MIFF is pleased to present the official 2009 Program. Featured on this page are some of the special program areas we would like to highlight. Please note that there are several ways to view the program:
* Visit the Tickets page to view ALL of our individual film descriptions, search by date or title, and purchase tickets.
* Want to see an overview? Check out the Schedule at a Glance.

Filmmaker Ben Levine presents The Language of America*

Saturday July 18, 6:30 PM Waterville Opera House
Sunday July 19, 12:30 PM Waterville Opera House
Once lost, how can a language, an invaluable treasure, be revived? Ben Levine, whose Reveil: Waking Up French looked at the French language here in Maine, goes deeper in the world premiere of his new film, made with the Wampanoag, and Narragansett Tribes of New England, and in particular with Maine’s own Passamaquoddy, who have carefully tended their language to keep it alive. All are native cultures and languages that have been severely threatened by the culture of the relative newcomers to this hemisphere. The Language of America, a project many years in the making, takes us to places we’ve never been, in words we’ve never before heard. Buy tickets...

* Passamaquoddy speakers and musicians featured in the film will be guests and participants at the discussions following both shows and at a reception at the Bread Box Cafe (137 Main Street) following the Saturday July 18, 6:30 show.

MIFF at The Music Hall

MIFF is pleased to announce a new satellite location at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH, to be held Friday, July 17 through Sunday, July 19. The schedule of events appears below. Visit www.themusichall.org for more information and to purchase tickets.

Friday, July 17
7:00 p.m. Carousel with Restoring Cinemascope 55
9:15 p.m. Opening Night Reception in Founders Lobby

Saturday, July 18
10:30-11:30 a.m. Seminar: A New Century – A New Activism (Mark Rudd)
12:00 p.m. The Weather Underground with Clear Glasses (Mark Rudd to introduce films, lead post-film discussion and sign his new book)
3:30 p.m. Ghost Bird
6:00 p.m. Pachamama
8:45 p.m. Bonne Année (Actress Karen Young and director Alexander Berberich introduce film and lead post-film discussion)

Sunday, July 19
11:00 a.m. Historias Extraordinarias
4:30 p.m. Shooting Beauty with I am a Man (Director George Kachadorian and producer/subject Courtney Bent lead post-film discussion)
7:45 p.m. The Necessities of Life

Infestation at the Skowhegan Drive-In!

What a treat it is to host a MIFF screening at the Skowhegan Drive-In, and we couldn’t think of a more suitable film than the complete hoot and wild ride that is Kyle Rankin’s Infestation. Rankin, who came to national cinematic prominence by winning the Project Greenlight competition, has come up with the most exuberant fun you’ll have in a theater—or outdoors, if you see Infestation at the Drive-In—this year. Cooper awakes to find himself covered in webbing, hanging from the ceiling of an office where he’s just started his new job. As he struggles out of his slimy prison, he comes face to face with his opponent—a grotesque, powerful and very angry bug. All 3 ft. of it.
Saturday, July 11, 9:30 PM, Waterville Opera House
Thursday, July 16, 8:30 PM, Skowhegan Drive-In
Read more and buy tickets.

Free BUG TOUR at the L.C. Bates Museum Thursday, July 16, 4-6pm, before the Drive-In show of Infestation!

Come discover one of the best museums to tour before a horror film! The L.C. Bates Museum will host a bug tour of their creepiest insect specimens with an opportunity to look through bug glasses, explore the eerie “Spiny Devil Walking Stick,” and begin to set the mood for a night at the drive-in with giant man-eating bugs. If you have never been to the L.C. Bates Museum, you are missing out on one of the most unique gems of central Maine.
Location: L.C. Bates Museum at Good Will-Hinckley on Route 201, Hinckley
Directions: I-95 to 133 Skowhegan/Fairfield. Turn towards Skowhegan and go approximately 5 miles. You will see white signs for the Good Will-Hinckley campus and the museum. The L.C. Bates Museum is the second brick building on the left. The open flag will be out front.

Music at MIFF

There is no question that music is an integral part of the cinematic experience. Ever since film stopped being silent, music has been wedded to image on the big screen. We always try to put a special spotlight on music at MIFF, and this year is no exception. MIFF 2009 is serving up a virtual buffet of incredible music-based films ranging from the Bollywood blockbuster, Ghajini to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel to Charlie Haden: Rambling Man, introduced by Charlie himself, not to mention a live concert:

Billy Bang LIVE in Concert*
Monday, July 13, 8:00 p.m.
Railroad Square Cinema
$12, includes admission to the 6:30pm screening of Redemption Song

Books and Authors featured at MIFF

This year MIFF has the great pleasure of welcoming two authors who, though very different in nature, have new books they will be signing and are featured in documentaries at this year’s festival. Mark Rudd’s newly publiched autobiography is a fascinating journey into the ‘60s and ‘70s, while John Connolly (pictured right) is one of the best selling and critically acclaimed crime novelists in the world today.

Mark Rudd DiscussesThe Weather Underground and Clear Glasses
Mark Rudd, political activist, math professor, leader of the Columbia student revolt of 1968, Weatherman, and author of the honest, stirring, contemplative new autobiography Underground, will come to MIFF with Oscar nominated The Weather Underground, in which he is a principal figure, and a new short, Clear Glasses, by The Weather Underground co-director Sam Green, in which he is the central figure.
Thursday, July 16, 6:30 PM, Waterville Opera House

Best-Selling Novelist John Connolly Introduces John Connolly: Of Blood and Lost Things
Why hasn’t Irish born, best-selling author, John Connolly ever set one of his books in Ireland? His signature character, P.I. Charlie Parker, lives in Maine, and Maine figures predominately in almost every one of his 12 books. Shooting mostly in Maine, Irish director Maurice Sweeney shows the influence of the place on the writer.
Friday, July 10, 6:45 PM, Railroad Square Cinema 1
Followed by a book signing at Children's Book Cellar, 52 Main Street