Boatbuilders

2026 • 103’ • USA

At the head of a remote Maine harbour, the 60-some workers of the Brooklin Boat Yard coax wooden planks around a frame, make precise saw cuts, and sand edges for flawless joints, resulting in some of the most stunning and sought-after wooden vessels in the world. Over the course of four vibrant seasons, director Luke Lorentzen tracks the boatbuilders’ meticulous construction of a 56-foot sailboat while embedding us in the lives of these men and their close-knit community. Intertwining the rhythms of the boatyard and the natural world, Boatbuilders is a meditation on the pleasures that reward sustained attention and the potential to create meaning by engaging deeply with what we do and where we are.

Director:
Luke Lorentzen

Producers:
Kellen Quinn, Luke Lorentzen

Festivals:
World Premiere - 2026 Venice Int’l Film Festival
North American Premiere - 2026 Camden Int’l Film Festival (Opening Film) 

Filmmaker’s Biography:

Luke Lorentzen is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. His last film, A Still Small Voice (2023), follows a chaplain completing a yearlong hospital residency. The film won the U.S. Documentary Best Director Award at the 2023 Sundance Film. Festival, was listed as one of the 10 best films of the year by the New York Times, and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Luke’s previous film, Midnight Family (2019), was also shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, after winning more than 35 awards from film festivals and organizations around the world, including a Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Editing from the International Documentary Association, and the Golden Frog for Best Documentary from Camerimage. In 2024, the film was adapted into a 10-part fictionalized series for Apple TV+. Luke’s other work as a director and cinematographer includes the Netflix original series Last Chance U (2019), which won an Emmy for Outstanding Serialized Sports Documentary. With Kellen Quinn, Luke is a co-founder of the independent production company Hedgehog Films.