The first showing of Francesca Karle’s second film, “Back to the Bottle,” will debut Thursday, April 17 as part of the Fifth Annual Appalachian Regional Film Festival. Similar to the premiere of “On the River’s Edge,” the premiere includes a pre-screening buffet. Proceeds will go to the Cabell County Substance Abuse Partnership.


While a Chesapeake High School student, Francesca Karle decided to make a movie about the homeless people living near Harris Riverfront Park for a Girl Scout project. Assisted by her volunteer experiences with her church group ministering to and feeding the homeless population, Karle already had a recognition factor with the homeless population. When she asked them to talk on camera about their lives, they trusted her and revealed the stories of their lives both on the Huntington riverbank and before they chose to build their shanties on the Ohio River.


When the film screened at the Keith