The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is returning to Durham’s historic Carolina Theater this year. Beginning today and wrapping up on Sunday, Full Frame is a jam-packed weekend of film screenings, panel discussions and chances to meet and greet filmmakers from around the globe. Featured appearances this year include Martin Scorsese and world-famous documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.
Far from being just for film junkies, wannabe directors and industry insiders, Full Frame celebrates mainstream documentaries alongside underground foreign films that might otherwise never be seen in the United States.
Founded in 1998 by journalist Nancy Biurski, Full Frame has become the premiere documentary film festival in the world, thanks to consistently phenomenal programming and contributions from the most influential members in the field.
Biurski, then a photo editor for The New York Times, saw an opportunity to give documentary filmmaking the exposure it deserved. “Eight years ago documentaries were underappreciated and patrons of festivals were underserved,” Biurski said. She used her connections within the industry to found a film festival devoted entirely to documentary films. Since then, Biurski’s brainchild has developed into a star-studded gem of the intellectual community. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this festival is that it happens in our oft-ignored backyard. Every year.
“We are a very singular event here, with same diversity as New York City, but it’s a concentrated intelligentsia… an escape from New York City where they can immerse themselves in film.” A huge high-five for Biurski for filling the void and props to the townies for giving her project the attention it deserved.
For those Duke isolationists who think of Durham as a seedy, blue-collar obstacle standing in between Cafe Parizade and Shooters, Full Frame offers an opportunity to explore the burgeoning arts community the city has to offer. Full Frame is an excellent chance for Duke students to venture outside the dorm and get a refreshing, rewarding whiff of one of the annual highlights of our underappreciated Triangle—it’s like stepping into the Down Under Pub, with brilliant documentaries from around the world instead of just beer.
Here’s how the festival works: Full Frame’s film schedule is divided into two parts. The first is “New Docs: Films in Competition.” The second section consists of special events like the Curated Programs that pool together new and old documentaries for a series with a particular theme. Both sections combined bring the grand total to 106 screenings of new and old documentary films.
This year features the “Why War?” series, a collection of documentaries engaged in understanding the causes of war, featuring discussions with Chilean-born author and activist Ariel Dorfman (and Duke professor of Literature and Latin American studies) and novelist Walter Mosley, author of Devil in a Blue Dress. Another special segment is the “Southern Sidebar,” an annual grouping of three films that form an intimate discourse on what it means to be “Southern.” This year’s Sidebar includes Time Indefinite, a new documentary by world-renowned North Carolina native Ross McElwee.
Whittled down from 920 hopefuls, Full Frame’s New Docs portion offers 78 new films that survived an intense selection process. According to selection committee co-chair, Duke Professor of Political Science David Paletz, this year’s New Docs portion of the Full Frame programming is full of outstanding films.
Paletz has been chair of the selection committee since the festival’s inception. He proudly reports that this year is even bigger and better than previous years and the “range here is astonishing.” He said he watched over 400 films this year—roughly 35 per week—and deliberated every Sunday for five hours with the selection committee over which films were going to make it into the festival.
Paletz said while no film is coming into the festival with as much buzz as last year’s Grand Jury Prize winner, Super Size Me, that doesn’t mean featured films won't be making their mark on the box office. A little-known film, Born into Brothels, entered Full Frame quietly and closed out last year with the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. “The great thing about the festival is discovering films that don't have a lot of buzz,” he said.
Paletz expects Children of Leningradsky, Phantom of the Operator and opening night’s Bearing Witness to garner well-deserved praise, but he also expressed enthusiasm for a short Polish film about a pilgrimage to Lourdes called For a Miracle as well as one of his personal favorites Shape of the Moon, about a family in Indonesia, which he called “a no-brainer selection.” Also look out for Murderball, about wheelchair-bound rugby players, and 39 Pounds of Love, the story of man with a rare form of muscular dystrophy.
Biurski said this year is the best batch of New Docs they’ve had yet. She hopes that people will experiment with films and “see something [they] might never ever see.”
In addition to the New Docs and special programming, the festival will also include two evening presentations. Friday night will feature documentary filmmakers Ken Burns and Ric Burns, who are receiving lifetime achievement awards. Martin Scorsese will be talking about his career in film and work in film preservation the following night. Prior to his presentation, Scorsese will present a tribute to documentary pioneer Vittorio de Seta. Go to www.fullframefest.org for more information.
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