In its eighth annual iteration, the IFP Independent Filmmaker Lab program provides first time directors and their creative teams with a year-long fellowship to guide them through post-production and towards the marketing and distribution of their projects. There are ten fellowships for documentary projects, ten for narrative projects. Projects must be budgeted at less than $1-million. This year's selection was made from about 200 submissions.

The documentaries selected for 2012 are:

• Alias Ruby Blade - Fellows: Alex Meiller (Director), Tanya Ager Meillier (Producer) - Brooklyn, NY
• Big Joy Project: The Adventures of James Broughton - Fellows: Stephen Silha (Director/Producer), Eric Slade (Director/Producer), Dawn Logsdon (Editor) - Vashon, WA
• For Thousands of Miles - Fellows: Mike Ambs (Director, Writer); Erica Hampton (Production Manager) - North Hollywood, CA
• The Last Wild Mountain - Fellows: Oakley Anderson-Moore (Director/Writer), Alexander Reinhard (Producer) - Los Angeles, CA
• Lucky - Fellows: Laura Checkoway (Director/Producer), Neyda Martinez (Producer) - Brooklyn, NY
• Our Nixon - Fellows: Penny Lane (Director/Producer), Brian Frye (Director) - Claryville, NY and Kentucky
• Purgatorio: A Journey into the Heart of the Border - Fellows: Rodrigo Reyes (Director/Producer), Justin Chin (Director of Photography), Manuel Tsingaris (Editor) - Merced, CA
• Survival Prayer - Fellows: Benjamin Greené (Director/Producer), P. Corwin Lamm (Editor); Michael Beharie (Composer) - Bellingham, WA
• These Birds Walk - Fellows: Bassam Tariq (Director/Producer), Omar Mullick (Director/Producer), Valentina Canavesio (Producer) - Brooklyn, NY
• Where God Likes to Be - Fellows: Nicolas Hudak (Director/Writer), Anna Hudak (Producer/Writer) - Berlin, Germany

The Independent Filmmaker Labs are immersive mentorship programs with workshops in the technical, creative and stategic elements necessary to launch independent films. Three intensive and progressive Lab sessions are held during May, September and December of the fellowship year. Additionally, all Lab projects participate in IFP's Project Forum of Independent Film Week in September.

For additional information on the Independent Filmmaker Labs and the projects selected for 2012, visit the IFP Website.

Thanks to Rooftop Films 2012 Summer Series, New York moviegoers will be treated to a trifecta of documentary screenings on the weekend of Thursday, May 31 through Saturday, June 2.

The three winning films include:

• Bovines - Directed by Emmanuel Gras - France - This gentle, meditative, and beautifully filmed study about the lives of cows from the perspective of cows has a surprisingly captivating quality. It is somewhat like Sweetgrass in it's meditative quality, but it is, of course, about bovines and not sheep, and there are fewer people who enter into the frame -- until the end. It's fascinating. Screening on Thursday, May 31, on the roof of the Old American Can Factory, 232 3rd St. @ 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/ Park Slope, Brooklyn). Doors open at 8 PM. Live music by Mutual Benefit begins at 8:30 PM, and the film is at 9:00 PM, followed by a reception in the courtyard.
• This Ain't California - Directed by Marten Persiel - Germany - In fact, the documentary is set in East Germany, where the filmmaker and his friends grew up as rebellious skateboarders who defied the rigid Communist lifestyle and government by engaging in radical sport, punk music and other anti-establishment cultural expressions, reunite, reminisce and reevaluate their lives. A wonderful compilation of archival Super 8, animation and contemporary footage, this film is smart and spirited, provocative and entertaining. Screening is on June 1, and what could be better? It's at Open Road, the rooftop skate park above the New Design High School at 350 Grand St. @ Essex (Lower East Side, Manhattan). Doors open at 8:00 PM, live music at 8:30, film at 9:00 and after-party from 11:30 PM to 1 AM at R Bar (218 Bowery @ Rivington).
• The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom - Directed by Lucy Walker - Japan - This documentary short that shows how despair gradually yielded to hope in post-tsunami Japan, where so many people lost their lives during the terrible tsunami. The 2012 Academy Award nominated film is a beautiful tribute to the human spirit. The evening's program is filled out with a variety of additional short films. Showing on June 2 on the Open Road Rooftop above New Design High School at 350 Grand St. @ Essex (Lower East Side, Manhattan). Doors open at 8:00 PM, live music begins at 8:30, the films start at 9:00PM, and there's an after-party at Fontana's (105 Eldridge St. @ Grand St.

The weekend's scheduling is part of Rooftop Films' 2012 summer series, 23 feature length films and 183 shorts on rooftop venues throughout NYC on weekends through August 18.

All screenings cost $12, and the evenings include live must. Additionally, most have after-parties with complimentary drinks, and many have Q&As with directors and the characters in the films, and/or experts on their subjects.

For tickets, full schedule and other information, visit the Rooftop Films Website.

The UK-based Grierson Awards recognize outstanding documentaries and factual programing that demonstrate integrity, originality and technical excellence, and social or cultural significance.

The prestigious award are presented in ten categories:

• Deluxe 142 Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme - Domestic (UK)
• Shell Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme - International
• DocHouse & The Bertha Foundation Best Cinema Documentary
• Best Documentary on the Arts
• ITN Source Best Historical Documentary
• Best Science Documentary
• Most Entertaining Documentary
• Envy Best Documentary Series
• CTVC Best Newcomer Documentary (with a cash prize of BPS 3000 or around $4750)
• Sky Arts Best Student Documentary (with a cash prize of BPS 3000 or around $4750)

The Grierson Awards are open to documentaries made anywhere in the world, provided that they've had a first UK screening during the qualifying period from May 1, 2011 to April 30, 2012.

Submissions for consideration much be received by June 1, 2012 at 6:00 PM. The fee for each submission is BPS 234 (about $370), except for the Newcomer and Student categories, for which the submission fee is BPS 60 (about $95).

A shortlist of eight submissions for each category will be announced on July 31. The final four nominees in each category will be announced on September 25. The winners will be announced on Nevember 6, at the Grierson Awards ceremony at The Empire Leicester Square, in London.

For more information on the awards and how to submit projects for consideration, visit the Grierson Awards Website.

The 23rd annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival's New York edition, scheduled to take place from June 14 - 28, 2012 at New York Film Society's Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, will presents sixteen films, each telling a unique and compelling human rights-related story that reveals oppression, injustice, and resilience around the world.

Of the sixteen films on this year's program, thirteen are documentaries.

Read the annotated list of films.