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CNN Films and Points North Institute have revealed the five recipients of the 2022 American Stories Documentary Fellowship.

The artist development program fellowship supports independent documentary filmmakers who, from diverse points of view, are exploring themes unique to American experiences. The five filmmaking teams named as this year’s fellowship recipients include Ameha Molla and Rajal Pitroda; Gabriela Díaz Arp and Karla Claudio Betancourt; Paige Bethmann and Jessica Epstein; Jordan Lord and Abby Sun; and Julie Wyman, Lindsey Dryden and Jonna McKone.

The fellows will each receive a 10,000 production grant and have costs covered to attend an immersive week-long working retreat that runs concomitantly with the annual Camden International Film Festival (Ciff) in Maine. The retreat includes feedback sessions, workshops and individual as well as group discussions with veteran filmmakers and industry professionals.

Each of the 2022 filmmaking teams were chosen from 200 applicants from across the U.

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The Sundance Institute has unveiled the producers and the projects selected for this summer’s Producers Lab and Producers Summit. Taking place July 25-28 and July 29-31, respectively, the events are being held in person at Utah’s Sundance Mountain Resort. The Producers Lab will feature six fiction films’ and five nonfiction films’ producers and their projects while the summit will host 40 industry insiders and 26 indie filmmakers.

Advisors for the feature film program include David Hinojosa (Zola, Bodies Bodies Bodies), Amy Lo (Nancy, Sugar), Riva Marker (The Guilty, Relic), Josh Penn (Beasts of the Southern Wild) and Jason Michael Berman (Nine Days, Uncorked) while the documentary film program features Daffodil Altan (PBS’ Frontline), Violet Feng (Hidden Letters, Tigre Gente), Andrea Meditch (Ernie & Joe, Fathom), Bob Moore (Midwives, Softie) and Amanda Spain (MSNBC Films).

Industry participants in this year’s summit include Maria Altamirano...

At 5'9" and nearly 300 pounds, weightlifter Cheryl Haworth tends to be described in ways that aren't usually applied approvingly to women -- she's big, sturdy, and, as the title of tonight's PBS documentary about her proclaims, "Strong!" And it's something Haworth has embraced, though not without complications. "Strong!" is directed by Julie Wyman and airs this evening, July 26th, at 9pm in most markets (though you might want to check your local listings) to close out the 2011-12 season of Independent Lens. It's been scheduled to coincide with the start of the Olympics for good reason -- at age 17, Haworth competed in the 2000 Sydney Games, winning a bronze medal fo the Us in the first year that women's weightlifting was offered. A young woman whose life has revolved around her sport (when asked about romance, she's ruefully notes it's been "nonexistent"), Haworth spends the film readying for the 2008...