AMERICAN JUSTICE ON TRIAL

USA 2022 - DCP - 40 minutes, in English

Directors: Andrew Abrahams, Herb Ferrette

Producers: Andrew Abrahams, Lise Pearlman

Print Courtesy: Andrew Abrahams

“Free Huey!” was the chant and the slogan when the Black Panther Party was being cracked down on by Richard Nixon’s Justice Department and others in the ‘60s. Yet it’s taken ‘til now for the story of Huey P. Newton’s incarceration and freeing to be cinematically told, and concisely and powerfully at that, in AMERICAN JUSTICE ON TRIAL, Andrew Abrahams’ (UNDER OUR SKIN) and Herb Ferrette’s riveting new film, which depicts how Huey’s defense team successfully put racism itself on trial. —Ken Eisen

World Premiere

Thursday, July 14 6:30 P.M. | RR1

Defending The Dark

USA 2022 - DCP - 35 minutes, in English Director, Producer, Print Courtesy: Tara Roberts Zabriskie

The skies of Maine, outside the bright lights of its relatively major metropolises, are the most beautiful in the northeast because there’s so little human-made light, and we can see the stars and planets in their full glory. MIFF’s nighttime screening of DEFENDING THE DARK, Tara Roberts Zabriskie’s lovely film that’s both a celebration and a history of and homage to Maine’s beautiful dark skies, will be paired with a star tour in the theater by one of the film’s many learned, enthusiastic, and entertaining interviewees, John Meader, who will treat us to his wondrous planetarium show indoors, and then—if the weather permits—take us out to the great outdoors for a firsthand, guided look up. —Ken Eisen Sponsored by Stephen and Cathy Sears

North American Premiere FAIRWAYS TO HAPPINESS

United Arab Emirates 2022 - DCP - 85 minutes, in English and in Arabic with English subtitles

Director, Producer: Doug Morrione

Print Courtesy: Doug Morrione

The United Arab Emirates is the first country in the world to have established a Ministry of Happiness. THERE’S an idea! In FAIRWAYS TO HAPPINESS, Waterville area native and now Dubai resident Doug Morrione checks in with an amazing group of humans, including a Buddhist monk, a veterinarian, a priest and an educator, about the nature and journey to happiness—complex and/or simple—and juxtaposes those journeys with that of the cheery Eugene, whose quest is to lower his golf score on Dubai’s fairways. Morrione’s journey leads him to Nepal, to Ireland, and to his native Winslow, Maine, as Eugene soldiers on at the links. Happiness may not be a hole-in-one, but can it be found along the way? —Ken Eisen