Shot in the Old Port and on the waterfront, the film let Maine-born actor Greg Finley realize his dream of making a movie in his home state.

The trailer for the new film “Downeast” opens with shots of fishing boat masts bobbing in Portland harbor, of lobster traps piled high on the waterfront and of the long, majestic 19th-century brick buildings lining Commercial Street.

As the camera pans, a voice is heard saying, “Every town is built on bad decisions,” and goes on to outline a story of heavy-handed organized crime, drug smuggling, violence and other seedier sides of life in a port town. But the experience of filming in Portland was pretty much the opposite.

The director, Joe Raffa, said Portland basically acts as another character in the film, and a crucial one. Lead actor Greg Finley and cinematographer and producer Edwin Stevens – two Maine natives who have worked in Hollywood and elsewhere – say using Portland as a backdrop gives the film an authenticity and a feel that can’t be matched anywhere.