Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival Unveils 2017 Lineup

“3 Generations,” starring Elle Fanning, Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon, will open the annual women’s film festival on May 2

Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 3rd annual celebration of women in cinema, and “3 Generations,” a transgender drama starring Elle Fanning, Naomi Watts, and Susan Sarandon, has been selected as the opening feature on May 2.

Directed by Gaby Dellal, “3 Generations” tells the story of Ray (Fanning), a transgender teenager whose transition from female to male forces her family to make adjustments in their lives.

“3 Generations” is part of a lineup of 46 films that will be screened at the week-long film festival in Arkansas, which was co-founded by Davis in 2015 to celebrate women and diversity in film.

In addition to its narrative and documentary sessions, BFF is also adding a short film series to their program this year.

Why kill your own food? A new mindful generation of teens defy factory farming and turn to hunting as a way of connecting with the source of their sustenance.

To make a humane kill, these animal lovers confront tormenting ethics and their worst nightmares, partly to eat dinner, and partly to carve out their own identities in a world increasingly at odds with reality and nature.

A loving portrait of a small Louisiana town created at the site of the world’s largest lumber mill that we examine through the lens of a 27 year-old charm school for girls run by Miss Dixie Gallaspy.

A 1932-born hard-working poor black man from the Mississippi backwoods becomes an internationally acclaimed Blues star after he releases his debut album at age 81.

More influential than her friend and colleague Lawrence of Arabia, Bell helped draw the borders of Iraq and established the Iraq Museum.

“Looking at the Stars” is an intimate glimpse into the lives of the extraordinary ballerinas at the world’s only ballet school for the blind – the Fernanda Bianchini Ballet Association for the Blind.

Five middle-class working mothers juggle parenting and demanding jobs while contemplating major life decisions.

Five women veterans who have endured unimaginable trauma in service create a shared sisterhood to help the rising number of stranded homeless women veterans by entering into a competition that unexpectedly catalyzes moving events in their own lives to bring them full circle in a quest for healing and hope

“The Gateway Bug” explores how changing daily eating habits can feed humanity in an uncertain age, one meal at a time.

Jennifer Brea is an active Harvard PhD student about to marry the love of her life when suddenly her body starts failing her.

Hoping to shed light on her strange symptoms, Jennifer grabs a camera and films the darkest moments unfolding before her eyes as she is derailed by M.E. (commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), a mysterious illness some still believe is “all in your head.”

Some think an in vitro fertilization contest sounds crazy, but countless Americans desperate to start a family believe this social media experiment is their only hope.

“Women of the Silk Road” explores the diversity of individual lives under the broad banner of the Middle East and Central Asia; and the simple truth that all lives are about love.

On the day he is set to star in a career-changing blockbuster, an Irish actor with a rocky past confronts a series of devastating events that threaten his sobriety, his loved ones, and possibly his life.

A dramatic psychological thriller about a female Marine veteran and the struggle to come home.

Bird, 12, has to become a woman whether she wants to or not when – in the worst week of her life – she gets her first period, is ditched by her impulsive, free spirited mom, and learns that you can never really go back to The Valley.

A ‘love letter’ to New York City woven of two stories through its subways and ethnic enclaves.

A truly homemade film about a down and out brother that shows up unannounced, altering the routine of his sister’s family.

A struggling actress working as a diamond courier conspires to stage a fake robbery, setting up her ex-boyfriend as the fall guy.

The film is set in the year 2000 following not only Helga and Traudi’s journeys but the next two generations and how Beth, Helga’s daughter and Emily her granddaughter are confronted with the unraveling of the darkest of family secrets.

A small-town nurse named Susette Kelo emerges as the reluctant leader of her working-class neighbors in their struggle to save their homes from political and corporate interests bent on seizing the land and handing it over to Pfizer Corporation.

A teenage comic book artist who secretly sees unpleasant people as cartoon-like monsters struggles to save his eccentric best friend (and love of his life) from her abusive foster parents–but she becomes involved with an older man who happens to be a monster too.

High school archery champion Lauren has just landed in Paradise Trails, a brutal juvenile correctional facility in the wilderness, after hospitalizing a boy in self-defense.

[...] when Lauren learns how deep corruption runs at Paradise Trails under the pernicious rule of warden and bow-hunter, Bob, she plots her escape, with the aid of rebellious inmate Rebecca.

Shot at the Arctic Circle, “The Sun At Midnight” tells the story of an unusual friendship between a hunter obsessed with finding a missing caribou herd and a teenage rebel who gets lost while on the run.

Inspired by a healing ranch for troubled girls in North Carolina, “Unbridled” tells a tremendous story of redemption and triumph, exposing the atrocities of abuse, neglect and sex trafficking and the healing and redemption experienced by girls and horses who have suffered the same types of abuse.

A misunderstood sexual encounter unravels the life of a lonely female security guard and her deadbeat paramour in this slice-of-life comedy set in a dilapidated Scarborough strip mall.

During the course of one day, a group of students at a school in Los Angeles find themselves caught up in a plot of sex, lies and dead bodies.

A couple who can’t stop fighting embark on a last-ditch effort to save their marriage: turning their fights into songs and starting a band.

A shy small-town Ohio girl who loves movies but dislikes reality, discovers the delightfully bizarre films of Federico Fellini, and sets off on a strange, beautiful journey across Italy to find him.

A young man living a sheltered life develops a crush on a stripper and joins her Alcoholics Anonymous group just so he can be in the same room with her.

When Emma Gardner learns of her father’s untimely death, she returns to her home town to find that the idyllic farming community of her childhood has been ravaged by drought and is now a place tormented by gangs and the ill effects of extreme poverty.

When Ada and her sister, Piper, discover a letter about their late father, a Marine who died in Iraq, they embark on a secret quest beyond their life in rural Tennessee to discover the truth about the man they never knew.

What’s a girl to do when she gets an unwelcome visit from Aunt Flo? A self-conscious teenager uses technology to combat the stigma around menstruation.

In this 1980s coming-of-age story set to pulsing hip-hop music, a Filipino-American teen discovers her identity through a budding talent for turntablism.

A comedy workshop in Los Angeles teaches improv and stand up to women recently released from prison, culminating in a show for friends and family.

“Little Hero” is a documentary about a six-year-old boy’s autism as seen through his twin sister’s eyes.

An elegant ladies lunch in Peru reveals the dark side of privilege with no conscience.

(USA) On the anniversary of his young son’s death, border patrol agent Ramon Nunez finds redemption at the hands of an illegal alien in a single polarizing and life-altering night.

In a dystopian future where people live nocturnally to avoid the harmful rays of the sun, a young girl unravels the lie that has kept her and her sister in the dark.

A young female Marine war veteran navigates her disintegrating life until there is nothing left but to make a choice.

What is intended to be a healthy way of breaking up in fact raises all kinds of issues for this group of thirty-somethings in their own relationships, especially when Stella’s unruly mother Lourdes appears unexpectedly.

In this smart and funny educational series, two pint-sized cooking show hosts and their hapless young producer prepare their favorite foods, then go on fantastic adventures through time and space to learn more about the recipes’ origins.

“Wild Kitchen” is a 22-minute documentary TV series about wild food, the people who harvest it, their unique stories that compel them to live off the land.