A few hours’ drive east of Burlington, in the small coastal town of Camden, Maine, a group of UVM students in the Film and Television Studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences had the opportunity this past fall to screen high-caliber documentaries and mingle with Oscar winners at the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF). They traveled with their professor, Deb Ellis, who created “Topics in Film Festivals: Camden International Film Fest,” a one-credit course that allows students to attend the festival and peek behind the scenes of documentary filmmaking.

“Camden was spectacular,” says Mae Nagusky ‘24, one of the eight students who attended the festival last September. A junior majoring in film and television studies and currently interning at Vermont Public, Nagusky says she got to talk with documentary filmmakers from across the country and learn about the more logistical parts of filming, such as distribution, which is the process of making a film available to audiences via theaters, television, streaming, etc. “It was an incredibly novel experience for me, and I’ve carried it with me during my internship.” She gives the example of attending a festival forum where she gained new insights into the roles played by filmmakers vs. journalists in relation to their subjects.  This helped her contribute in a meaningful way to an important discussion at work about whether documentaries are journalism and where that line is drawn.

A documentary filmmaker herself, Professor Ellis had been involved with film festivals for years. “I realized early on when I started teaching at UVM that a lot of students just didn’t have any experience with festivals at all,” she says. She started by encouraging students to go to the Vermont International Film Festival, a local event. “I was on the board of that festival for around 15 years, so I had an interest in getting students engaged,” she says. But it took getting a course approved, where the students would get credit for attending the festival, to really get them interested.

Even though it’s a large festival, CIFF takes place in a relatively small town. “I would call it intimate,” Professor Ellis says. “You’re seeing filmmakers who introduced their films the night before on the streets, in coffee shops. There are social events that bring people together.” She says that the students are blown away because they’ve never had the opportunity to see this part of the film industry before.

Annika Ellis ’23 (no relation), another film and television studies major, was among the students who attended CIFF after completing an internship at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival last summer. She says that going to Camden allowed her to meet a wide array of talented filmmakers from around the world. “It opened me up to a whole new world of documentary film that I had barely dipped my toe into before.”

Founded in 2005 by the Points North Institute, CIFF has evolved into one of the major documentary film festivals in North America, Professor Ellis notes. It serves as a launching pad for some of the biggest films that will be in theaters or streaming throughout the following year.

“The festival has been really enthusiastic about bringing students into the experience,” Professor Ellis says. “There are many opportunities for students to engage in their own ways,” she adds, “from film screenings to forums to the festival’s signature pitch session to chatting with industry professionals.” Still, she notes, it would be great to have one event that brings all the students who are at the festival together. She is talking with Emily Peckham, development director for Points North Institute, to create just such a student-focused event for the future.

This coming year, one goal is to put together a master class with a major filmmaker for students who come to the event from UVM and elsewhere. “We’re hoping to find more funding to give this a little bit more horsepower,” Peckham says. “It will pave the way and make the program a lot more well established if we can find funding that goes directly to support this project.” 

One of the current festival events that Professor Ellis always encourages students to attend is called The Points North Pitch. “Five or six filmmaking teams are brought into a packed house in the Camden Opera House, which seats about 500,” Peckham says, where the teams pitch their projects to some of the most important documentary-film funders. “It’s kind of like the American Idol for documentary films.” The teams get seven minutes to present their films, including a clip in front of a live audience, and then the panel has a certain amount of time to react and respond and to give advice or to suggest different directions. “It’s unparalleled access to what one of our board members calls ‘how the sausage is made,’” Peckham adds. She says she prioritizes making sure students have access to the event.

“For students to see that level of feedback from those kinds of funders, broadcasters, and streamers is so educational,” Professor Ellis says. “They not only learn what they have to do to be able to present a project, but they also get to see what cool projects people are working on right now and who these people are. It’s probably the most educational event at the festival.”

This year’s trip was made possible by funding from a generous alumna. “Her support for our Film and Television Studies program over the last couple of years has made the development of a culture around documentary film possible,” Professor Ellis says. This gift allows students, at least for the moment, to attend the festival at no cost to themselves.

The students who were able to attend this year were also given the opportunity to associate with several other talented UVM instructors with connections to CIFF or documentary filmmaking. Myles Jewell, a lecturer at UVM and also an award-winning documentary filmmaker, accompanied Professor Ellis and the students to the festival. Milton Guillén, a Harris Fellow lecturer at UVM, works as a senior programmer at CIFF. Madsen Minax, who teaches in the studio art program, has had films shown at the festival. “I think students seeing that level of documentary filmmaking right around them brings together what goes on at Camden, at UVM, and in their own studies,” Professor Ellis says.

“I would truly recommend this opportunity to any and every interested student,” Annika Ellis adds. “Watching these films inspires me both as an artist/filmmaker myself and as a person who’s about to graduate college and enter the world on my own—hopefully to make some kind of difference.”