The Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced its slate of features and short films for the 20th edition of the festival, which will take place in person from September 12-15 at venues in Camden and Rockland, Maine and online from September 16-30 for audiences across the United States.
A program of the Points North Institute, CIFF is recognized as one of the world’s most vital platforms championing cinematic nonfiction and documentary film from global filmmakers. The festival attracts one of the largest industry gatherings of the documentary film community in the U.S. It is recognized as both an important stop on the beginning of the Oscar campaign trail and as an entry point for international filmmakers to find U.S. audiences, distributors and production relationships.
YETI®, National Geographic Documentary Films, RandomGood Foundation, The deNovo Initiative and Kanopy return as Headlining Sponsors, and are joined this year by Luminate.
This year’s edition includes 31 features, 22 short films, and two immersive experiences from 37 countries around the world. 60% of the features in the program are either U.S., North American or World Premieres, including several new works coming straight to Maine following recent premieres at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, along with award-winners and standout films from Sundance, Berlinale, CPH:DOX, Visions du Réel festivals and others. For the second year, the CIFF’s two major competitions — the Harrell Award and Cinematic Vision competitions — are comprised entirely of film’s making their U.S. or North American premieres at the festival.
Sean Flynn, Program Director and Points North Co-Founder, said, “the twentieth edition of CIFF will be a space to celebrate the enduring power and ever-expanding possibility of the documentary form—and to imagine how we might collectively fortify its future.” He continued, “At a time when basic democratic values like freedom of expression, equality and pluralism seem to be at risk, the filmmakers in this year’s program remind us why artistic independence is so vital to our culture. Their films take bold creative risks, introduce us to perspectives missing from public discourse, and offer refracted visions of both the world we inhabit and the more free worlds we can build.”
Along with Flynn, this year’s festival was curated by Milton Guillén, Zaina Bseiso, and Cam Howard.
CIFF will officially open with Petra Costa’s Apocalypse in the Tropics. A follow-up to her Oscar®-nominated feature The Edge of Democracy, Costa’s latest film reflects a harrowing portrait of the clash between religious fundamentalism and secular democracy in Brazilian politics, while holding up a mirror to similar forces threatening democratic institutions around the world. Also screening on opening night is Reas, the latest work from Argentinian interdisciplinary artist, Lola Arias. Reas is a dynamic and collaborative hybrid musical made with people formerly incarcerated in one of Argentina’s largest women’s prisons.
Two films examining the parallel fragilities of American democracy will make their U.S. premieres at the festival. Following its premiere in Toronto, Steve Pink’s The Last Republican is an intimate look at former U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger during his last year in office, including his efforts to hold the leader of his own party accountable through his work on the January 6 Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Michael Premo’s debut feature Homegrown, which will screen in Venice Critics’ Week, profiles the grassroots activists fueling the rise of a far right movement in an increasingly polarized and paranoid country.
Also exploring challenging questions about democracy and accountability are Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk and Pedro Kos with their latest work The White House Effect, an immersive, all-archival investigation of how the first Bush administration navigated the early days of the climate crisis.
Against these backdrops of institutional failure, many of the films in this year’s CIFF program explore individuals and communities transcending dominant narratives and discovering new forms of healing, solidarity, love and liberation.
The CIFF slate will feature two World Premieres in this year’s edition: Adam Sekuler’s The Flamingo, a portrait of a woman in her mid-sixties as she rediscovers her agency and sexuality through the BDSM community and Eastern Anthems, co-directed by Matthew Wolkow and Jean-Jacques Martinod, an epistolary essay film that traverses the United States during the COVID pandemic, reflecting on nature and rebirth amidst the swarming of a periodical cicada brood.
One of the program’s centerpiece films is No Other Land, winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Berlinale. Made in collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, the film documents resistance to the decades-long Israeli military occupation, forced expulsion and ongoing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, reflecting on both the power and limitations of bearing witness to injustice and building solidarity across lines of difference. Co-directors and protagonists Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham will both be in attendance at the festival for an extended conversation about documentary film and human rights.
The festival will present a number of other North American and U.S. Premieres from some of the most innovative and adventurous documentary filmmakers working across the globe: Elizabeth Lo’s suspenseful, cinematic feature Mistress Dispeller follows a woman in China attempting to save her marriage by hiring an undercover professional to break up her husband’s affair; Mati Diop’s Dahomey follows the repatriation of stolen cultural artifacts and reckons with the material and spiritual legacies of French colonialism in modern-day Benin; Ted Passion’s Patrice: The Movie is a moving love story that centers the ongoing struggles for disability justice and marriage equality; I’m Not Everything I Want to Be traces the life and work of long-overlooked Czech photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková; Lisa Jackson’s Wilfred Buck revolves around a Cree elder who overcomes displacement, racism and addiction to become a world-renowned keeper of Indigenous star knowledge; The Stimming Pool is a collaborative experiment in crafting cinema that reflects the neurodivergent experience; and Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other is an intimate portrait of the marriage between photographer Joel Meyerowitz and writer Maggie Barrett as they navigate the vicissitudes of love, artistic success, and old age.
Another festival highlight is Blink. Directed by Oscar-winner Daniel Roher (Navalny) and Edmund Stenson, Blink is the story of a Canadian family embarking on a round-the-world adventure after learning that three of their four children will soon be blind due to a genetic condition. The film will be released by National Geographic Documentary Films.
The feature slate includes three alumni of the organization’s long-running Points North Fellowship, which helps early-career filmmakers launch their projects through the festival’s popular Points North Pitch: Jazmin Renée Jones’s debut Seeking Mavis Beacon; Agent of Happiness, co-directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó; and Nesa Azimi’s film DRIVER. CIFF welcomes these three films following their premieres at the Sundance and Tribeca film festivals.
CIFF’s showcase of creative and innovative cinematic nonfiction extends into its slate of short films, including World Premieres of The Tengu Club, by Britton Caillouette and Hilary Hutcheson, and Adura Baba Mi, by Juliana O. Kasumu. The shorts program includes new works by internationally recognized filmmakers and artists including Turner Prize winner Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Diary of the Sky, Lynne Sachs’s Contractions, and You can’t get what you want but you can get me by Samira Elagoz and Z Walsh. Also featured in the shorts program is the festival’s annual Dirigo Docs showcase of short films by Maine-based filmmakers.
This year’s Storyforms program, the festival’s exhibition of immersive and multidisciplinary cinematic nonfiction, will feature a range of forms and styles. British director Darren Emerson brings an experiential virtual reality documentary about the history of the underground acid house rave scene, In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats; CIFF alumni Mike Palmieri and Donal Mosher return with a multimedia performance, Spectral Transmissions, which weaves live music with a chorus of stories and essays exploring how we’re haunted by both the past and future. Gary Huswit, also a Camden alum, brings Eno, a “generative documentary” about the ambient music pioneer Brian Eno, which uses algorithms and archives to take on a unique form every time it is screened.
Similar to prior years, the festival will run concurrently with Points North’s six Artist Programs fellowships, which support 26 documentary features and shorts in development from around the world through mentor-led creative retreats and industry access opportunities. In total, nearly seventy early- and mid-career filmmakers with works-in-progress will attend CIFF through Points North programs and partnerships with an array of mission-aligned artist development organizations, including American Film Showcase, Bay Area Video Coalition, American Documentary | POV and Chicken & Egg Pictures. The confluence of these programs make the CIFF weekend the most dynamic, intimate and globally representative documentary market experience in the U.S. A full announcement of this year’s Points North supported filmmaker fellows will be made later in August.
A complete list of the program’s features and short films can be found below.
2024 Camden International Film Festival Features
Features
Agent Of Happiness | Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó | Bhutan, Hungary
How can you measure happiness? The country of Bhutan invented Gross National Happiness to do just that, and Amber is one of the agents who travels door to door to meet people and measure how happy they really are. He is still living with his elderly mother at the age of 40, but nevertheless, a hopeless romantic who dreams of finding love: a happiness agent who is in search of his own happiness. We embark with Amber on a cross-country road trip meeting citizens from all walks of life, reminding us of the fragility and beauty of our own happiness. No matter where we live.
Apocalypse In The Tropics | Petra Costa | Brazil, USA, Denmark
Crowds of evangelical people pray for Jesus as COVID victims are buried in mass graves in the Amazon. Encouraged by televangelists, Bolsonaro supporters destroy the presidential palace, and demand military intervention. “Apocalypse in the Tropics,” unveils an uncanny reflection of the world we live in.
Apple Cider Vinegar | Sofie Benoot | Belgium, Netherlands | North American Premiere
Stones are at once the most foundational and the most overlooked parts of our lifeworld. When a retired nature documentary narrator passes a kidney stone, she decides to tell one more story about this forgotten world of stone . A hypnotic essay film asking urgent ecological questions, Apple Cider Vinegar takes the viewer on a journey meeting Palestinian quarry workers, passionate British Geologist and people living on the lava fields of Fogo.
Blink | Daniel Roher, Edmund Stenson | USA
When three of their four children are diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare, incurable disease that leads to severe visual impairment, the Pelletier family’s world changes forever. In the face of this life-altering news, Edith Lemay, Sébastien Pelletier and their children set out on a trip around the world to experience all its beauty while they still can. As they fill their memories with breathtaking destinations and once-in-a-lifetime encounters, the family’s love, resilience, and unshakeable sense of wonder ensure that their uncertain future does not define their present.
Dahomey | Mati Diop | France, Senegal, Benin | US Premiere
Dahomey chronicles the 2021 return of 26 royal treasures to Benin from France, 61 years post-independence. Filmmaker Mati Diop blends observational footage and hybrid techniques to capture this pivotal moment in post-colonial cultural politics. Following the artifacts’ journey from Paris to Benin, the film incorporates the voice of King Gezo’s statue speaking in Fon. Through poetic visuals and debates among Beninese students, Diop explores questions of cultural identity, historical trauma, and colonial redress, offering a multifaceted reflection on whether the looting can ever be repaid.
DRIVER | Nesa Azimi | USA
After losing everything, Desiree Wood takes a second lease on life as a long-haul truck driver. Alongside an irreverent group of women truckers, she fights for a life on the road.
Eastern Anthem | Matthew Wolkow, Jean-Jacques Martinod | Canada, USA, Ecuador | World Premiere
An unfinished film is passed along from one friend to another. The dialog between them is a journey crossed by the swarming of the Great Eastern Brood X of periodical cicadas that prophetically emerge every 17 years in the United States, invoking a reflection of a post-pandemic present and our shared futures. A road movie composed of a chorus of voices (both human and non-human), the warnings of history, the power of nature and rebirth.
Eno | Gary Hustwit | USA
Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno — known for producing David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, among many others; pioneering the genre of ambient music; and releasing over 40 solo and collaboration albums — reveals his creative processes in this groundbreaking generative documentary: a film that’s different every time it’s shown.
A Fidai Film | Kamal AlJafari | Germany, Palestine, Qatar, Brasil, France | US Premiere
Investigating the looting of Palestinian films which took place in Beirut in 1982, the film uses this event as a premise in order to make visible materials hidden in Israeli archives, and proposes a counter-narrative of a continuous history of appropriation.
The Flamingo | Adam Sekuler | USA | World Premiere
The Flamingo is an observational film that follows a woman in her 60s as she pursues sexual exploration, intimate relationships and aging with pleasure.
Homegrown | Michael Premo | USA | North American Premiere
Homegrown is an unflinching chronicle of Americans at war with each other, offering an unprecedented look at right-wing activists as they search for purpose and power – with dire consequences.
After the Soviet invasion of Prague, a young female photographer strives to break free from the constraints of Czechoslovakian normalization and embarks on a wild journey towards freedom, capturing her experiences through thousands of photographs.Kix | Bálint Révész, Dávid Mikulán | Hungary, France, Croatia | North American Premiere
At 8, Sanyi rummages through Budapest’s gritty streets with his skateboard, escaping his cramped-up apartment. As the years go by, some hard lessons are learned but others not so much. As his actions transform from innocent pranks to long-lasting consequences, the country turns its gaze into him, as a symbol of national tragedy.
The Last Republican | Steve Pink | USA | US Premiere
Congressman Adam Kinzinger is the first Republican to hold President Trump accountable for the Jan. 6th Insurrection. It costs him friends, family, and his career. While documenting Adam’s last year in Congress, director/comedian Steve Pink, a far-left progressive, forms a surprising and humorous friendship with his conservative counterpart.
Mistress Dispeller | Elizabeth Lo | China, USA | US Premiere
Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband’s affair. With strikingly intimate access, Mistress Dispeller follows this unfolding family drama from all corners of a love triangle.
Mother Vera | Cécile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson | United Kingdom | North American Premiere
From the thick snow of the Belarusian forest to the heat of the reeds in the French Camargue, Mother Vera is the story of a young Orthodox nun; her turbulent past, and fragile future.
The alliance between a young Palestinian activist in the occupied West Bank and an Israeli journalist provides a unique and human insight into a decades-old conflict, as the two fight against the forced expulsion of the Masafer Yatta community. A film created by a Palestinian-Israeli collective.
Oasis | Tamara Uribe, Felipe Morgado | Chile | North American Premiere
After an unprecedented social uprising, Chile chooses to write a New Constitution. A colorful assembly will be in charge of writing down the dreams of dignity and social justice of an entire people. What could go wrong?
A documentary rom-com about the next phase of marriage equality: disability.
Reas | Lola Arias | Argentina, Germany, Switzerland | US Premiere
Yoseli has a tattoo of the Eiffel Tower on her back and has always wanted to travel, but she was arrested at the airport for drug trafficking. Nacho is a trans man who was arrested for swindling and started a rock band in jail. Gentle or rough, blonde or shaved, cis or trans, long-term inmates or newly admitted: in this hybrid musical, they all re-enact their lives in a Buenos Aires prison.
Rising Up At Night (Tongo Saa) | Nelson Makengo | Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium, Germany, Burkina Faso, Qatar
Between hope, disappointment and religious faith, Rising up at Night (Tongo Saa) is a subtle and fragmented portrait of a population that, despite its challenges, is sublimated by the beauty of Kinshasa’s nights.
Seeking Mavis Beacon | Jazmin Renée Jones | USA
The most recognizable woman in technology lives in our collective imagination. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the software’s Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY detectives search for the model while posing questions about identity and artificial intelligence.
Soundtrack To A Coup D’etat | Johan Grimonprez | Belgium
Amidst the Cold War, jazz icons like Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone become unwitting pawns in a power struggle over Congolese independence. As their music conceals a covert CIA operation leading to Patrice Lumumba’s assassination, they confront their roles in a world where decolonization and political intrigue collide.
The Stimming Pool | The Neurocultures Collective: Sam Chown Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker; Steven Eastwood | UK | US Premiere
The Stimming Pool, co-created by neurodiverse directors and artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood, follows diverse characters navigating environments through an autistic lens, striving to find space in a world free from societal norms.
Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other | Jacob Perlmutter, Manon Ouimet | UK, Denmark, USA | North American Premiere
Life, death and making meaning are the heart of a beautiful and often very funny film about Maggie Barrett and Joel Meyerowitz, an aging artist couple who, after an accident, face the inevitability of impermanence and seek a deep peace in their relationship while they still can.
Union | Stephen Maing & Brett Storey | USA
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize. Chronicling the historic efforts of the ALU, Union is an intimate and surprising story of dogged determination, unorthodox tactics, and speaking up despite David vs. Goliath odds.
Welcome Interplanetary And Sidereal Space Conquerors (Bienvenidos Conquistadores Interplanetarios Y Del Espacio Sidereal) | Andrés Jurado | Colombia, Portugal | US Premiere
Astronauts lost in the Darien are surprised by an indigenous person, did they think they were going to be eaten by a wild cannibal? A deconstruction of propaganda archives from tropical survival training challenges the colonial narrative inscribed in the conquest of space.
The White House Effect | Bonni Cohen, Jonathan Shenk, Pedro Kos | USA
Using exclusively archival materials, The White House Effect tells the dramatic origin story of the climate crisis — how the science came into focus, the way politics overtook the issue in our country, and the role the American people played in the escalating drama. Focused on the pivotal years of 1977-1992, the film cuts through today’s headlines, immersing the audience in an experience of history unfolding in real-time, creating an immediate and gripping drama with the highest possible stakes.
Wilfred Buck | Lisa Jackson | Canada | US Premiere
Moving between earth and stars, past and present, this rollicking hybrid documentary follows the extraordinary life of Wilfred Buck, a charismatic and irreverent Cree Elder who overcame a harrowing history by reclaiming ancestral star knowledge and ceremony.
Will & Harper | Josh Greenbaum | USA
When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America. A Netflix release
Yintah | Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano | Canada
Yintah, meaning “land”, is a feature-length documentary on the Wet’suwet’en nation’s fight for sovereignty. Spanning more than a decade, the film follows Howilhkat Freda Huson and Sleydo’ Molly Wickham as their nation reoccupies and protects their ancestral lands from several of the largest fossil fuel companies on earth.
Shorts
A Body Called Life | Spencer MacDonald | USA, Switzerland, Poland
Adura Baba Mi | Juliana O. Kasumu | Nigeria, Jamaica, United Kingdom | World Premiere
Bisagras | Luis Arnías | USA, Senegal, Brazil
The Comeback Mill | Josh Gerritsen | USA
Contractions | Lynne Sachs | USA
Diary Of A Sky | Lawrence Abu Hamdan | Lebanon | North American Premiere
Dull Spots Of Greenish Colours | Sasha Svirsky | Germany | North American Premiere
An Extraordinary Place | Tom Bell | USA
Familia 
| Picho García, Gabriela Pena | Chile
Four Holes | Daniela Muñoz Barroso | Cuba, France
The Great Big Nothingness: Conversations with Creators | Chase Overland | USA | World Premier
Heritable | Eli Kao | USA
History Is Written At Night | Alejandro Alonso | Cuba, France
Meditations On Silence | Sebastián Quiroz | Chile | International Premiere
Motorcycle Mary | Haley Watson | USA
One Night At Babes | Angelo Madsen Minax | USA
Perfectly A Strangeness | Alison McAlpine | Canada | US Premiere
Take me to the Ocean | Elena Mozzhelina | USA
The Tengu Club | Hilary Hutcheson, Britton Caillouette | USA | World Premiere
Through The Storm | Charles Frank, Fritz Bitsoie | USA
Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?) | Suneil Sanzgiri | India, Portugal, USA
Waldo County Woodshed | Julia Dunlavey | USA
You Can’t Get What You Want But You Can Get Me | Samira Elagoz, Z Walsh | Netherlands, Finland