Using Documentaries to Advance Social and Environmental Progress in Maine
Since 2014, Working Films has partnered with the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) to create a statewide community engagement program in Maine. Beginning with an Engagement Summit at the festival facilitated by Working Films, the program connects nonprofit leaders, professionals, and community leaders from across the state to harness the power of documentary film to spark public dialogue and action on critical issues facing Maine. The current focus of the program is on the environment. The Sustainable Maine initiative is using documentary media to connect global environmental challenges and solutions to issues facing Maine communities and to support a transition to more economically and environmentally just Maine.
Sustainable Maine is modeled after CIFF and Working Films’ first engagement program called Aging in Maine, which created a film program that served a network of twenty Maine-based organizations focused on serving the needs of older adults. Since 2013, these organizations have worked with us to organize dozens of screenings that have sparked important conversations about how the state’s aging demographic and issues like dementia-related illness impact Maine communities.
The University of Maine Center on Aging has been delighted to partner with CIFF and other partnering organizations in offering citizens across the state high quality filmmaking depicting the multiple dimensions of the aging experience.
Len Kaye - Director, University of Maine Center on Aging