The Maine Pod Week

Carolina Valencia González came onto The Maine Pod Week to chat about her new hybrid documentary, How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps. What’s a hybrid documentary? Carolina blends fact and fiction to create a playful atmosphere where she and her mother can explore their pasts and relationships. In this interview, she described this approach as a way to get “honesty over truth”— which was the perfect way to summarize the way this film explores its characters/subjects.

Make sure to read Kyle Manning’s review of the film here.

How to Clean a House in Ten Easy Steps is screening September 17th, 3:00pm at the Strand Theatre as a part of Camden International Film Festival’s Best of Fest program. You can purchase tickets here.

We’re going to Camden again this year! Be sure to subscribe and, if you are able to, upgrade to a paid subscription or drop us a few bucks to support our reporting at the fest!

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Nick and Cash Cassidy are a delightful duo. They truly embody the spirit of independent film and they position their films to be collective cultural experiences, expanding beyond the limiting box so many indie films get stuck in. Their new film, Saving Black Bear, has a premise so enticing to us that we had to hear all about it: In small-town Maine, misfit movie theater employees confront their futures when the departure of a longtime manager threatens to shutter the theater that brought them together. Starring Nick Cassidy, Julia Steady, Devan Zorn, Cash Cassidy, and legendary Maine actor Xander Berkeley (Terminator 2, The Maestro, Safe).

See Saving Black Bear at Black Bear Cinemas in Orono, Maine on September 9 for its WORLD PREMIERE!

Catch the film in Portland on September 13 at O’Maine Studios and on September 21 at the Nickelodeon.

See all upcoming screenings at savingblackbear.com.

Learn more about the film at savingblackbear.com and follow the Cassidy Brothers on Instagram: @cassidy.pictures.

Follow The Maine Playweek:IG: @themaineplayweekthemaineplayweek.com

We are proud to be the Official New Media Partner of the Camden International Film Festival for the second year! We’ll be posting previews of films in the weeks leading up to the festival. Let’s kick things off with an interview with Elise McCave, Executive Director of the Points North Institute and CIFF. Listen to the interview here or wherever you get podcasts!

CIFF 2026 films mentioned in the episode:

* The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer, dir. Alessandra Sanguinetti

* Boatbuilders, dir. Luke Lorentzen

* Union Town, dir. Barbara Kopple

* Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff, dir. Nanette Burstein

* Bucks Harbor, dir. Pete Muller

* How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps, dir. Carolina Gonzalez Valencia

* Musk, dir. Alex Gibney

* Jaripeo, dir. Efraín Mojica

* To Hold a Mountain, dir. Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomasic

* Windows of Time, dir. Hubert Taylor, Cyrus Moussavi

The Camden International Film Festival returns September 17–20 across Camden and Rockland, Maine. pointsnorthinstitute.org

Get tickets to the upcoming screening of Wild Inside at the Strand Theatre, as part of Points North Presents. Director Penny Lane (Hail Satan?, Nuts!) will be in attendance for a Q&A! rocklandstrand.com/event/wild-inside/

I really thought my interview with legendary producer Christine Vachon would take longer.

Going into it, I was nervous— Vachon is the most famous (or fame-adjacent) person The Maine Playweek has interviewed, with the possible exception of Alex Ross Perry. I listened to her old interviews, rewatched her films (Safe, Far From Heaven, Past Lives), and crafted what I thought were a handful of in-depth, open-ended, thought-provoking questions— the kind that would take anyone a while to chew on.

But the whole thing was about 15 minutes.

Granted, my nerves probably made it harder to come up with follow-ups, but the brevity really came down from Vachon’s ability to speak with incredible concision and clarity about a career spanning decades and dozens of directors. Each answer was a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Nothing more, nothing less.

Afterwards, once my nerves came down, I realized that Christine was doing what any good producer does: she clarifies, she edits, she turns things over, she gets in, and gets out. She is there not for herself but in service of the story, the vision, and the convoluted uphill battle that is independent film production. Just like her all-black uniform, her whole manner leaves the spotlight for someone else— a Celine Song, a Todd Haynes, or a John Cameron Mitchell, while she handles the far-from-glamourous work of reworking budgets and sweet-talking investors.

But anyone who has perused her IMDB page knows that Christine Vachon is a force. Over the last 35 years she has championed some of the best independent films this country has produced— Poison, I Shot Andy Warhol, Happiness, Boys Don’t Cry, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Carol— usually well before anyone else was willing to touch them. That she can sum it all up in 15 minutes might be the most producer-esque thing about her.

If you’ve got 15 minutes, take a listen. Just enough time to decide which of her films to rewatch tonight.

More movies: themaineplayweek.com

Last month we interviewed filmmakers whose films were showing at the 29th Maine International Film Festival. We’ve got a handful to share over the next week or so, and this episode we’ve got two great interviews:

* Ricky Leighton, director of Downeast Hardcore: Stories from the Kave

* Matty Wishnow, director of The Last Critic

Learn more about Downeast Hardcore: thekavefilm.com

Get tickets to the film screening and after party at Geno’s on August 8!

Learn more about The Last Critic: thelastcriticfilm.com

Check out themaineplayweek.com/showtimes and let us know what you think. And don’t forget to follow us @themaineplayweek on Instagram!

MIFF and MOFF are behind us and CIFF is looming—in the meantime, is there even anything to talk about? Any major cinematic blockbusters been making headlines lately? Let’s think……This week, we’re talking about:

* pets

* science

* birds

* Pedantry 101

* some guy from Greece

And so much more. As always, check out showtimes.themaineplayweek.com and let us know what you think. And don’t forget to follow us @themaineplayweek on Instagram!

HAPPY FESTIVAL SEASON! There’s tons to cover in the world of Maine film right now, but this week, we’re talking about:

* Tourmaline Prize winners

* Maine’s summer film festival landscape

* time loops

* bespoke merch and self promotion

* the cinematic equivalent of leaping from an airplane

* the movie viewer’s imax forgiveness PSA

As always, check out showtimes.themaineplayweek.com and let us know what you think. And don’t forget to follow us @themaineplayweek on Instagram!

Check out The Maine Pod Week’s interview with Nick Callanan, director of the Maine Outdoor Film Festival!

The Maine Outdoor Film Festival (MOFF) is an international film festival featuring outdoor adventure and environmental documentary films about the beauty, vastness, interactivity and volatility of our planet; and how its power influences human experience.

Connect with the Maine Outdoor Film Festivalmoff.film / maineoutdoorfilmfestival.comInstagram: @maineoutdoorfilmfestivalFacebook: The Maine Outdoor Film FestivalLinkedIn: Maine Outdoor Film Festival

Check out The Maine Playweek!Email newsletter: themaineplayweek.substack.comShowtimes: themaineplayweek.com/showtimesInstagram: @themaineplayweekFacebook: The Maine Playweek

Nate came back from China and Julia went to Boston—what are these crazy kids gonna do next?? probably, talk about:

* petty school rivalries

* movies for mom and movies for dad

* upcoming festival and drive-in plans (and the Maine Playweek publications in which you can find them :))

* canine critics

to name but a few things—enjoy! check out showtimes.themaineplayweek.com and let us know what you think! and as always, follow us @themaineplayweek on Instagram!

Join Charlie and Julia for a recap conversation about the Bates Film Festival in Lewiston and Portland this past week.

Stay tuned for the next festival at batesfilmfestival.com.

Follow all our Maine film festival coverage this summer at themaineplayweek.com. Find movie showtimes at themaineplayweek.com/showtimes.

If you like our work, consider making a one-time contribution or becoming a paid subscriber!

Questions? Comments? Upcoming screenings? Popcorn opinions? Email us at [email protected].

Instagram: @themaineplayweek

Facebook: facebook.com/themaineplayweek

Bluesky: @themaineplayweek.bsky.social

See you at the movies!