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One of the first major in-person gatherings for the documentary industry is gearing up in Maine, where next month’s Camden International Film Festival’s Points North Institute has unveiled the doc makers and projects selected for its artist programs.

The programs include the Points North Fellowship, North Star Fellowship, 4th World Media Lab and Lef/Ciff Fellowship. Through private workshops, screenings and industry meetings taking place both in-person on the coast of Maine and online, the four programs will support 25 documentary projects in development.

Eighty percent of this year’s new Points North-supported projects are directed or co-directed by filmmakers from backgrounds historically marginalized or excluded from the film industry, according to the org.

The artist programs are designed to connect filmmakers with mentors, funders and potential collaborators. More than 80 fellows, mentors and industry professionals are expected to attend the festival — which runs Sept. 16-26 — alongside 20 directors in the Ciff program.

Native American teen Margo Crane (Kenadi DelaCerna) has never been able to choose her own path through life. She and her father Bernard (Tatanka Means) live on the land of his white half-brother Cal Murray (Coburn Goss) who also owns the industrial plant that more or less keeps their Michigan town afloat. She learned to hunt and fish as a means of survival after her Mom (Lindsay Pulsipher’s Luanne) left them one night saying the Stark River valley would kill her if she didn’t escape it. So now Margo must follow her freshly sober father’s vital rules as she’s racially abused by her cousins and comforted by her uncle—a dynamic that barely masks upcoming trauma to inevitably place her in the same shoes as her estranged mother.

This is where we meet Margo at the start of Haroula Rose’s Once Upon a River, adapted...

"When the time comes, you better live up to your end of the bargain." Film Movement has released a trailer for Once Upon a River, marking the feature directorial debut of up-and-coming filmmaker Haroula Rose. This premiered at the Bentonville Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Chicago and Thessaloniki Film Festivals. Based on Bonnie Jo Campbell's novel, the film tells the story of a young Native American woman, Margo Crane's odyssey on the Stark River, which introduces her to a world filled with wonders and dangers. Written & directed by Haroula Rose, this "midwestern gothic Americana story" is, in the words of Jane Smiley for the NY Times, "an excellent American parable about the consequences of our favorite ideal, freedom." Starring Kenadi DelaCerna, with John Ashton, Tatanka Means, Ajuawak Kapashesit, Lindsay Pulsipher, and Josephine Decker. This looks like an authentic, personal coming-of-age story. Here's the...

The Bentonville Film Festival announced their lineup of gala selections and competition films which includes the world premieres of Joey Travolta’s Carol of the Bells, Haroula Rose’s Once Upon a River. Co-founded by Geena Davis will kick off with a screening of Tom Donahue’s documentary This Changes Everything and a special presentation of the festival’s signature event, Geena and Friends. The fest takes place May 7-11 in Bentonville, Ark.

The fest champions more diversity and inclusiveness in the film industry and beyond. This year’s competition selections includes 15 narrative films, 14 documentaries, and 9 episodic projects. Of the lineup, 81% are female directed and 68% of the selections include a Poc director and/or cast/subject in the forefront.

“This year’s lineup of films truly exemplifies our mission and we are thrilled to highlight the work of female filmmakers, people of color, Lgbtq+, filmmakers, talent with disabilities and more — in other words,...