The film begins with a unique view, the camera pointed toward the sky from underwater, surrounded by sunlight filtering through a blue-green expanse. The slow, rasping sound of a diver inhaling oxygen fills the speakers, and the picture seems to flow with the movement of water.
It’s the beginning of a story about what scallop diver James Sewell experiences every day at work.
“Diving for Scallops,” a film by Portland residents Christoph Gelfand and Caroline Losneck, chronicles the trade of Sewell, one of only 30 scallop divers left in Maine. The film will be screened next weekend as part of the 11th Camden International Film Festival.
CIFF, scheduled for Sept. 17-20 at venues in Camden, Rockport and Rockland, will include screenings of more than 60 features and short films, such as that of Gelfand and Losneck, with filmmakers attending nearly every showing.
Passes for the festival can be purchased online, and individual tickets for screenings can be purchased at the screening venues for $10 each. In addition to the feature screenings, collections of short films will be screened each morning of the festival free of charge.
CIFF also is offering a free day of feature film screenings Thursday in partnership with the Rockland Public Library leading up to the opening night film at the Camden Opera House.
This year’s program includes award winners, such as “Olmo and the Seagull”; United States premieres, such as “Above and Below” from director Nicolas Steiner; a number of unique short films; and a sidebar program of historic ethnographic films.
CIFF began in 2005 as a brainchild of founder and executive director Ben Fowlie of Camden, whose goal was to highlight the work of nonfiction artists who used film to tell stories. CIFF has evolved into one of the top documentary film festivals in the world. Even though it draws filmmakers from far and wide, Fowlie and the organizers of CIFF have kept a piece of Maine in this year’s program.
For Gelfand and Losneck, “Diving for Scallops” was a collaboration of talent. Gelfand, who has an education in film and owns a video production business, True Life Media, met Losneck, a documentarian specializing in audio work, at a mutual friend’s wedding. The two found common ground as artistic, driven minds willing to explore new and different terrain, but one topic of conversation — the recent deaths of each of their fathers — profoundly influenced their filmmaking relationship.
“I don’t think I’d be making film without him,” Losneck said of Gelfand, to which he responded, “and I would say I wouldn’t be making film without her.”
“Diving for Scallops,” which represents a way of life that may soon disappear, will show Sunday, Sept. 20 along with other short Maine films, including one titled “Farm,” another of Gelfand’s productions. They will show as part of the “Dirigo Shorts” portion of the program.
For a full schedule of films, visit http://camdenfilmfest.festivalgenius.com/2015/schedule/week.