Jay Craven realizes that he’s one fortunate filmmaker.

Through perseverance and hard work, Craven has been able to make films filled with characters based in the area where he has lived for the past 23 years — the “Northeast Kingdom” of Vermont.

“It’s enormously gratifying,” Craven said by phone. “I get to share the work with the audience most affected by the characters and the stories. There’s a real sense of exhilaration, but a sense of accountability as well.”

On Thursday, Craven drove from his Vermont home to Maine. Tonight, a sneak preview for his new film, “A Stranger in the Kingdom,” will be held at 7:30 at the Grand in Ellsworth, to benefit Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport. Craven will introduce the film and participate in discussion afterward.

“A Stranger in the Kingdom” is the story of a small town and its struggles with racism and murder. Actor Martin Sheen, one of the film’s cast, says it “reflects our culture and deals with great issues of our time and our society.”

Craven said he and Northeast Historic Film, which collects, preserves and shares the moving-image heritage of northern New England, have been allies before. NHF helped organize a 1994 tour of Maine for his earlier film, “Where the River Flows North,” and the video remains in NHF’s catalog.

“They stand for the recognition of cinema resources and history throughout New England,” Craven said. “There’s a rich film history in New England that they, more than anyone else, are drawing attention to. They’re also involved in film preservation, which is very important.”

Like Craven’s earlier films, “High Water” and “Where the River Flows North,” “A Stranger in the Kingdom” is based on a work by Howard Frank Mosher, arguably Vermont’s most prominent author.

Craven can relate to Mosher’s writings.

“There’s the intimate specificity of character, place and story that rings true, given that I’ve been here for so long,” he said. “Mosher writes from the perspective of historical imagination. He treats Vermont as a frontier, so these are almost Westerns, in a sense.”

With 24 characters, the cast of “A Stranger in the Kingdom” is a mix of film and stage veterans combined with Vermonters, all of whom worked for Screen Actors Guild minimums. The big names in the cast are Sheen (“Apocalypse Now,” “Badlands”), Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters,” “Congo”) and Henry Gibson (“Nashville,” “Laugh-In”).

Living so far from the Hollywood studios, Craven finds financing to be his biggest headache. “A Stranger in the Kingdom” was financed largely through $800,000 in donations from Vermonters and additional loans from two state banks.

“The challenge of fund raising is formidible,” Craven said. “I have a lovely freedom, but the price paid is the relentness struggle of it all.”

Next up for Craven is the third part of his Mosher trilogy, “Disappearances.” The script has been written, and is being sent out to potential cast members and financiers.

“It’s Mosher’s most far-flung story,” he said. “It’s a rollicking and rugged Prohibition-era action-adventure, about the smuggling of hijacked whiskey across the border.”

Tickets for tonight’s sneak preview are available at Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport and the Grand in Ellsworth.