CAMDEN, Maine and LOS ANGELES, California  — TV5MONDE USA and the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) have announced that the 2021 TV5MONDE Maine Heritage Film Grant has been awarded to Maine-based documentary filmmakers Katy Haas, Megan Ruffe and Lindsay Taylor Jackson for La Frontière (The Border), the film about the border between the United States and Canada. The grant supports the production of a film being filmed in Maine highlighting Francophone culture in the state.  As a result, Haas, Ruffe and Jackson will receive the $15,000 grant to produce their film and La Frontière (The Border) will have its world premiere at CIFF 2022 this October.

“TV5MONDE USA congratulates Katy and Megan on La Frontière being honored with the TV5MONDE Maine Heritage Film Grant,” said TV5MONDE USA’s CEO Patrice Courtaban, in a joint news release. “TV5MONDE USA continues its long history of supporting French culture in the state of Maine and is happy to continue doing so with our great partners at CIFF.”

“Points North and CIFF have been committed to building a strong artistic community, both here in Maine and across the world for documentary filmmakers since 2005, and this partnership with TV5MONDE is a great example of that commitment,” said Executive and Artistic Director of the Points North Institute, and dounder of the Camden International Film Festival, Ben Fowlie. “This renewed collaboration will once again provide critical funding for the development of one short film shot in Maine by a talented filmmaking team that will premiere at the 18th edition of the Camden International Film Festival.”

La Frontière (The Border) is a documentary film about The border between the United States and Canada, the longest international border in the world. Six-hundred and eleven of those miles distinguish Maine from its northern neighbors Quebec and New Brunswick, dividing towns, homes, and nations that existed long before the two it separates today. La Frontière is an experimental documentary portrait of these borderlands and their stories, exploring a liminal space that isn’t either-or but its own place in-between.

Megan Ruffe (Director and Producer) is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. She is a co-producer at Florentine Films, Ken Burns’s documentary company. She has worked on several major series for PBS, including The Vietnam War (2017), College Behind Bars (2019), Hemingway (2021), and Benjamin Franklin (2022). Megan graduated summa cum laude from the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University where she studied film and geography. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and on CBS Sunday Morning.     

Katy Haas (Director and Producer) is a documentary filmmaker and photographer in Brooklyn, New York. She is a co-producer with Florentine Films on the forthcoming biography of Benjamin Franklin, was an associate producer on the series Country Music and apprentice editor on The Dust Bowl. She attended the Burren College of Art and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and received a Bachelor's degree in American Studies from Smith College. She has been involved with a number of photo educational institutions, including the ICP, Third Ward, InSight, Keene Continuing Ed and the Maine Media Workshops.

Lindsay Taylor Jackson (Director of Photography and Producer) is an award-winning Filmmaker, Director of Photography and Photographer. Jackson was chosen for the second-ever 2020-2021 ASC Vision Mentorship Program and matched with Neville Kidd as her ASC Mentor. Jackson was one of nineteen selected cinematographers chosen by the American Film Institute (AFI) for the very first Cinematography Intensive for Women. 

“CIFF has enjoyed a close relationship with the documentary filmmaking community and, in turn, has long been supported by the media industry including such sponsors as A+E Indie Films, CNN Films, Netflix, Showtime Documentary Films, and TV5MONDE, to name a few,” said CIFF. “The TV5MONDE Maine Heritage Film Grant marks yet another chapter in the festival’s partnership with the industry. Maine culture is a product of many, a multi-faceted kaleidoscope made up of voices from across the globe who have found their way to the state’s rocky coasts, sandy beaches, rolling hills, and majestic mountains. One such voice has been heard in Maine for hundreds of years - a voice speaking the French language - and that voice has endured.  Joining these French voices is a new wave of French-speaking immigrants, who came to Maine from countries around the world, including Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola. People speaking the French language at home continues to be a part of the Maine cultural experience to this day.”

About the Points North Institute

​Established in 2016, the Points North Institute is the launching pad for the next generation of nonfiction storytellers. Building on the success of the Camden International Film Festival, the Points North Institute programs include a year-round calendar of artist development initiatives that nurture the careers of diverse nonfiction storytellers and help them develop a stronger artistic voice.

CIFF was founded in 2005 and is now recognized as one of the top documentary film festivals in the world. The 2020 Camden International Film Festival will take place October 1 - 12. Major support provided by SHOWTIME® Documentary Films, the National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional support comes from Premier Sponsors CNN Films, A&E IndieFilms, ESPN, Netflix, Kickstarter, LEF Foundation, and GBH/World Channel.

For more information visit ​http://pointsnorthinstitute.org/

About TV5MONDE: 

TV5MONDE is the global French language entertainment network, broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without commercial interruptions. TV5MONDE USA is a premium pay-tv channel reaching 1.5 million viewers in the U.S. and is carried on basic cable throughout Maine via the Spectrum system on Channel 71 and in Bangor on Channel 64. American viewers enjoy a wealth of premium French language programming, subtitled in English, including up to 300 classic, recent and never-before-seen in the U.S. French language films, around-the-clock newscasts live from Paris, the latest series and TV dramas, documentaries, cultural programs and international sports coverage.  Subscribers also have access to TV5MONDEplus, the French language platform with thousands of titles available on demand and the option to choose from up to 6 subtitle languages. 

To find channel information and more programming about TV5MONDE USA, visit www.tv5mondeusa.com