In July, MIFF leads to MOFF, and Maine movie fans love it. After the Maine International Film Festival concludes on July 19th, the Maine Outdoor Film Festival picks up the baton with six days of movies about the great outdoors from July 21-26.
Now entering its 14th illustrious season, MOFF is a celebration of all things outdoorsy, with documentaries embracing subjects as wide and varied as the world-spanning environments they’re set in. From docs diving into such exterior pursuits as skiing, mountain biking, white water rafting, sailing, and pretty much anything else you can do in the sun, snow or spray, to examinations of climate change, environmental destruction, and the people fighting back, the Maine Outdoor Film Festival is a simultaneously thrilling, dazzling, and sobering look at our relationship to this fragile, magnificent planet.
With screenings taking place at SPACE, the Portland Museum of Art, Salt and Maine College of Art & Design, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the Three of Strong Spirits distillery, and MOFF’s signature outdoor screenings right on Portland’s Eastern Promenade, MOFF also serves as a celebration of Portland community. (As ever, Eastern Prom attendees should bring bug spray—this is summer in Maine, people.)
With more than 100 features and shorts making up this year’s festival, here’s just a taste of the outstanding offerings to get you up off your couch and out into the great outdoors yourself.
‘Samland’
July 21, Salt at Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress St., Portland
Maine artist Sam Shaw has spent the last 30 years transforming his property on Little Cranberry Island into an outward expression of his own eccentric impulses. Samland, as it’s come to be known to the artists and locals attracted to Shaw’s vision of an artistic retreat, attracts likeminded dreamers to a strange and whimsical place where grief and imagination become inspiration.
‘The Descent Into Discomfort’
July 21, Eastern Promenade
To those of us more comfy indoors, the title of this Icelandic documentary might describe much of what MOFF’s subjects get up to on a regular basis. In truth, this short doc chronicles the filmmakers’ long, long journey from one tip of that country’s notoriously rugged terrain all the way to the other, all in one visually stunning 10-day marathon.
‘Healing the Sweet Flowing Waters’
July 22, Salt at Maine College of Art & Design
Taken from the Wabanaki name for Maine’s Kennebago River, this documentary follows a committed group of conservationists seeking to save one of the world’s last habitats for the Eastern book trout. Maine is part of the wider world, as MOFF shows us again and again, and our state provides us all with plenty of opportunities to cherish and preserve it.
‘Dragon Mom’
July 23 at Space, 534-538 Congress St., Portland
Never underestimate a mother’s love, as this short New Hampshire-set documentary examines the unbreakable bond between a mom and her profoundly disabled son. Defying expectations and the prejudices of those (like a certain anti-vaxxer Health and Human Services Secretary I could mention) who view disabled people as hopeless and disposable, this titular dragon mom learns along with her son the joys of overcoming obstacles and forming bonds on New England’s ski slopes.
‘Beauty in a Fall’
July 24 at Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress St.
What does it take to force you to take the biggest chance of your life? If you’re a world-renowned daredevil rock-climber like the subject of this thoughtful documentary, it takes a horrific fall to come to terms with the truth she’s been hiding her entire life. Julianna Howett’s journey through both major physical rehabilitation and her journey to come out as a transgender woman make for an inspirational tale of courage and resilience.
‘Catching Pinecones’
July 24 at PMA
Happily disreputable “dirtbag climbers,” married couple Jan and Herb Conn spent their life in a self-built cabin in the wilds of South Dakota with no electricity or running water, venturing out on long and arduous (and dangerous) expeditions to map uncharted caves, climb countless mountains, and live a life according to their own stubborn philosophy, right into their cantankerous golden years.
‘An Optimist’
July 24 at Salt at Maine College of Art and Design
With the Gulf of Maine’s delicate ecosystem warming at a terrifying rate and corporate polluters running riot thanks to the Trump administration’s corruption and greed, it’s tough to look ahead with much optimism. And while Mike Doan, this short doc’s subject and dogged climate scientist has to deal with depressing truths all day, he also sets forth scientific plans to right the ship and save the planet from right here in Maine.
‘Lobster Queen’
Saturday, July 25 on the Eastern Prom
Of course, no Maine-based outdoor film festival would be complete without a movie about a crusty, no-nonsense lobster boat captain. In director Alix Buck’s film, that’s Captain Gail Atkinson, a gleefully foul-mouthed lesbian Nova Scotia skipper finding her 30-year tenure behind the wheel challenged like never before with everything from a major personal upheaval to the storm of the century.
‘Mr. Appolinaire: Nature’s Champion’
Saturday, July 25 at PMA
A brisk, heartening, inspirational look at one man, Cameroon wildlife activist Ndohoudou Appolinaire, as he dedicates his life to saving endangered gorillas and chimpanzees from human poaching.
‘Fork in the Road’
Sunday, July 26 at PMA
Executive producer and the most outdoorsy man ever Nick Offerman also appears in this documentary celebrating those food growers resisting the rise of industrial agriculture while nurturing our relationship to the land and the planet. Farmers (from kelp to fish to crops to cows) all share their hard-earned wisdom about the need for food sustainability and environmental stewardship.
Dennis Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Auburn with his wife and his cat.
IF YOU GO
Maine Outdoor Film Festival, July 21-26, at venues around Portland. $80 outdoor pass/$150 all-screenings pass/$200 Friend of MOFF pass with extra features. For tickets and info, go to maineoutdoorfilmfestival.com.