The 2017 CIFF Selects series will kick-off on January 18th at 7 PM with the Academy Award short-listed feature documentary, FIRE AT SEA, the first documentary film to win the top award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Situated 150 miles south of Sicily, Lampedusa has hit headlines as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees hoping to make a new life in Europe. After spending months living on the island and engaging with its inhabitants, acclaimed Italian filmmaker, Gianfranco Rosi accumulated an incredible array of footage, portraying the history, culture and daily lives of the islanders. Focusing on 12-year-old Samuele, as he explores the land and attempts to gain mastery of the sea, the film slowly builds a breathtakingly naturalistic portrait of the Lampedusan people and the events that surround them.
FIRE AT SEA is being co-presented by the Camden Conference in anticipation of the 30th Annual Camden Conference: Refugees and Global Migration, which will be held live at the Camden Opera House February 17-19, 2017.
On February 15, the CIFF Selects series will follow up with another Academy Award short-listed film, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, by Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends—Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of this manuscript.
Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. By confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.
“We’re thrilled to to collaborate with the Camden Opera House and the Town of Camden on expanding our popular CIFF Selects series into a year-round program,” said Ben Fowlie, Executive Director of the Points North Institute. “It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to bring more compelling stories to our community year-round, and beyond exciting to launch the 2017 series with such incredibly powerful, and timely films. Both FIRE AT SEA and I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO represent the highest level of craftsmanship, and are spectacular examples of the power of nonfiction storytelling.”
Additional CIFF Selects titles will be announced in the coming months. The screenings are held on the third Wednesday of each month, except for March and October. Upcoming screenings dates include February 15, March 22, April 10, May 17, June 21, July 19, August 16, September 20, October 11 and November 15. Q&As with filmmakers, either in person or via skype, will follow select screenings. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased on the day of show at the Camden Opera House box office. More information here: http://www.camdenoperahouse.com/
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