Photo / Renee Cordes
Patrice Courtaban, COO of French TV network TV5Monde, chatted with Mainebiz during a stopover in Portland before attending the Camden International Film Festival earlier this month in the midcoast area.
Updated: September 25, 2019
Banner year for Camden film fest sparks thoughts of the sequel
Courtesy / Camden International Film Festival
At a screening of "Scattering CJ" at this year's Camden International Film Festival, viewers hold glow sticks that say "hope." The film is about high suicide rates among veterans, according to festival founder Ben Fowlie.
After wrapping up a banner 15th edition of the Camden International Film Festival earlier this month, the founder is already thinking about next year.
"We took yesterday off and we're back in the office today," Ben Fowlie told Mainebiz a few days after the weekend festival concluded. It was held Sept. 12-15, with screenings and events in Camden, Rockland and Rockport.
The documentary-film festival, put on by the Points North Institute, saw 12,000 admissions this year, and a 30% increase in sales of festival passes, which translates to around 1,800 passes issued.
Fowlie, who serves as executive and artistic director of the Camden-based institute, founded the festival in 2005 at a time he says the genre began drawing wider audiences with films such as "Winged Migration," released in 2001.
With two months to go until planning starts in earnest for the 2020 Camden festival, Fowlie said he's keen on retaining the "downtown energy" of the three midcoast locales as the festival's appeal grows.
"I don't want to be moving out to places that don't have a walkable structure like Camden, Rockport and Rockland," he said. "I want people to get coffee and go to restaurants between screenings."
This year, he said about half the program was foreign-language films from countries including Lithuania, France, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Syria.
"It was really all over the place," he said, "and we hope to grow and do more," he said.
The Camden International Film Festival has an operating budget of $1 million, of which around $500,00 comes from corporate sponsorship. Paid staff for the festival is around 50 people, with more than 200 volunteers giving about 2,000 hours, Fowlie said.
The Points North Institute aims to be a launching pad for the next generation of nonfiction storytellers.
Besides the Camden International Film Festival, the institute puts on a growing number of artist development initiatives from retreats to workshops.
View from French TV exec
French television network TV5Monde is a longtime contributing festival sponsor, along with several others.
Patrice Courtaban, COO of TV5Monde USA, told Mainebiz he thought the 2019 edition had a strong lineup and commended the organizers for making it into one of the leading events for documentaries.
"I could really see that in the quality of the filmmakers in attendance," he said, "and the engagement of the audience, particularly around the films that provide a unique perspective on some of today's most important social issues."
Courtaban, who is based in Los Angeles, was equally impressed with what he deemed a great reception for French-language films, including the U.S. premiere of Agnes Varda's documentary "Varda by Agnes" and a film called "Celebration," about Yves Saint Laurent's last fashion show. Though shot more than two decades ago, the film had only been screened once before, he noted.
In the longer term, Courtaban said that TV5 Monde is looking at ways to encourage the making of French-language films in Maine, and at possible collaborations with educational institutions to introduce francophone-immersion programs for young people.
"Although a lot of French is spoken in Lewiston and other places," he said during a recent interview in Portland, "people are starting to lose some of the language. The real question is, how can you maintain it so that it is not lost forever? ... We want French to be part of the future, and to engage with the younger generation."
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