Maine Silent Film Festival 2023

It’s happening!

…though not in Farmington.

Unfortunately, irreconcilable differences with the venue have led to the cancellation of the Farmington Silent Film Festival this February. The henceforth Maine Silent Film Festival will play at a more professional venue in the summer of 2023. The structure of the festival and we have returned to the original film lineup.

The Emery Community Arts Center, a subsidiary of the University of Maine at Farmington, objected to the initial LGBTQ+ program, particularly the trans feature of the evening, very likely the earliest screen emergence of trans representation. The film is a product of its era and not without objectionable content, but within the context of our present era, erasing trans history is exactly what is being attempted. Libraries are being defunded for including trans material and drag performers are being threatened with death—even here in Farmington, they had to cancel performing at this year’s Pride for fear of their safety.

Though the lineup was changed and the film was no longer scheduled to appear at Emery, they continued to object to the film merely existing and, little more than six weeks out, we were forced to canceled the event.

UMF wishes to stress that they support the LGBTQ+ community however much their actions belie that.

The festival is now set for July 24^th and 25^th at the historic Alamo Theatre in Bucksport, Maine:—

SilentMaine.com