“A story of human connection”: Student-made film premiering at MIFF29 highlights community bridges between Waterville, Maine and Kigali, Rwanda
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2026
Contact: Chris Melville, [email protected]
“A story of human connection”: Student-made film premiering at MIFF29 highlights community bridges between Waterville, Maine and Kigali, Rwanda
Every day, the Maine Film Center concessions sells coffee brewed from beans roasted by Mbingo Mountain Coffee in Waterville. Mbingo founder Churchill Elangwe-Preston grew up in a coffee community in Cameroon before moving to Maine and opening his business, so he is uniquely poised to appreciate all the nuances of the coffee trade, from bean cultivation, to distribution, to roasting, and finally to serving. More importantly, he sees how a simple cup of coffee can connect two people separated by thousands of miles and several time zones, how communities with different cultures and languages are intrinsically bound together.
A new, student-led documentary—Ikawa: Coffee That Connects—premiering at the 29th Maine International Film Festival this year explores how a cup of coffee can create surprising connections between Waterville, Maine, where the cup is sold, and Kigali, Rwanda, where the beans are grown, harvested, and distributed globally.
Fittingly, Ikawa is an international coproduction, a collaboration between the Maine Film Center, Mid-Maine Technical Center, and Rwanda’s Mashariki African Film Festival. Two distinct crews of student filmmakers, one in Waterville and one in Kigali, worked concurrently to plot the global journey of the coffee and the dozens of people—from the farmers of rural Rwanda right on through to Elangwe-Preston—who dedicate their labor and love to the process.
“Ikawa beautifully reflects what happens when art, agriculture, culture, and community come together,” said Elangwe-Preston. “It tells a story that begins with farmers at origin and continues here in Waterville, reminding us that true collaboration can turn a local cup of coffee into a global conversation.”
Mid-Maine Tech and Waterville High School Class of 2025 students Brenden Beckwith, Ally Dorval, and Louis Williams comprised the Waterville team. Under the guidance of their media instructor, Dave Boardman, and with support from the Maine Film Center, the trio made some unexpected discoveries about the world and their hometown’s place in it.
“Supporting a local operation means supporting all the people who put work into it,” said Beckwith. “This is their life. I didn’t understand the whole story myself until we put it together. It was surprising seeing how people can connect through coffee. In the film, we see the different lifestyles of farmers, shipment workers, familiar faces here in Waterville, all connected.”
In Kigali, Rwandan student filmmakers Fabrice Imanizabayo, Delice Ingabire, Cedric Shimwa, and Mudjahid Simpenzwe worked with Mashariki African Film Festival founder Trésor Senga to spotlight their local community’s role in the global framework.
“Through coffee, Ikawa tells a much larger story about Rwanda: resilience, craftsmanship, community, and the people whose lives are connected through every cup,” said Imanizabayo, cinematographer of the Rwanda unit. “I hope audiences in both Rwanda and the United States come away thinking differently about where coffee comes from and the human stories behind a global industry. My hope is that audiences in Rwanda feel pride in the country’s coffee heritage, while audiences in the U.S. gain a deeper understanding of the labor, artistry, and lives behind each cup. The film invites people to slow down, listen, and recognize coffee not just as a commodity, but as a story of human connection.”
For Senga and his Maine counterpart Mike Perreault, executive director of the Maine International Film Festival, working together on Ikawa was the logical next step in a years-long partnership between the two festivals.
“We at the Mashariki African Film Festival in Rwanda are thrilled to collaborate with our colleagues at the Maine International Film Festival in the United States in developing this work on the story of coffee and all of the lives it touches between our communities,” Senga said. “This is impactful work that reflects our collective ingenuity and collaboration.”
In November 2025, Beckwith, Dorval, and Williams travelled to Rwanda with Boardman and Perreault to meet their filmmaking partners and screen a work-in-progress cut at Mashariki. This festival also presented the first opportunity for the two filmmaking teams to finally meet up in person, after nearly completing the film as distinct creative units.
“Working on a film with people I’ve never met and that live thousands of miles away was a bit of a challenge,” Dorval said. “The main thing while putting the whole film together was making sure that we didn’t take any creative freedom away from the other group. What makes this project special was the fact that it was made by two separate groups, living across the globe, and we never met each other until the premiere. Having our documentary premiere at an international film festival was such an incredible opportunity and I will be forever grateful to everyone that played a part in helping it happen.”
The Maine International Film Festival will present the full world premiere of the completed Ikawa: Coffee That Connects for free at the Waterville Opera House at 1pm on Sunday, July 12, 2026. The screening is sponsored by the Mid-Maine Global Forum. A reception with the Waterville filmmakers, Senga, and other guests—plus plenty of coffee—will follow the screening.
Boardman said he is particularly excited to see his former students premiere their work on such a stage. “They’ve worked on this for well over a year now. They’ve taken it to Africa and back, but now they will debut their work in their own community. They’re going to see the community around them come out and support them. It’s been amazing to see these three students realize just how big the sense of community is where they live.”
Passes and tickets for MIFF29 are now available. Visit miff.org to reserve a pass, view the whole schedule, and book tickets to Ikawa: Coffee That Connects and more than 100 other movies showing during the festival.
Ikawa: Coffee That Connects Credits
Directors: Brenden Beckwith, Delice Ingabire, Cedric Shimwa, Louis Williams
Editors: Brenden Beckwith, Louis Williams
Cinematography: Fabrice Imanizabayo, Louis Williams
Sound: Allison Dorval, Alex Fulton, Mudjahid Simpenzwe
Executive Producers: Dave Boardman, Mike Perreault, Trésor Senga
About the Maine Film Center
The Maine Film Center (MFC) brings world-class independent film and filmmakers to Maine through year-round independent film screenings, the annual Maine International Film Festival, and by delivering impactful, accessible exhibitions and education programs. Founded in 1978 as Railroad Square Cinema, MFC is now a division of Waterville Creates and a member of the Art House Convergence and Film Festival Alliance. For more information visit MaineFilmCenter.org.
About MIFF
Founded in 1998, the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) is a project of the Maine Film Center. The 10 days of the festival showcase nearly 100 films, representing the best of American independent and international cinema, and spotlight some of Maine and New England’s most exciting and innovative filmmakers.