Sunset over a large brick building with a grassy field in the foreground.

Magnetic North (w/t)

Independent feature documentary
(in production)

Anticipated release 2027

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Among the remote fields of America's northeast border lies a bold educational experiment. Born from the ashes of the Cold War, the Maine School of Science and Mathematics — New England’s only public residential magnet school — has transformed the lives of gifted teenagers from all walks of life since 1995. Critical to the school’s creation is rural Limestone, Maine, the town MSSM calls home.

Now marking its third decade and no longer an experiment, MSSM persists, but at the very limits of its funding and fading from public consciousness. To survive, the school must reinvent itself. Through verité footage, interviews, and archival materials, Magnetic North explores MSSM’s founding, impact, and struggles as it adapts to the rapidly shifting 21st century.

Teaser
Synopsis
Why This Film, Now?
Team
Advisors

  • A tight shot of a sign that reads, "Maine School of Science and Mathematics" , on the wall of a brick building.

    01 Maine School of Science and Mathematics

  • Uranus, part of a scale model of planets on the route to MSSM.

    02 Uranus, along the route to MSSM

  • A student observes the result of her chemistry lab.

    03 Chemistry lab

  • Dr. Kwang Rim introducing his AP Chemistry C class.

    04 Dr. Kwang Rim introducing AP Chemistry C

  • Anthony Scott and the rest of the humanities department greet students during orientation.

    05 Humanities Division orientation

  • Executive Director Rob Constantine.

    06 MSSM Executive Director Rob Constantine

  • The MSSM dorms on a rainy day.

    07 MSSM dorms on a rainy day

  • Residential assistants hold a wing meeting.

    08 Residential assistants hold a wing meeting

  • Detail of a mural in the MSSM dormitory, depicting a penguin in a winter hat peering through a telescope with alarm.

    09 MSSM dormitory mural

  • An inflatable penguin adorns a blue table during registration.

    10 Registration penguins await new students

  • Students gather around the dorm's fire pit.

    11 Gathering ‘round the fire pit

A U.S. Air Force aircraft on the tarmac with a person in a dark jacket, and orange and black striped signs nearby.

Part 1: When Needs Collide

In 1989 the United States ended its nearly forty-five year Cold War with the Soviet Union, and began closing military bases. Among those shuttered was Loring Air Force Base in rural Aroostook County, at the northernmost tip of Maine. Once home to Strategic Air Command nuclear bombers and a community of 22,000, Loring’s host town of Limestone saw 80% of its population vanish virtually overnight. The airbase’s closure left the town with financial hardship, and reduced a once-robust school district to a single wing of its high school.

Of the many uses proposed for that high school’s vacant space (assisted living facility, international school of agriculture), one idea triumphed: the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM). A public, tuition-free, residential magnet school, MSSM would bring an economic boost to Limestone, and keep the community school open. In turn, it would benefit from facilities built with Defense Department money: science and computers labs, a 648 seat auditorium, an Olympic-size swimming pool. A small, dedicated group of administrators, bipartisan legislators, and community organizers joined forces to “will the school into existence”.

But before it even opened, MSSM’s future was threatened. Incoming Governor Angus King omitted the school from his budget, citing a recession as reason to delay opening the school. Knowing that delay could become permanent, the founders spent eight months and countless trips appealing directly to the public and legislature for funds. Meanwhile, accepted students remained unsure the school would even exist come fall 1995...

Funded a mere sixty days before opening, a mad dash ensued to hire, train, purchase, and set policy for an entirely new institution. Could they pull it off?

Part 2: Where Do We Go Now?

Science classroom with students and a teacher demonstrating thumb signs.

Now entering its fourth decade, MSSM is no longer an experiment but a proven institution. In 2019 it was ranked the #2 high school in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. MSSM attracts international faculty with Ph.D.s and multiple master’s degrees, even a Nobel Prize candidate. The school performs so well on state assessments that Maine asked the school not to participate. The math team ranks #1 statewide. The robotics team competes globally. MSSM has altered the course of over a thousand students’ lives, sending graduates to Cornell, Dartmouth, MIT, and beyond.

And yet, MSSM can’t shake its reputation as that quirky, remote experiment — if people are aware of it at all. Its remote location and harsh winters pose a challenge to student and faculty recruitment. The school is still a tenant in a building with aging HVAC, outdated fixtures, dead outlets, and leaks. Funding remains flat since 2017, while costs climb and financial aid dwindles. Everyone here wears multiple hats out of necessity. As resourceful as MSSM is, it has its limits. Something must change.

Despite the challenges, there’s just something about MSSM: “pixie dust”, a “secret sauce”. It possesses a unique culture and camaraderie forged through shared experience of place and circumstance. MSSM is a home for knowledge-loving kids who often didn’t mesh with their sending schools. Suddenly surrounded by like-minded peers and able to be themselves, with educators who would “go through hell” to teach such dedicated students, they experience, in a word: joy.

To survive, though, MSSM must evolve. Magnetic North follows executive director Rob Constantine and the faculty as they execute a new strategic plan, while MSSM’s students navigate academics and life in Maine’s far north.

Why This Film, Now?

In a time when science and education have been heavily politicized, and national institutions supporting both are gutted, MSSM stands as an example of what is possible.

The school is celebrating its 30th year of providing exemplary education in a remote and rural setting. Limestone and Aroostook County are proud to host Maine’s only magnet school, and both continue fighting to keep and support it. MSSM demonstrates grit, resilience, and ingenuity with limited resources, all qualities Maine is known for.

This film is also about the transformative impact of education. MSSM has altered not only its 1,000+ graduates’ lives, including that of this film’s director, but the trajectories of their children’s lives as well. A quality education can and does break cycles of poverty, and many of MSSM’s students come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Their parents, knowing what an MSSM education can do, are often willing to take on multiple jobs to pay for it — but should they need to?

In theory MSSM’s education is free to all accepted Maine residents. But underfunding translates into, among other issues, room and board fees approaching $11,000 per year. That amount poses a major barrier to many families, and presents an access problem at odds with the school’s charter. Shifting more funds to financial aid would only force other cuts, potentially undermining MSSM’s overall program.

Students from poorer areas may also need more preparation for MSSM. The school provides this to help equalize access, but this prep also demands resources. Without additional support, MSSM’s population will gradually tip towards more affluent parts of the state out of financial and academic necessity.

Support for math and science education should be non-partisan — and in Maine, it is. Magnetic North seeks to shine light on an institution that deserves recognition and support, both in its home state and beyond. This film also seeks to draw attention to the national context of STEM fields. What happens to these students when they step beyond MSSM’s walls, and into a world where higher education and research are under attack, should be of concern to us all.

A student with glasses and long hair focusing on writing in a notebook in a classroom with other students working on laptops.

TEAM

  • A man wearing glasses and a baseball cap sits at a desk with a computer and audio equipment in a recording studio.

    Ryan Shepheard

    DIRECTOR / PRODUCER

    Ryan Shepheard is a filmmaker, editor, and animator with over twenty years’ experience in documentary and science outreach. His work includes award-winning docs for PBS (NOVA, American Experience), National Geographic, and The Smithsonian Channel; and consultation and field work for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NOAA, and the National Park Service.

    A 1998 alumnus of the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, he holds a B.A. in New Media from the University of Maine. Magnetic North marks his directorial debut.

    iMDB

  • A man with short brown hair and a beard smiling at the camera against a dark background.

    Heeth Grantham

    PRODUCER

    Accomplished producer Heeth Grantham brings a diverse background (including stints as a scuba divemaster and fire-boat pilot) and over twenty years of filmmaking knowledge to Magnetic North. His work spans the Maine experience and beyond, appearing on History, Animal Planet, PBS and National Geographic.

    A graduate of Bar Harbor-based College of the Atlantic's teacher education program, Heeth possesses a deep respect for experiential and non-traditional modes of schooling.

    iMDB

  • A smiling man with a beard, glasses, and a burgundy turtleneck sweater

    Jared Flynn

    MOTION GRAPHICS DESIGNER

    Jared Flynn began his career pushing keyframes around at award-winning documentary house Lone Wolf Media, cutting his teeth in the broadcast space for clients such as National Geographic, NOVA, and The History Channel. From there, he moved on to running the animation capability at a large digital agency for clients like Welch’s and Harvard Business School.

    You can now find Jared masterfully conducting keyframes at ROVE, handling their animated projects like the maestro he is while lending his expertise every step of the way.

ADVISORS

  • A man with gray hair and a beard smiling outdoors, with a blue plastic letter G and a reflection of himself in the background.

    Kirk Wolfinger

    ADVISOR / LONE WOLF MEDIA / MENTOR.ME


    Kirk Wolfinger is an Emmy and Peabody Award winning filmmaker who has produced, directed and executive produced over 200 hours of series and specials. Many have been critically acclaimed and presented nationally and internationally on the major networks, streamers, and leading cable outlets.

    Kirk’s forte is adventure and science programming. A genre he has worked in continuously since the 1990s when he produced his first PBS NOVA episode, Submarine. Since then, Kirk has produced more than 30 NOVA specials on topics ranging from biological weapons to lost Nazi U-boats to climate change in Antarctica. He has worked closely with some of the most brilliant minds in science including Nobel laureates, renowned oceanographers, archeologists, historians, astronauts and undersea explorers.

    In addition to Resistance: They Fought Back, Kirk’s other independent documentary feature, The Rivals, received numerous film festival accolades including Best Documentary Feature at the Phoenix International Film Festival.

    iMDB

  • David Alvarado

    ADVISOR / STRUCTURE FILMS

    David is a documentary filmmaker who is passionate about science, technology, and human rights. His last film, co-directed with Jason Sussberg, We Are As Gods, follows Stewart Brand’s attempt to resurrect the woolly mammoth and was adapted into an eight-part podcast by Audible Originals. Alvarado’s other notable directorial works include Bill Nye: Science Guy, Blood Sugar Rising, and the BAFTA-nominated The Immortalists.

    His latest film, American Pachuco, profiles legendary Chicano filmmaker and theater director Luis Valdez, received the Audience Award at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Alvarado, who holds an MFA from Stanford’s Documentary Film Program, co-founded Structure Films with filmmaking partner Jason Sussberg, focusing on science and tech stories. In 2022, he was named one of DOC NYC and HBO’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch. David is particularly interested in finding ways to make creative careers sustainable.

    iMDB

  • Jason Sussberg

    ADVISOR / STRUCTURE FILMS

    Jason is a Bay-Area based documentary filmmaker, focusing on cinema for science. Like Phil Ochs, he is a card carrying union member (Writers Guild of America), making art about about our modern times. Unlike Ochs, he can't carry a tune but instead carries a microphone. He has produced and directed several theatrical documentaries that have broadcast on PBS and streamed on Netflix, Apple TV, & Amazon. His titles include "The Immortalists" (2014), "Bill Nye: Science Guy" (2017), and "We Are As Gods" (2021). He has written and directed episodes for NOVA on PBS: "Your Brain: Who's in Control?" (Season 50) and "Secrets in Your Data" (Season 51). Jason most recently wrote and produced the film trilogy "Matter of Mind" (2023-2025) on PBS Independent Lens.

    Jason grew up in Grass Valley California and lives in the Bay Area. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz ('04) with a degree in Film & Digital Media, and earned MFA from Stanford ('10) in Documentary Film. He was a producer/editor for the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors from 2005-2008, working in his preferred medium: Jumbotron.

    iMDB

SUPPORT THIS FILM

Magnetic North is an independent documentary project, with over six months of committed labor, equipment, and travel generating over sixty hours of footage to date. Donations are essential part of our fundraising efforts, helping us sustain production alongside grants and fellowships. Your assistance allows us to keep forward momentum towards a finished, impactful film!

Your gifts help support…

  • Ongoing shoots in Limestone and Augusta, Maine, capturing the student and staff experiences as MSSM navigates financial and educational hurdles

  • Additional interviews with MSSM’s founding members and pioneer class, and the legislators and community members who brought the school to life

  • Archival research to collect news articles, documents, photos, and videos from across the school’s history

  • Key alumni scenes to highlight MSSM’s impact on its graduates

  • Filming of the 30th MSSM school-wide reunion in summer 2026, including an “oral history booth” to capture shared stories

  • The creation of an MSSM archive, with materials shot and gathered for the documentary serving as a core collection

You can help financially support the film in one of two ways:

  • A direct donation using our secure donation form, or

  • A tax-deductible donation via our fiscal sponsor (see below)

Regardless of donations, please spread the word about Magnetic North! Every contact expands the film’s reach and impact.

If you’re interested in supporting the Maine School of Science and Mathematics directly, you can donate to the MSSM Foundation here.

3% Cover the Fee

Donations made through this form are NOT tax deductible. To make a tax-deductible donation, please contact info@pioneer3.film. Thank you!

FISCAL SPONSORSHIP

Magnetic North is proud to be supported by Mentor.Me, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to mentorship, education, and support for documentary filmmakers and films. Founded by Kirk Wolfinger, Mentor.Me provides seminars, workshops, and underwriting for young filmmakers.

Mentor.Me also provides fiscal sponsorship to projects aligned with its mission, including Magnetic North. This allows us to receive tax-deductible donations from individuals, corporations, and grant-providing organizations to support our film.

To make a tax-deductible donation to this project, please contact us at info@pioneer3.film or (617) 870-3980. And thank you for your generous support!