As players of the sport will likely tell you, candlepin bowling, the style specific to New England and the Canadian Maritimes, is much more difficult than ten-pin bowling.
Ten-pin has big, 10-pound, 8.5-inch balls that are able to more easily strike more pins. Candlepin, with its 2.5-pound, 4.5-inch balls, requires precision, dexterity and a high tolerance for failure. In other words: 10-pin is just too easy for Mainers.
The difficulty, the devotion of its players to the sport and its underappreciated status as a piece of cultural heritage in Maine are all reasons why Hancock County filmmaker Ricky Leighton wanted to make a documentary about candlepin bowling.