ROCKPORT, Maine – Maine Media Workshops & College welcomes the community to a free public screening of a compelling documentary film from MFA graduate Dominique Mollard. Adrift: People of A Lesser God will be presented Thursday, June 24 at 8PM in Union Hall Theater in Rockport Village.

Mollard’s thesis project, Adrift was first screened last fall as part of an MFA Retreat at the college.  This extraordinary film chronicles an ill-fated attempt by a number of Sub-Saharan African migrants, risking their lives in search of a better future, to reach the Spanish Canary Islands. Dominique secures transportation, itself a tortuous process, and then accompanies the 38 Africans in a small, leaking fishing boat on the perilous, 720-mile journey. All of this, Dominique filmed.

In his thesis paper, Dominique describes the Sub-Saharans’ desperate circumstances in the slums of Mauritania, Africa, and discusses the many challenges they endure in their efforts to escape. It is estimated that about 30,000 would-be migrants attempt this journey every year. Thousands of lives are lost at sea, as only one third of the vessels complete the trip. Those who are successful in reaching their destinations face imprisonment, deportation, or worse.

"If it had not been for the constant support and strong interest showed by MMC,” Dominique says. ”I don't honestly know if I would have completed the 25-month-long wild adventure of going back and forth to Western Africa to follow the clandestine migrant routes. The canoe trip with some of them thus became a natural ending that would sum it all."

Dominique is an accomplished documentary filmmaker and human rights activist. His work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize on three occasions. He has been a finalist for Britain's Rory Peck Award, as well as for the Gramlin Award, for his coverage of Algeria's Islamist conflict. Adrift will be officially released this year. Dominique expects to enter the film in festivals across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

Now in its 37th year, Maine Media Workshops & College is an international education center offering over year-round workshops and college programs for photographers, filmmakers, and media artists. Maine Media College offers one-year professional certificate programs and a low-residency MFA degree program.

Union Hall is located at 2 Central Street in Rockport Village. The Theater is on the second floor. For more information on programs and all free community events at the Maine Media Workshops, call 207-236-8581, email info@mainemedia.edu, or visit the school’s website at www.mainemedia.edu.

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photo: Surviving the Ordeal by Juan Medina