ONCE UPON A RIVER: A Live Q&A with Screenwriter/Director Haroula Rose and Actress Kenadi DelaCerna.

Moderated by SCA MFA Candidate Kapena Baptista on Monday, September 28th, 2020.

ABOUT ONCE UPON A RIVER

Based on the best-selling novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell, Once Upon A River is the story of Native American teenager Margo Crane (Kenadi DelaCerna) in 1970s rural Michigan who after enduring a series of traumas and tragedies, sets out on an odyssey on the Stark River in search of her estranged mother. On the water, Margo encounters friends, foes, wonders, and dangers; navigating life on her own, she comes to understand her potential, all while healing the wounds of her past.

Written & Directed by: Haroula Rose
Based on the Novel by: Bonnie Jo Campbell
Starring: Kenadi DelaCerna, John Ashton (Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Gone Baby Gone), Tatanka Means (The Son, Saints & Strangers, Tiger Eyes), Ajuawak Kapashesit (Indian Horse, Caleb, “Outlander”), Sam Straley (Hala, “The Kids Are Alright,” “Chicago P.D.”), Coburn Goss (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, What Women Want), Lindsay Pulsipher (“True Blood,” “Justified,” “Hatfields & McCoys”), Kenn E. Head (“ER,” Brat 2, “Chicago Fire”)

ABOUT THE GUESTS

HAROULA ROSE (Director, Screenwriter)

Haroula Rose works in both fiction and nonfiction filmmaking. Her directorial debut ONCE UPON A RIVER was named one of the "most anticipated films" by Filmmaker Magazine, and will be released with Film Movement in October 2020. Rose's pilot LOST & FOUND premiered at Tribeca, and her most recent short film starring Maya Hawke premiered on Nowness. Her other acclaimed short films include WEDDING DRESS, BABY CRAZY, DIANA’S ELECTRIC TONGUE and OUR HOUSE OF GLASS.

Rose's work has been supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, Warner Media, Nantucket Screenwriters Colony, Tribeca's All Access, and Warner Brothers Directing Workshop. Rose is currently developing her second feature film. She was born in Chicago and when she isn't writing or directing, Rose makes music that is released via Thirty Tigers in Nashville. She has toured in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. Her songs can be heard in many series and films.

KENADI DELACERNA (Actress, "Margo Crane")

ONCE UPON A RIVER marks Kenadi DelaCerna's debut as a film actress. She studied theater and acting for film and television at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, and is currently studying with Michael Warner at Michael Warner Studios. She is in the works of co-writing and directing her first web series and is looking forward to the opportunities ahead.

KAPENA BAPTISTA (Moderator, SCA MFA Candidate, Normal Topping Graduate Fellow)

Kapena Baptista is a composer, ethnomusicologist, and indigenous advocate from Los Angeles. He graduated cum laude in Music and Anthropology from Harvard University where he served as Assistant Principal Bassoon in the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and was an undergraduate composer in both the Harvard College Composers Association and the Harvard University Studio for Electroacoustic Composition. Kapena’s academic focus was on his own musical lineage from his Native Hawaiian background. His senior thesis “Lovely Hula Hands: Native Hawaiian Identity in Hapa Haole Music and Hula Performance” contextualized Hawaiian music and Hula dancers within the development of the Hawaiian tourist industry and was awarded a Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for outstanding scholarly research. After graduating from Harvard in 2016, Kapena was named an inaugural Generation-Indigenous Fellow through the Center for Native American Youth, and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study and teach in Lisbon, Portugal. Kapena is now an MFA candidate in the Peter Stark Producing Program where he is both a Norman Topping Graduate Fellow and a Shriram Family Graduate Fellow. He hopes to increase Native American and Indigenous representation in the media by highlighting narratives that seek to modernize, empower, and uplift the peoples whose ancestral lands we call home.