Film Festivals | Interviews

Documentary Dreams

1 Oct , 2005  

Written by Elaine Mak | Posted by:

Founding Director for the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) Benjamin Fowlie talks about his motivation and experience behind creating and launching the first year of his documentary film festival.

Benjamin Fowlie, a 2003 Emerson College graduate has been busy preparing for the September 29th opening of the first annual Camden International Film Festival. Fowlie, a former Boston-based independent producer and director decided to choose a path different from many other film school grads. Rather than move to L.A. after graduation, Fowlie chose to follow his calling, and return to his hometown of Camden, Maine to create and organize a festival dedicated to honoring independent documentary filmmakers around the world.

Each year, the CIFF will focus its featured films and events on a specific genre. This year, the festival will strive to bring awareness to social, political, economic, and environmental injustices through its films, panels, and other events. Some films featured in this year’s festival include nationally acclaimed documentaries "Mardi Gras: Made in China," "The Fall of Fujimora," and "Darwin’s Nightmare." The festival will also feature two U.S. premiers, "Switch Off (Apaga Y Vamonos)," and "Breakdown," as well as a number of New England premiers.

NewEnglandFilm.com recently spoke to Fowlie about his motivation, effort and experience behind the creation and organization of the first year of the Camden International Film Festival.

Elaine Mak: Tell me about your background in film, and what inspired you to take on such a large-scale post-graduation project.

Benjamin Fowlie: I attended Emerson College in Boston, MA majoring in film production and journalism. I decided L.A. would not be the place for me, and I was touring heavily with Constants [Fowlie’s band] on Radar Recordings out of Boston, MA. My junior year in college I decided my hometown of Camden, Maine would be a great spot for a fest because of its ideal location and beautiful New England setting.

The project took a long time to form because it was just ideas until about a year ago. It took parting with my band and moving back to Camden to really get the project off the ground. This festival has always been a way to get into the industry without working under someone for years and years. We have all met and talked with so many great people regarding this project whether they are filmmakers, community members, press, whatever, everyone is just very excited. It’s something new for Maine, maybe not everywhere else, but we are Maine’s only all doc film festival.

EM: What is your job description with the festival?

Fowlie: I am the founding director for the Camden International Film Festival, and have been lucky to find many great people that have found this project worthy of their talent and time, especially Stephanie Shershow (director) who was the one who helped push this project out the door and let everyone know that even in our first year we were going to be something big and exciting. We planned a program, made it bigger and bigger each day, not caring so much about the budget or what it would cost us, just worrying about getting the best possible program we could. We knew the program would sell itself, and it did. Also, Joseph Duda, our programmer and volunteer coordinator. He’s been working with us from Boston, commuting in desperate times of need to help make this thing work.

EM: Tell me about the panel that chose the films.  How many submissions did you get, and what strategy did you use to choose the final films? 

Fowlie: We [the CIFF Staff] were all the panel. We attended festivals, hooked up with Withoutabox, and kept a pulse on the doc scene. The films we chose had to be new, without distribution, still on the circuit and that all stood out unanimously. We got over 200 submissions, including our two U.S. premiers which we are very excited about.

EM: "Mardi Gras: made in China" and the "Fall of Fujimora" were both featured at Sundance last year.  What was your method in attracting these strong films?

Fowlie: IFF Boston [International Film Festival of Boston], that fest is amazing! We went there to see how it was run and prep for our event here. Also we told the filmmakers we could give them a chance to relax, enjoy fall and that Mid-Coast Maine is one of the most beautiful places in the world, with a willing and waiting audience.

EM: Tell me a little about the other films in the festival, have any won any awards or been featured in other large festivals? 

Fowlie: "Darwin’s Nightmare" has been doing very well. It won HotDocs this past year as well as many other[s] internationally. "Switch Off," one U.S. premiere we have, has been doing well throughout the environmental circuit, especially in Europe. Joanne Tuckers’ "Breakdown," also a U.S. premiere, has only been shown on Al Jazeera TV in Iraq. A journalist in England and on Al Jazeera, [Tucker] was featured in Jehane Noujaims’ "Control Room." "Parallel Lines" has also been doing well everywhere and just got picked up by Documentary Educational Resources. All in all, they are all doing well, these films are great. They all highlight something different. Many screened in Tribeca but never made it further north so we are honored to screen them here.

EM: What strategies did you use to promote this festival?

Fowlie: The local and state press has been amazing, as I said, this is new for Maine there aren’t that many fests here. MIFF [Maine International Film Festival] has been around for a while and always does a great job programming. We also did a lot of driving around and promoting ourselves, hanging posters and handing out fliers. Stephanie, Joe and I all have some background in the underground music scene of Boston or NYC so self promotion comes pretty natural.

EM: What is CIFF TV?  Where will it air, and when? 

Fowlie: CIFF TV is the creation of Rob Draper, famed cinematographer and CEO of VisionMill Studios, a new hi-def production facility here in Camden. They have become our presenting sponsor. CIFF TV is a nightly one hour news-like show that will be broadcast live over the web each night during the festival with interviews with filmmakers, audience members, venues etc. Pre and post will be done right here at VisionMill (www.visionmillstudios.com), also the home to our opening night party. DVDs will also be on sale.

EM: Tell me about the intensive study program with the University of Maine.

Fowlie: The University of Maine has made an intensive study class around the fest, sending down 40 students and ten staff from the school. It’s a three-credit course that centers around the fest and the issues that are raised in the films. We are looking forward to making this relationship stronger in the years to come.

EM: How many people do you expect will attend this festival? 

Fowlie: Our goal from the start has been to attract 2,500 people to this festival over the four days. We have the location and the films and it’s a great time of year here with the leaves starting to change, so we’ll see, it’s always difficult to predict an outcome.

EM: Who are your biggest sponsors, and how did you find them?

Fowlie: As I stated earlier, VisionMill has been so helpful, the team here are the best guidance, they only want the best for us and it has been great to be able to ask such industry veterans what we should do. Also the local press, Courier Publications and Village Soup have been wonderful. We hope next year to acquire larger sponsors, especially an airline and maybe a liquor sponsor, two of our biggest expenses. On another note, 20 rooms were donated by various bed and breakfasts around Camden and Rockland. We were so amazed at this. What a generous gesture from the community.

EM: A lot of film festivals run with a great deal of help from volunteers.  How many volunteers do you expect to have this year, and what benefits are you offering them?

Fowlie: We have volunteers from all over the state, about 20 of them and they have been so helpful. We would not be where we are today without them and yes, they are getting taken care of…our shifts are short and they can go and see anything they want all weekend long, plus a nifty t-shirt. Most volunteers don’t care about that stuff though. They just want to be a part of this, because as I said earlier, it’s an exciting time for the mid-coast of Maine.

EM: What kinds of keynote events do you have scheduled?

Fowlie: We are honoring Al Maysles on Thursday September 29th on 50 years of filmmaking and Alan Abel on Saturday. He is the star of the film "Abel Raises Cain." We also have a forum on female documentary filmmakers, and a shorts program.

The Camden International Film Festival will run from Thursday September 29 – Sunday, October 2. Passes, lodging information, film listings and schedules are available on the CIFF website, www.camdenfilmfest.org.


The Camden International Film Festival will run from Thursday September 29 - Sunday, October 2. Passes, lodging information, film listings and schedules are available on the CIFF website, www.camdenfilmfest.org.

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