ORONO — The film Hungry Now, which was created through a documentary filmmaking course at University of Maine Machias, will premiere Sunday, Nov. 13, at 3 p.m., at the Collins Center for the Arts, in Orono. Hungry Now is an hour-long documentary that looks to answer the everyday questions of homelessness through a series of interviews with Mainers of all ages living in several rural and coastal towns, including Bangor, Milbridge, Jonesport, Machias and Eastport. 

The film is directed by Alan Kryszak, media faculty at the UMaine Machias Interdisciplinary Fine Arts Department, who teaches the Down East documentary filmmaking course. The documentary is the fifth feature-length production to come out of Kryszak's course. The student crew members for Hungry Now included Sam LaRusse, Nicholas Sanborn, Amanda Sawyer, Robin Hadlock Seeley, Hannah Somers-Jones, Suzie Milkowich, Aiyla Petty, Amanda Quinn, Megan Racila and Beth Staples. 

“It was important to be able to walk right up to strangers,” said Kryszak in his director's statement. “The script is in their heads, and they generously relay the most personal stories of failure, hard hits and how they keep helping the next one, no matter what.” 

Past student productions that have come out of Kryszak’s filmmaking class include the 2020 “Privacy & the Power of Secrets,” which was an official selection at The Hague Global Cinema Festival, as well as the 2018 Whatever Works: Exploring Opiate Addiction, which premiered on Maine Public television in 2017 and received a 2018 Docs Without Borders award.

The UMaine Machias Performing Arts Center will host a second screening in-person on Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. 

Admission to both screenings are free. Donations at the door will go to the Manna Food Pantry in Bangor for the premiere at the Collins Center and the Machias Food Pantry for the screening at UMaine Machias.

Hungry Now will also broadcast on Maine Public Television on Nov. 24 and Dec. 15, at 9 p.m.; and Dec. 17, at 2 p.m. The documentary will be distributed on PBS and online following the final televised airing.

 
About the University of Maine: The University of Maine, founded in Orono in 1865, is the state's land grant, sea grant and space grant university, with a regional campus at the University of Maine at Machias. UMaine is located on Marsh Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation. UMaine Machias is located in the homeland of the Passamaquoddy Nation. As Maine's flagship public university, UMaine has a statewide mission of teaching, research and economic development, and community service. UMaine is the state's public research university and a Carnegie R1 top-tier research institution. It attracts students from all 50 states and 86 countries. UMaine currently enrolls 11,571 undergraduate and graduate students, and UMaine Machias enrolls 763 undergraduates. Our students have opportunities to participate in groundbreaking research with world-class scholars. UMaine offers 77 bachelor's degrees and six undergraduate certificates, as well as more than 100 degree programs through which students can earn doctoral or master's degrees, professional master's degrees, and graduate certificates. UMaine Machias offers 18 associate and bachelor's degrees, and 14 undergraduate certificates. The university promotes environmental stewardship, with substantial efforts campuswide to conserve energy, recycle and adhere to green building standards in new construction. For more information about UMaine and UMaine Machias, visit umaine.edu and machias.edu.