By Claire Orfield, Bates College Class of 2026

This week, the Board of Directors had quite a daunting decision to make for the festival – selecting the final list of films to screen.

Months ago, we split ourselves into two teams to make the film-watching process more digestible: documentary and fiction. It was time to do it once again.

As part of the documentary team, I am blessed to say that our greatest challenge was that we enjoyed most of the films that we watched. We desperately needed a system of elimination. Alexis (Class of 2026) came up with a democratic, efficient system – we would simply go down the list and vote out our least favorites. The obvious no’s would be eliminated, and then, we’d debate the rest.

The system was great … at first. Despite how we felt about the films, there were some that did not align with the mission statement, others that we felt would not draw in an audience (see Samantha Manogue, Class of 2026’s blog post), and some that would not spark the discussions we are most interested in having at the festival.

“what was driving all of us was a passion for putting on a festival of which we could be proud, and this allowed for an impressive level of collaboration across teams that transcended our differences of opinion.”

Our well-crafted system had its limits. As we came back to the films we put on hold, we realized there were a lot of factors to consider. Bringing in our own perspectives meant that our different personalities shined through, as some members had stronger connections to certain films than others. How do we accommodate one person who was deeply touched by a film if others found it difficult or painful to watch? Then, we felt compelled to consider the preferences of our sponsors whose financial contributions make the festival possible and allow us to embody our social justice focus by creating a festival that is free and open to the public. We also had to consider the anticipated screening fees for some of our selections, and then we had to think about the filmmakers themselves: Whose voices were we including? Were we offering a range of topics and perspectives or were we creating areas of overlap in the program? Suddenly, the balance between upholding the mission statement, entertaining our audiences (and ourselves), and sparking discussion was not so easy.

As our voices got louder and louder, the fiction and documentary teams eventually realized that we had to rely on each other for help. Thankfully, it seemed that what was driving all of us was a passion for putting on a festival of which we could be proud, and this allowed for an impressive level of collaboration across teams that transcended our differences of opinion. Profound conversations were being held before the festival even started.

We’d been watching films for months, and the actual deliberations took only a few hours. However, in just two class periods, I learned so much about navigating difficult decisions. I must admit: there were some films that I loved but had to cut and others that might not have been my favorite but felt compelled to program due to the alignment of the film’s message with the mission statement or even its cultural relevancy. Our official slate, which will soon be revealed, is not “Claire’s Best Films of the 2026 BFF Program Season.” That said, the program is better because of it. It represents a collective effort that would not have been possible had any of us been doing it alone. We had to see films through each other’s eyes for the good of the overall program, and I learned from what my classmates had to say, and I think they learned from me as well. I am proud not only of the films we chose, but of the tough decisions we made together.