Remember My Name: Honoring indie cinema at the Maine International Film Festival

Railroad Square Cinema. Photo courtesy of MIFF

The storyboard history of the Maine International Film Festival

As it celebrates its 29th year, MIFF has served as a beacon for local and international filmmakers to showcase their productions to cinephiles across the state of Maine. The festival was born from Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville, which has since evolved into its present-day iteration, Maine Film Center (MFC).

According to Mike Perreault, the executive director of the MFC, the festival started in 1998 by a group of film buffs who yearned for a space where independent and international films could be screened in Maine. As its reputation grew, Railroad Square Cinema caught the attention of the Sundance Institute. The venue was one of 12 theaters to participate in the inaugural Art House Program, a collective that helped showcase indie cinema around the country.

"There's always been a desire--and especially given Railroad Square Cinema's place on the national landscape as a legendary independent arthouse theater--to have a film festival," he said.

This year, the festival features the most diversity in its entire history. The 112 films being screened represent 44 countries.

Movie poster for "Home For Now." Photo courtesy of MIFF

Locals wanted for a part in a movie

Among those 112 are also 21 films created by Maine locals. While the word "international" may be the most attractive qualifier in its title, movie-goers also focus on the word "Maine." Perrault said having "Maine" in their title isn't just to identify the location of the festival, but to honor the source of local cinema with equal weighting.

"Every year, our goal is to underline every single word of the title of the festival," said Perrault.

Beyond the cultural diversity represented at the festival, the local films also offer a diverse range of styles and topics. "Downeast Hardcore: Stories From the Kave" follows the story of an unlikely hub for 21st-century hardcore music located in a sleepy town on Maine's Midcoast. In the Maine Documentary Shorts category, "Home For Now" documents a man building a home for himself on the frozen surface of Flagstaff Lake. Narrative features are also present, including "In Transit," a story of a young bartender living in small-town Maine who agrees to model for an existentially floundering painter on an artist's retreat, while both confront their preconceptions of what makes a good life.

The festival honors local filmmakers by awarding their Tourmaline Prize. Named after Maine's state gem, a group of judges reviews each film and honors the best Maine-made film of the festival. On MIFF's closing night, a $5,000 prize is awarded for best feature film, and a $2,500 prize is awarded to the best short film.

"We have a lot of really good support behind this program," Perrault said.

Photo courtesy of Mike Kaplan

And the award goes to...

MIFF also honors legends in the industry with their lifetime (and also mid-life) achievement award. In the past, recipients of the award have included Clive Owen, Sissy Spacek, Glenn Close, John Turturro, and Ed Harris, among many others.

One of the people responsible for bringing these folks to the Pine State is Mike Kaplan, who is also receiving a lifetime achievement award during the screening of "The Whales of August" on Thursday, July 16. Kaplan has worn many hats in the movie industry, working as a producer, actor, director, and art director.

He had initially been contacted by a friend and local screenwriter named Jay Cocks. Cocks knew Kaplan and actor Malcolm McDowell were friends, and asked the producer if McDowell would come to Maine to receive the "Moose Award," a handcrafted statuette given to MIFF's mid-life achievement inductees.

"Then, subsequent to Malcolm, there have been six or seven different people I've been involved with getting to the festival, like Keith Carradine, Lauren Hutton, Clive Owen, Deborah Winger," Kaplan said.

Kaplan is also a renowned movie poster artist created campaigns for "A Clockwork Orange" and "2001: A Space Odyssey." As a lifelong fan of the medium, Kaplan argued that revitalized interest in films leans on the promotional material. According to Kaplan, studios have neglected the importance of a good movie poster to promote modern films, which he described as "boring."

"It's a lost art," he said. "The images are usually headshots of the stars with the credits on the bottom and this very thin type that you can't read."

Kaplan's art showcases movies with renowned directors like Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, and Alan Rudolph.

Photo courtesy of Maine International Film Festival

Choose me... Remember my name....

Rudolph is also receiving a lifetime achievement award, which takes place on Tuesday, July 14, the same night as his indie classic, "Choose Me," is being screened.

Rudolph started his career in the mid-70s under the tutelage of Robert Altman, a five-time Academy Award nominee for films like "M*A*S*H," "Nashville," "The Player," "Short Cuts," and "Gosford Park". Altman belonged to a generation of filmmakers who spearheaded the "New Hollywood" era, where directors commanded authority over film productions instead of traditional movie studios. Rudolph believes Altman's approach was essential to the development of the "independent" film category because of his commitment to producing movies on his own terms.

"It's sort of like rock and roll and LSD," he said. "There's life before Altman and life after Altman."

As Rudolph and his contemporaries migrated outside the Hollywood system, he received a crash course in DIY cinema. Upon the release of his debut film, "Welcome to LA," Rudolph remembers sitting with a friend in a parking lot across from the theater screening the movie and watching the movie-goers' reactions from afar.

"And then this woman comes right in front of the box office with a picket sign that said, 'this film is vile, vile, vile, vile'," he said. "And I looked at Tom, and I said, 'I don't think I'm gonna go to any more opening day films of mine'."

But despite the eye-opening experience, Rudolph continued to make films. His most successful stretch started in the 1980s, when the filmmaker released indie classics like "Choose Me," "Trouble in Mind," "The Moderns," and "Remember My Name," which Rudolph stated was his personal favorite. All four will be screened at MIFF.

Though he borrowed heavily from Altman's work ethic, Rudolph developed his own visual style that blended noir, fantasy, and erotica. Common themes include isolation, eccentric characters, and the drudgery of relationships. He frequently collaborated with Keith Carradine and Geneviève Bujold and provided Divine her first role out of female drag, which made her infamous in several John Waters films.

Though his output was prolific, a lot of his films are out-of-print and hard to find on streaming services. In fact, the festival will be the first time he'll be seeing a lot of his films in many years.

Rudolph's hope is that films from those pioneer days will find a new audience at film festivals like MIFF that not only screen indie classics but also help restore movies in a crisper, 4K format. Perhaps they'll taste like a fine wine that's been aged for 30 or 40 years.

"Or it's corked, and you spit it out," Rudolph said. "One of the two."

Check out MIFF's schedule for tickets and more details.