CIFF Encore: Dirigo Docs

SPACE presents a Camden International Film Festival encore of Dirigo Docs, featuring nine Maine-made shorts.

Maine is not just the gathering place for CIFF, but a living, breathing landscape shaped by the storytellers who tend to its memories. Across this year’s selection of locally made short films, stewardship comes alive as a daily practice. From tending to a wooden boat and caring for farm animals to forging Muslim foodways and preserving Passamaquoddy traditions, these stories explore what it means to inherit and sustain this place—and its histories—with intention. Films Steward Ship dir. Luke Kaneb • 8 min. A young man new to the water tends a wooden boat through every Maine season, learning from an old boatbuilder how a coast is kept. Sweetgrass dir. Mike Sockabasin, Emily Karlik • 14 min. Guided by a tribal historian, a Passamaquoddy elder honors her mother as she introduces the cultural practice of picking sweetgrass to her granddaughter. Oxbow dir. Greg Kohs • 23 mins. From Maine's quiet trout streams to Tokyo's neon currents, brewer Tim Adams traces the oxbows of his journey, where life's longest detours become beautiful confluences. For a Moment the Clouds Parted and I Felt the Sun dir. Jared Lank • 8 min. A visceral and intimate reflection on a Mi'kmaq family's multigenerational experience of assimilation, told through a collage of archival footage and sonic exploration. Fish Film dir. Emma Baiada • 10 min. Fish Film dives into the impact of salmon aquaculture on Downeast Maine's wild fish, and is a clarion call to help restore Maine's local watersheds. Claws for Concern dir. Julia Forsyth • 10 min. As an invasive species threatens Maine's iconic ecosystems, a waterman, a chef, a science educator—and plenty of advertisers—share their plans to fight back. May the Water Not Freeze dir. Zahira Chaudhry • 16 min. A farming cooperative in Western Maine prepares for their first winter while stewarding community with other Black farmers & cultivating Muslim foodways. Children & Animals dir. Walker Kalan • 12 min. A 12-year old farmer brings his favorite goat to compete at a country fair in Maine – and experiences an existential awakening.