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MidCoast Film Fest No. 3 – Opening Night Reception & Screening of “Imber’s Left Hand”

Date:

July 29, 2022

Please join us as we kick off the 3rd Annual MidCoast Film Fest!
Our Opening Reception will begin at 6 PM with hors d’oevres, prosecco, and sparkling cider catered by SeaCoast Catering.

The MidCoast Film Fest is pleased to welcome filmmaker Richard Kane (Truth Tellers, I Know A Man Ashley Bryan) for our opening night screening with his documentary film, Imber’s Left Hand, beginning at 7 PM. Richard Kane, co-producer Melody Lewis-Kane, and artist and widow of Jon Imber, Jill Hoy, will be joining us for a talk back following the film.

Imber’s Left Hand
“This beautiful film … takes the wind out of you.” — Boston Globe
Imber’s Left Hand traces this artist’s life and adaptations, switching from painting with his right hand to his left, then to both as the degenerative condition worsens.  Adversity only makes him more determined: more than 100 portraits in three month. 
The film first encounters Imber in his studio with his partner, the beautiful painter Jill Hoy, analyzing Jon’s self-portrait and talking about the terror to come.  The painting becomes an unsettling metaphor of his psychological journey living into his dying through his art. The way in which Imber carries on against the greatest of odds is at the heart of this portrait. Especially moving is how members of his community rally to his support, dropping by to give his swollen and atrophied hands a massage or bring a dish, as he invites them to have their portrait painted.  In one portrait session, a spry 93 year old is told by Imber that he will paint him “au naturel”. “Does that mean I have to take everything off?” he replies. The session becomes an exercise in Borscht Belt humor as Imber tells him he will do something radical — paint a portrait series of naked 90 year olds! In the end, Imber’s Left Hand is a testament to the life-giving force that is art and the ability of two people and their community to face an uncertain future with passion and resolve. It’s a tragic love story of how to die and how each of us can make our lives meaningful even as we approach our deaths.

Running Time: 1 hour, 14 minutes

About filmmaker, Richard Kane:
Richard is an independent director whose work is focused on the intersection of art and contemporary American life. Previous film releases include, J. Fred Woell: An American Vision, I Know a Man … Ashley Bryan, Imber’s Left Hand, and 15 others, all part of the Maine Masters collection, a New England Emmy-nominated series of portraits that airs on public television. With partner Melody Lewis-Kane, their company, Kane-Lewis Productions, has worked for National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the White House Office of Technology Policy among many others. Kane-Lewis produced the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s 50th anniversary film Protecting the Nature of Maine, an indie doc ROCK SOLID: The Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium and the classic award-winning documentary M.C. Richards: The Fire Within.  From 2007-2016 Richard served as chair of the Maine Film & Video Association.

About co-producer, Melody Lewis-Kane:
Melody is a potter, arts educator and filmmaker and is the primary consultant on all arts and education films produced by Kane-Lewis Productions.  She is the “Lewis” partner in their production company and often acts as producer and interviewer.  For Imber’s Left Hand Melody’s role was co-producer, interviewing several subjects and participating in all editing reviews.  She was the producer of the documentary M.C. Richards: The Fire Within, selected for 12 film festivals winning Best Film at the Image Gazer Film Festival, and produced a series of arts–in-education teacher training films for the John F. Kennedy Center Education Department.  Melody produced and co-wrote Arts & History: Storytelling funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Kennedy Center Education Department.  She is the author of four arts-in-education curriculum guides including the guide that accompanies the Maine Masters film Stephen Pace: Maine Master, a film that was nominated for a New England Emmy Award. She is now guiding the development of a Resource Guide for Teachers and Librarians for I Know a Man … Ashley Bryan, in collaboration with the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

About artist, Jill Hoy:
Hoy has summered on Deer Isle, Maine, since she was ten. Somerville Mass. is her home November through May. In addition to 6 Connecticut towns, she has called Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Michigan; California and New York City home. She earned her B.A. from University of California, Santa Cruz, from where she received a distinguished alumni award in 2011. She has run the Jill Hoy Gallery in Stonington, Maine, since 1986. She exhibits with Portland Art Gallery, and in past years; Gallery at South West Harbor, Schomburg Gallery in Santa Monica, O’Mell Gallery, St James, London, Chase Gallery, Boston, as well as many more shows nationally and internationally.  She has paintings in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, Harvard Business School, Boston Public Library, Fidelity, John Hancock, and Art in the Embassies collections, among 700+ other private, public, and corporate collections. Her paintings are included in Carl Little’s and Edgar Allen Beem’s books on Maine art. She has been featured in Maine Home and Design, Yankee Magazine and also featured in Down East with her husband, painter, Jon Imber. “Jon Imber’s Left Hand,” a Maine Masters film was made in 2014. It is a deeply humane and eloquent window on their life together as two painters. Jon died of ALS in 2014. They have a 25-year old son, Gabe Imber.