, Émilie Blézat

Cast: Csaba Polgár, Eric Peterson, Diána Kiss, Angelo Tarouchas, Ádám Fekete, Ildikó Bánsági

Print courtesy: Hungarian National Film Fund

A man travels from Hungary to track down his long-lost father and ends up discovering much more, including, but not limited to, the secrets of the universe, in His Master’s Voice an out-of-this-world film from the director of the wordless wonder Hukkle, György Pálfi, based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem (Solaris). The film begins as Peter and girlfriend Dora visit New York City from Hungary. The trip is ostensibly part of Dora’s work, but Peter has another agenda—learning more about his father, who disappeared suddenly in the 1970s, heading to the US when Hungary was still behind the Iron Curtain. Peter and his brother Zsolt have discovered that their scientist father may have gone on to take part in a secret US government research project involving gamma rays, which resulted in the deaths of three people. Eventually, it’s revealed that the original purpose of the research was not to build a weapon, but to try to respond to a communique from outer space, or what Hogarth dubs “the voice of God.” Meanwhile, in a parallel story that plays out in the far-flung future, an earth spaceship has reached an alien home world, and is attempting to establish contact. Ostensibly, the aliens are the origin of the “voice of God” message—or are they? And doesn’t one of the ship’s crew members look a lot like Peter?

Hjärtat (The Heart)

Sweden—2018—DCP—99 Minutes

In Swedish with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Fanni Metelius

Producers: Rebecka Lafrenz, Mimmi Spång

Cast: Fanni Metelius, Ahmed Berhan

Print courtesy: m-appeal

“‘The heart wants what it wants, but does not get’—this is the premise of Swedish actress-director Fanni Metelius’s debut Hjärtat (The Heart), about young photographer Mika and her musician boyfriend, Tesfay, who are madly in love, yet cannot seem to make their relationship work. Set in Sweden, The Heart chronicles the progressive development of the romantic relationship between Mika (Metelius herself) and Tesfay (Ahmed Berhan): from hanging out together as classmates in art school, to casual dating, to moving in together in Stockholm and the subsequent giddy honeymoon phase. The cracks begin to emerge when Tesfay spends more time playing video games on a couch than he does talking to his girlfriend, and Mika begins missing the spontaneity she experienced in singlehood.... There isn’t anything explosively wrong with their relationship, and both Mika and Tesfay are decent, sensitive, and relatable people by nature. That the impending fall-out unfolds so imperceptibly yet realistically midway, with no clear victim in sight, works well rather than playing a needless game of who’s to blame. There is no denying the comfortable onscreen chemistry between Metelius and Berhan, who convincingly play each other’s first loves. Their moments of intimacy are raw and febrile, captured by the camera in silent, obtrusive close-ups of bodies colliding and heavy breathing. The Heart is sure to resonate with millennials all too familiar with the vicissitudes of love and heartbreak—the film was fittingly released in Sweden on Valentine’s Day”—Paige Lim, Screenanarchy

In Fabric

UK—2019—DCP—118 Minutes

In English

Director, Screenplay: Peter Strickland

Producer: Andrew Starke

Cast: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Fatma Mohamed, Hayley Squires

Print courtesy: A24 Films

“Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio) fashions a slyly hilarious Italian horror homage about a demonic frock and the even more sinister forces that compel us to shop”—Peter DeBruge, Hollywood Reporter. A lonely woman (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, best known for Secrets and Lies), recently separated from her husband, visits a bewitching London department store in search of a dress that will transform her life. She’s fitted with a perfectly flattering, artery-red gown—which, in time, will come to unleash a malevolent curse and unstoppable evil, threatening everyone who comes into its path. “As his movie deepens—from the lonely desperation of finding a new dress for a big date, to job anxieties, fears of emasculation, and, in several unforgettable scenes, the lulling spell of shop talk—Strickland crams his film with more anti-consumerist curves than its waist size would indicate. Try it on, but carefully. It leaves a mark”—Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out

World premiere! Shot

in Maine!

Debra Cooke introduces: In the Moon’s Shadow

USA—2019—Digital Projection—77 Minutes

In English

Director: Alvin Case

Screenplay: Edward Case

Producers: Debra Cooke, Elissa Piszel, Thomas Kesolits

Music: Lady Lamb

Cast: Debra Cooke, Elissa Piszel, Jules Hartley

Print courtesy: Alvin Case

Shot in greater part in the Belgrade Lakes region of Central Maine, with the rest in the quite contrasting Sand Hills of Nebraska, In the Moon’s Shadow uses the Solar Eclipse of 2017 to climax a story that focuses on seeing the familiar differently, as we do during an eclipse. Maine’s own Debra Cooke and Elissa Piszel play long-estranged sisters displaced by time and place who reconnect at a moment when their lives feel out of control. Produced at break-neck speed over five and a half summer days to take advantage of the absolutely stunning eclipse footage, In the Moon’s Shadow is true independent filmmaking, featuring a strong soundtrack composed for the film by Lady Lamb.

by Kate O’Halloran, Red Sky Consulting

U.S. premiere! Insulaire (Islander)

Switzerland/Chile—2018—DCP—92 Minutes

In Spanish and French with English subtitles

Director, Producer: Stéphane Goël

Screenplay: Stéphane Goël, Antoine Jaccoud

With the voices of: Mathieu Amalric, Pedro Lenz

Print courtesy: Sweet Spot Docs

Robinson Crusoe is a small island, hundreds of kilometers west of the Chilean coast, where in 1704 the Scottish sailor Alexandre Selkirk lived the incredible experience that inspired Daniel Defoe’s novel that gave the island its name. In 1877, the island became the property of a young Swiss aristocrat, Alfred von Rodt, a confirmed optimist, tireless explorer and indisputable rebel who launched multiple projects in hopes of developing the resources of his piece of rock. Islander dives us into today’s Robinson Crusoe. Its inhabitants are neither Chilean nor Swiss, but they are strongly attached to their identity and reject everything coming from the outside: animals, plants, and people. This is a film about a kind of utopia, a dream-like life based on the “purity” of its inhabitants and environment. Is it a bastion from the rest of the world? Or a prime example of the xenophobia, fear, and anger that currently seems to be gripping society?

Jay Myself

USA—2018—DCP— 79 Minutes

In English Director: Stephen Wilkes

Screenplay: Josh Alexander

Producers: Emma Tammi, Henry Jacobson

With: Jay Maisel

Print courtesy: Oscilloscope Films

Jay Myself brings us into the monumental move of renowned photographer and artist Jay Maisel, who, in February 2015, after 48 years, begrudgingly sold his home; the 35,000 square foot, 100-year-old landmark building in Manhattan’s Bowery known simply as “The Bank.” Stephen Wilkes, also an artist and photographer, as well as Maisel’s protege, takes a look at his life through an intimate lens, showing Maisel’s remarkable journey as an artist, mentor, and human; a man grappling with time, life, change, and the end of an era in New York City. The remarkable photographs he’s taken and that we glimpse here are, of course, stopped moments in time, stopped moments that perhaps, like The Bank, Maisel would like to hang on to.

Karde

ler (Brothers)

Turkey/Germany/Bulgaria—2018—DCP—103 Minutes

In Turkish with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Ömür Atay

Producer: Funda Ödemiş

Cast: Yiğit Ege Yazar, Caner Şahin, Gözde Mutluer, Cem Zeynel Kılıç Print courtesy: ArtHood Entertainment

What a brooding, tense, yet controlled film Brothers is. We are plunged into the world of Yusuf, at age 20, about to get out of the prison he’s been in since he was a mere 16. Yusuf has been wrongly imprisoned; the blame for that is not on the authorities, but on his own family, who set him up to be arrested for the crime. Now, his older brother Ramazan, who was, we come to understand, much more culpable than Yusuf, has come to take him to a family not exactly eagerly waiting to see him. An amazing performance by Yiğit Ege Yazar as Yusuf, embodying the character’s innocence and guilt, is at the center of this fine Turkish film.

East Coast premiere! Los Tiburones (The Sharks)

Uruguay/Argentina/Spain—2019—DCP—80 Minutes

In Spanish with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Lucía Garibaldi

Producers: Isabel Garcia, Pancho Magnou

Cast: Antonella Aquistapache, Fabián Arenillas, Romina Betancur Print courtesy: Visit Films

Jaws-like music sounds for a few seconds as the opening title to Los Tiburones (The Sharks) appears on screen in Lucía Garibaldi’s feature film directing debut. And yes, an aquatic shark is glimpsed again before the end of the film. The title and music, like much else in this wonderful, deliberately contained film, are curveballs in this charmingly underplayed, completely honest, darkly humorous anti-coming-of-age movie from Uruguay. Fifteen-year-old Rosina could care less about the shark sightings everyone in her tiny beachside town is abuzz about. Or about much of anything else. Except maybe her slightly older co-worker. Or maybe she just hates him. Hard for us to tell. Or him. Or her…

Midnight Family

Mexico—2019—DCP—91 Minutes

In Spanish with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Luke Lorentzen

Producer: Kellen Quinn

Print courtesy: 1091

“In Mexico City, fewer than 45 public ambulances serve a population of 9 million. Luke Lorentzen’s documentary takes up residence alongside the Ochoa family, who earn a living—just barely—by operating one of the metropolis’ numerous privately owned ambulances, ferrying the injured to hospitals in hopes of being monetarily rewarded for their efforts. Portraits of institutional dysfunction don’t come much more urgent. Though medically unstable Fer is the nominal head of the Ochoa household, it’s his mature 17-year-old son Juan who—despite his youthful complexion (replete with braces) and habit of hugging a giant stuffed animal during interviews—is the clan’s real father figure. Theirs is a tenuous existence in which each night is spent hanging out in the ambulance waiting for a call. When emergency notifications arrive, they ignite harrowing races through Mexico City’s bustling streets, as the Ochoas try to beat rival EMT outfits to the scene and, then, to quickly strap the wounded into stretchers and load them into the back of their van. The film achieves a powerful measure of suspense that’s intricately tied up in its despairing sociological depiction of a system that’s come apart at the seams”—Nick

Schager, Variety

Mike Wallace is Here

USA—2019—DCP—96 Minutes

In English

Director: Avi Belkin

Producers: Avi Belkin, Rafael Marmor, Peggy Drexler, Chris Leggett

With: Mike Wallace

Print courtesy: Magnolia Pictures

You could say that Mike Wallace invented the hard-nosed, take-no-prisoner style of TV news investigator/interviewer that’s practically de rigeur now. But Wallace was not ideological—though he did seem to be genuinely angry at times. And why not? There was a lot genuinely wrong, and Wallace seemed to find it all. A fascinating exposé of 60 Minutes’ fearsome newsman whose no-holds-barred journalistic style redefined what America has come to expect from news broadcasters, Mike Wallace is Here is a riveting account of a man, a profession, a medium, and an era.

Pupille (In Safe Hands)

France/Belgium—2018-DCP—107 Minutes

In French with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Jeanne Herry

Producers: Vincent Mazel, Alain Attal, Hugo Sélignac

Cast: Élodie Bouchez, Sandrine Kimberlain, Gilles Lelouche, Olivia Côte, Miou-Miou

Print courtesy: Distrib Films

Nominated for no less than seven César Awards (France’s Oscar equivalent) including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (two nominations), Best Actor, and Best Screenplay, director/screenwriter Jeanne Herry’s compassionate, closely observed, beautifully acted, and ultimately moving and uplifting film follows the adoption of one child from his young mother’s conscious decision to have the child but give it up for adoption at birth, to its new, perhaps surprising, loving home months afterwards, via France’s extremely conscientious social agencies. Along the way are some of the finest performances of recent years, by such greats as Élodie Bouchez (Wild Reeds), Sandrine Kimberlain (Alias Betty) and Miou-Miou (Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000), Herry’s mother! A film that will really stick with you.

Sponsored by Jeff Matranga and Jeri Wilson

Teoria do Ímpeto (Theory of Impetus)

Brazil—2019—Digital Projection—87 Minutes

In Portuguese with English subtitles

Directors, Screenplay: Marcelo Faria, Rafael Moura

Cast: Clara Matos, Gustavo Haeser, Pablo Magalhães

Print courtesy: Lanterna Magica

This magically shot film from Brazil makes us fear for two young people, facing the terror of finding their own path in the world. In the face of the menacing Pedro’s paternalistic overprotection, the young Diana sees a student exchange program in another country as the chance to find her independence. Unbeknownst to her father, Diana and her brother Adriano plan to leave home and start a new life–in Brazil or elsewhere, it doesn’t matter. Theory of Impetus does not go where you think and fear it will—because it’s sensitive and honest, and therefore far more surprising than any genre movie that can’t shock you with the expected unexpected.

Tuesday, July 16, 3:30 p.m., WOH

Saturday, July 20, 3:30 p.m., RR1

Monday, July 15, 6:15 p.m., RR2

Sunday, July 21, 12:30 p.m., RR1

Monday, July 15, 9:30 p.m., RR1

Sunday, July 21, 12:00 p.m., RR3

Vita & Virginia

Ireland—2019—DCP—110 Minutes

In English

Director: Chanya Button

Screenplay: Eileen Atkins, Chanya Button, based on the letters of Virginia Woolf and Victoria Sackville-West

Producers: Katie Holly, Evangelo Kioussis

Cast: Gemma Atherton, Elizabeth Debicki, Rupert Perry-Jones, Isabella Rossellini

Print courtesy: IFC Films

Set amidst the bohemian high society of 1920s England, Vita & Virginia tells the scintillating true story of a literary love affair that fueled the imagination of one of the 20th Century’s most celebrated writers. Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton) is the brash and aristocratic wife of a diplomat, who, refusing to be constrained by her marriage, defiantly courts scandal through her affairs with women. When she meets the brilliant but troubled Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki), she is immediately attracted to the famed novelist’s eccentric genius and enigmatic allure. So begins an intense, passionate relationship marked by all-consuming desire, intellectual gamesmanship, and destructive jealousy that will leave both women profoundly transformed and inspire the writing of one of Woolf’s greatest works. Chanya Button’s contemporary-influenced version of this little-known true story is stylish, intense, and fascinating.

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

USA—2018—DCP— 95 Minutes

In English

Director, Screenplay: Rob Garver

Producers: Glen Zipper, Rob Garver

Vocal Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker

Print courtesy: Cinetic Media

If you really loved movies in the late ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, you loved Pauline Kael. Or hated her. Or veered from one to the other, as she sometimes did about directors in her passionate reviews. She was, though writing only half the year for a magazine of great influence but relatively low mass circulation (The New Yorker), the most influential movie critic in the world. She singlehandedly resurrected Bonnie and Clyde from the slag heap of critical scorn and box office failure, and championed the edgy, powerful, charged cinema of Robert Altman, Bernardo Bertolucci (see her astonishingly swooning rave for his Last Tango in Paris, screening at this year’s MIFF), Brian DePalma, and Martin Scorsese. Agree with her or disagree, you had to acknowledge that she was one hell of a writer, and that she laid it all on the table every time she wrote. Clips and archival footage are seamlessly mixed in with interviews with the likes of everyone from Francis Ford Coppola to Quentin Tarantino, and footage from the time of everyone from Norman Mailer to Johnny Carson (on whose show Kael appeared). Rob Garver’s thrilling documentary is a gourmet feast for anyone who loves movies, the era, the work of a powerful woman, and/or a time when the cinema could seem the most important thing in the world.

Sponsored by Lunder Institute for American Art

Sunday, July 14, 3:30 p.m., RR1

Wednesday, July 17, 6:30 p.m., WOH

Saturday, July 13, 3:15 p.m., RR2

Thursday, July 18, 9:00 p.m., RR3

Icarus Stops for Breakfast

USA—2019—DCP—13 Minutes

In English

Director: Abigail Zealey Bess

Producer: Abigail Zealey Bess, Holli Harms, Warren Etheredge

Screenplay: Holli Harms

Cast: Molly Carden, Bobby Moreno, Catherine Curtin, Denny Dale Bess

Two mismatched lovers visit a diner caught in a time warp.

Hiding in Daylight

USA—2018—DCP—15 Minutes

In English

Director: Cheryl Allison

Producer: Carina Rush, Gregory G. Allen, Cheryl Allison

Screenplay: Gregory G. Allen

Cast: Judy McLane, Julee Cerda, Jim Newman, Gary Hilborn

In the near future, two gay couples navigate the law against their unions.

It’s a Mess

USA—2018—DCP—30 Minutes

In English

Director: Frank Prinzi

Producer: Frank Prinzi, Owen Rosenblum, Nat Prinzi, Chris Yoon

Screenplay: Frank Prinzi, W.W. Wilson III

Cast: Vincent D’Onofrio, Lucia Prinzi, Eva Prinzi

Two young sisters with a secret, receive solace from a homeless man in NYC.

Presence of the Past

USA/Iceland—2019—DCP—13 Minutes

In English

Director, Screenplay: Milton Guillen

Producer: Julia Sagaser

Cast: Ava Langford, Matthew Morrison

A couple evokes futuristic triste in this visual stunner.

Saturday, July 13, 6:15 p.m., RR2

Friday, July 19, 9:00 p.m., RR3

Whiteout

USA—2018—DCP—11 Minutes

In English

Director: Lance Edmands

Producer: Craig Butta, Kyle Martin

Screenplay: Lance Edmands, Sarah Tihany

Cast: Sarah Tihany, David Call, Patrick M. Walsh Jr.

A couple driving at night encounters a man in the middle of the road.

The Reveal, Iran

Iran—2017—DCP—15 Minutes

In Persian with English subtitles

Director: Ehsan Mokhtari

Producer: Behnam Abedi, Hamed Hosseini Sangari, Iranian Youth Cinema Society

Screenplay: Ehsan Mokhtari, Hamed Hosseini Sangari

Cast: Navid Noori, Pejman Yavari

Two brothers learn the hard way not to rely on family.

La Bruja de Fósforo Paseante, Mexico

Mexico—2018—DCP—16 Minutes

In Spanish with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Sofia Carillo

Producer: Armando Padilla

Cast: Susana Romo, Michelle Betancourt, Marisol Padilla Sánchez

In this period Western, a woman and her witchy mother-in-law go at it.

Todo se calma, Argentina

Argentina—2018—DCP—15 Minutes

In Spanish with English subtitles

Director, Producer, Screenplay: Virginia Scaro

Cinematographer: Roman Kasseroller

Cast: Rhea Volij

In the confines of her apartment, a woman winsomely evades her sanity.

Quiet, Slovenia

Slovenia—2018—DCP—15 Minutes

In Slovenian with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Barbara Zemljič

Producer: Zoran Dževerdanović

Cast: Tisa Skabar, Silva Cusin, Jana Zupancic, Dare Valic

While dealing with a young student, a woman revisits her own childhood trauma.

Sunday, July 14, 12:15 p.m., RR2

Thursday, July 18, 9:30 p.m., RR1

The Menarche, Taiwan

Taiwan—2019—DCP—18 Minutes

In Chinese with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: I-hui Lee

Producer: Ray Wen, Chuxin Ho

Cast: Bai Xiao Ying, Hsieh Bao Hsien

The onset of menstruation incites two friends’ athletic competitiveness.

Nashedonia

USA—2017—DCP—4 Minutes

In Esperanto with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Will Berry

Producer: Tanner Britton

Cast: Daniel Chioco, Cynthia E. Wilde, Jess Warman

An Esperanto speaker tries to make it in Nashville.

Three/Four

USA—2019—DCP—9 Minutes

In English

Director, Producer, Screenplay: Gordon LePage

Claymation tale of a girl waltzing between worlds at a museum gala.

Night of the Fluffet

USA—2018—DCP—8 Minutes

In English with English subtitles

Director: Raymond Wallace

Producer: Raymond Wallace, Stuart Parks II

Screenplay: Stuart Parks II

Cast: Stuart Parks II, Kelsey Elizabeth Thompson, Bert Plante, Mary Lou Plante, Raegan Brindley

A household is invaded by a cartoon puppet.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

United States—2019—DCP—15 Minutes

In English

Director, Producer, Screenplay: Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Cast: Ariela Kuh

Voiceover: Daryl Hannah

Yes, they can be heard, and the sound will thrill you!

Monday, July 15, 6:30 p.m., RR1

Wednesday, July 17, 3:30 p.m., RR1

Saturday, July 20, 3:30 p.m., WOH

The Grey Zone

USA/Canada—2018—DCP—16 Minutes

Director, Writer: Brian Gersten

Producer: Brian Gersten, Monica Berra

Cast: Steve Kelly, Seetha Lowe

Documentary exploring the land dispute over Machias Seal Island between the US & Canada.

About John

USA—2019—DCP—12 Minutes

In English

Director, Writer: Lauren Shaw

With: John Willey

Get to know the poet, woodworker and Belgrade Lakes resident John Willey.

Deciduous Impotence

United States—2018—DCP—5 Minutes

In English

Director, Screenplay: Martha Campbell

Cinematographer: P. Burton Campbell

A man rakes the forest floor in this stop motion film.

Friendpage

USA—2019—DCP—22 Minutes

In English

Director: Ryan Hart

Producer: Ryan Hart, Sam Knutsen, Wills Waites, Brian Whitney

Screenplay: Sam Knutsen

Cast: Brian Whitney, Ryan Hart, Wills Waites, Daiva Bhandari, Trevor Fergeau

A man changes vocations from surveillance to standup comedy.

Next Article

miffonedge vol 7

Venues

Ága

American Factory

Aquarela

UK/Germany/Denmark/USA—2019—DCP—89 Minutes

East Coast premiere! Director Oliver Krimpas and Screenwriter

You Know It

World premiere! Maine made!

the Kingdom of Rhythm

Sponsored by Christopher Hastings Confections

[Censored]

Change the Subject

Within You Without You

Divino Amor (Divine Love)

Have You Seen My Movie?

Hier (Yesterday)

His Master’s Voice

Hjärtat (The Heart)

Sponsored by Ray and Martha Phillips

In Fabric

World premiere! Shot

USA—2019—Digital Projection—77 Minutes

by Kate O’Halloran, Red Sky Consulting

U.S. premiere! Insulaire (Islander)

Jay Myself

Karde

ler (Brothers)

East Coast premiere! Los Tiburones (The Sharks)

Midnight Family

Mike Wallace is Here

Pupille (In Safe Hands)

Teoria do Ímpeto (Theory of Impetus)

Brazil—2019—Digital Projection—87 Minutes

Vita & Virginia

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

Icarus Stops for Breakfast

Hiding in Daylight

It’s a Mess

Presence of the Past

Whiteout

The Reveal, Iran

La Bruja de Fósforo Paseante, Mexico

Todo se calma, Argentina

Quiet, Slovenia

The Menarche, Taiwan

Nashedonia

Three/Four

Night of the Fluffet

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

The Grey Zone

About John

Deciduous Impotence

Friendpage

More articles from this publication:

miffonedge vol 7

Free Community Workshops at MIFF

New Argentine Cinema

Wind, Water, and Music: Ethnographic Iran

Bertolucci

Jay Cocks Introduces: A Tribute to Verna Bloom

Mid-Life Achievement Award Honoree: Hilary Brougher

This article is from:

22nd Maine International Film Festival Program Guide