Maine Deaf Film Festival

11/07/2025

Hello everyone! MDFF starts tomorrow at USM in Wishcamper 133, Portland campus. We will open with a reception from 4:30-5:30 and then start at 5:30. Please park at the Bedford St. parking garage. We will cover parking fees, thanks to a generous donation from Maine Association of the Deaf. At the front table, there will be a QR code for parking.

Below, you will see the film schedules for Friday and Saturday! I'm really happy with the lineup. Three beautiful, wonderful documentaries on Saturday- Thriving Together, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, and Loud Love with several other awesome films in between.

Saturday, after the festival, you are all welcome to join us for Deaf ASL Social at Broadway Bowl, with 4 free lanes for 2 hours! (The QR you see below is a link to the Broadway Bowl, not to the parking code.)

10/31/2025

Flyer for Maine Deaf Film Festival! Come on and watch the screening for Salt & Pepper by Con Mehlum on Friday. We will have a panel discussion afterwards.

Saturday, we will have various films, including Thriving Together by Julia Petersen, who will discuss the film afterwards!

Food will be provided both days. If you have any questions, please contact Sandra Wood at [email protected]

Note: Parking will be available at Bedford St. Garage. We will have a QR code and parking will be paid by MDFF.

Flyer Image description:
A colorful flyer for the Maine Deaf Film Festival 2025 with a warm cream background and golden border. The title running down side of flyer reads in rainbow colors: Maine Deaf Film Festival 2025.

At the top right, there are simple line drawinga of a red ASL handshape (‘sun’), blue swoosh (bird), brown garden with different ASL handshapes (for ‘bloom’ and ‘grow’), and trees with red mushrooms underneath (with ASL handshapes for ‘mushrooms’), with text above that reads: “We are all different flowers, together we create a beautiful garden.”

Event details:
• Friday, November 7, 2025, 4:30–8:30 PM — Reception at 4:30 PM, screening of Salt & Pepper at 5:30 PM.
• Saturday, November 8, 2025, 10:30 AM–7:00 PM — Discussion with filmmaker Julia Petersen about her film Thriving Together.

A circular photo of Julia Petersen (long gray hair, glasses, green shirt) shows her smiling outdoors with red rock cliffs and green trees in the background in bottom right of flyer.

Location: USM Portland Campus, Wishcamper Center Room 133, 34 Bedford Street, Portland, Maine.

Admission: $10 per day; free for children under 14 and USM students with ID.

Plus, Deaf ASL Social at Broadway Bowl after the festival.

At bottom of page, it reads Presented by USM ASL Club and shows the logo for University of Southern Maine Department of Linguistics.

10/30/2025

Come to our 21st Maine Deaf Film Festival on Nov. 7-8, 2025! It will be at USM, Portland Campus, in Wishcamper 133 (on Bedford St., same street as parking garage). Friday will start with reception 4:30-5:30, 5:30 will begin with opening remarks, film screening of Salt and Pepper with discussion afterwards. Saturday will be 10:30-7:00 with different films shown during the day. Lunch will be provided. DNO at Broadway Bowl afterwards


Watch our cute video about MDFF- it's a bit fuzzy at times so apologies for that, but it's still cute!

[Visual description below, transcript in comment]
Four people sit next to each other at a circular table chatting in ASL. The person on the far left is white and has red hair tied back in a bun (Sandra). They have eye glasses, beaded dangly earrings and are wearing a navy blue t-shirt that says 'USM ASL CLUB MAINE DEAF FILM FESTIVAL 2025' printed in white font on the upper right shirt corner. The next person is white and has dark brown shoulder length hair (Erin). She is wearing eyeglasses and the same shirt as Sandra but in a moss green color. The next person is white and has dark brown hair pulled back with a low bun (Olive). They have the same shirt as Erin. The next person has dirty blonde hair tied back in a high bun with a thick colorful patterned headband (Chelsea). She has the same t-shirt as Sandra. The table has a variety of snacks in the middle. Behind them is a handmade poster to the left that reads ASL Club at the top. To the right, there's a white dry-erase board with MDFF written at the top. There is a yellow sunflower to the left of the whiteboard. The four casually chat at the table looking at their laptop screens. When the person behind the camera gets their attention, they face the camera and sign. The person from behind the camera isn't visible but their hand is visible when they sign in front of the camera. At the end, the camera zooms in on the white board which reads 'MDFF Nov 7-8, USM Portland Wishcamper 133 USM ASL CLUB Facebook' in blue letters

09/14/2025

Hey there, we are accepting submissions for the Maine Deaf Film Festival 2025 which will be held Nov. 7-8, 2025 at the University of Southern Maine. The link to submit your film is here https://usm.maine.edu/department-linguistics/maine-deaf-film-festival/ We are the longest running student-led Deaf film festival in the US.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected]

Cheers!

04/12/2024

Today's the day for the opening of MDFF! We will be at the GYM at GBSD for Brenda Schertz's keynote presentation at 6 p.m. There will be a reception from 5-5:45 pm. Come eat and mingle before we start!

Tomorrow, we will have a full day of watching different films starting at 10 a.m and Roxanne Baker will be our keynote speaker at 3 p.m. We will have food for lunch from 12-1. After MDFF on Saturday, we will meet at Spare Time in Portland for DNO at 8 pm.!

03/30/2024

And here it is! Maine Deaf Film Festival coming up soon, on April 12 and 13, with two amazing guest speakers, Brenda Schertz for Friday night and Roxanne Baker on Saturday.

If you have any questions or have accessibility needs, contact me at [email protected]!

Come y'all and enjoy the film festival with us which will be in the GYM at GBSD/MECDHH.

[Image description of flyer: Blue-ish purple background. Top Left side- white ASL hand shapes reads “M-D-F-F”. Slightly to the right in yellow, words say “Maine Deaf Film Festival”.

Upper right-hand corner has theme picture illustrated by Emily Blachly with words “Knitted together one stitch at a time" in a circle with ASL sign “connect” inside and above picture of knitting needles with a span of knitted yarn.

A black tag with the symbol representing the October 25, 2023 tragedy with the shape of Maine and a red heart where Lewiston is and the ASL sign for ‘ILY’ is attached to the yarn.

Below on the the left side, words in black font says “April 12th 5-8 P.M. and April 13th 10-7:30 P.M.” To the right in white lettering, it says “20th Anniversary! Featuring MDFF Founders:” Spotlights above names “Brenda Schertz” and “Roxanne Baker” in yellow font with photo of each below.

Photo of Brenda. a Deaf woman with curly grey hair, is wearing a gray shirt with a dark blue jacket. She is standing in front of a garden and smiling.

Photo of Roxanne, a Deaf woman with wavy brown hair, glasses, a necklace and a black shirt. She is in front of a gray background and smiling.

To the left of both photos is a picture of a theater with red chairs and a screen. On the screen in dark blue letters, it says “MECDHH /GBSD GYM. 1 Mackworth Island, Falmouth, ME 04105”.

Beneath this, there is a white outline of a movie ticket inside yellow numbers reading “$10”. To the right of the ticket, in yellow, the words say “PER DAY FREE FOR USM STUDENTS WITH VALID STUDENT ID AND CHILDREN UNDER 14”

On the bottom of the poster is a picture of a white megaphone with words coming out in yellow font saying “Join us Saturday night after MDFF for DNO! More information TBA”.

To the right is a white outline of two people signing.

On the very bottom of the page in white lettering reads “Questions? Contact: [email protected]”]

03/20/2024

Hello all, we are still accepting films for MDFF which will be on April 12-13! You can submit your film here https://usm.maine.edu/department-linguistics/maine-deaf-film-festival/

If you have any questions, contact me at [email protected]

We are the longest-running Deaf Film Festival. Over the past 20 years, the Maine Deaf Film Festival (MDFF) has been a space for the Deaf community to come together and see Deaf stories, new and old, come to life on the big screen. Hosted by the University of Southern Maine in conjunction with the De...

04/20/2023

Without further ado, here is the schedule of events for the 19th annual MDFF!
We are thrilled for our theme "Sisters Across the Seas" and for our amazing guest speakers: Guillaume Chastel, Marie-Andrée Boivin, and Lisette Belanger.

See you this Friday and Saturday!

02/09/2023

Join ASL Club on April 21st and 22nd for our 19th annual Maine Deaf Film Festival (MDFF)!
The theme "Sisters Across the Seas" will feature films from sign languages around the world!
We are accepting submissions now until March 25th at http://www.mainedeaffilmfest.com/. Submissions are open to all, but we particularly welcome films spotlighting sign languages related to ASL.

Artwork by Daniel Winship!

Photo ID:
Drawing of a globe with ships sailing across it. Each ship has hands for sails. The text reads:
USM ASL Club Presents, 19th annual Maine Deaf Film Festival. "Sisters Across the Sea". April 21st and 22nd. GBSD and USM Portland. Accepting film submissions now at mainedeaffilmfest.com.