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MAINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The adventures begin

Opening night draws a varied audience

BY COLIN HICKEY, Correspondent

WATERVILLE -- Bob Mulliken and Pam Rosen drove from their home in Monmouth Friday night to attend opening night of the Maine International Film Festival.

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OPENING NIGHT: Suzanne Culver, of Waterville, front left, and her friend Priscilla Jackson discuss the program to this year's Maine International Film Festival during Opening Night at the Waterville Opera House on Friday. To kick off the 13th annual festival, "Get Low" starring Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black was shown at the opera house.

Photo by Jeff Pouland

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Both retired and, as Rosen put it, older than 65, the couple found themselves largely among contemporaries, or at least people middle-aged or better, in the spacious confines of Waterville Opera House, the venue for the movie "Get Low."

A glance at the lower level of the historic building revealed an abundance of bald heads and gray hair.

"There are plenty of people here," Rosen said, "who can get to every film."

That is one of the benefits of retirement: time to see 100 films in 10 days.

Festival director Shannon Haines, however, cautioned against describing a typical Maine International Film Festival, or MIFF, patron.

"It really varies from year to year," Haines said of festival goers, although she said that most tend to be 40 or older.

At the same time, Haines stressed that festival organizers make great efforts to offer a program with broad appeal.

"We like to say MIFF offers something for everybody."

Mulliken, who practiced psychotherapy for more than 40 years, said he has seen a fair share of younger people attend festival films during the many years he has attended.

The festival's attraction, he said, is the sense of adventure people feel whenever they walk into the theater.

"It is entertainment," he said, "that in some way is unusual or enlightening. It is an opportunity to be tuned into some sort of truth about life."

Rosen, a former Maine Department of Education official, said the festival seems to attract people who are well-educated and well-traveled.

Part of the event's fun, she said, is discussing films with other festival goers. Rosen said most of the films she and Mulliken attend are based on word-of-mouth recommendations.

"The word is out by Wednesday usually," she said.

Kate Sacconi, 21, and Zack Silverman, 22, were among the youngest audience members at the "Get Low" showing.

Sacconi is studying film-making at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. Silverman graduated from Clark this year with a degree in geography.

Silverman, wearing a baseball cap backwards, said he didn't know of any of his friends who would attend a film festival.

But he said Sacconi had turned him into a fan.

Haines in her remarks before the film encouraged audience members to be adventurous movie viewers over the next 10 days,

"Take full advantage of MIFF," she said. "It only takes place once a year -- thank goodness."

On a more somber note, Haines said this year's festival is dedicated to Beth Eisen, the late wife of festival programmer Ken Eisen. Beth Eisen died of ovarian cancer earlier this summer.

Haines said Beth Eisen came up with the idea of hosting a film festival in Waterville, although she added that she learned of this only recently, after having worked with Beth Eisen for many years.

"She never saw the need to tell me she was the origin of all this," Haines said.