From budding filmmakers trying to break into the business to Pratt students looking for an artsy breather, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is the place to be this weekend. Packed with director Q&A's, workshops and, above all, the screenings of over 100 films-many of which are premiering internationally-Full Frame is considered the Sundance of documentary festivals. And luckily for local students, it's all happening in Duke's backyard: downtown Durham.
Full Frame was founded eight years ago by former documentary photographer and New York Times Foreign Picture Editor Nancy Buirski.
"In 1998 documentaries were certainly not getting the attention they're getting today," Buirski said. "There was only one documentary festival, in Arkansas, and it was a regional festival. I wanted to draw attention to some of the high quality documentaries out there."
Since that time, Full Frame's audiences have ballooned, Buirski said, along with its programming. It's the place where Murderball buzzed onto the public scene, where Supersize Me reigned in all its greasy glory and where guest Michael Moore, riding the hype of Fahrenheit 9/11, came to champion the cause of the documentary filmmaker.
Full Frame's main role is showcasing new documentaries, that compete for festival awards. There are 72 such films in competition this year, competing for more than $75,000 in distribution and production grants.
But the festival also features a variety of special programming, including invited films and panel discussions.
This year features two curated programs, one a collection of films on class in America and the other Full Frame's annual "Southern Sidebar." This year's sidebar will showcase nine films investigating the many angles of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The festival will open with a screening of Sydney Pollack's new documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry. A question-and-answer session with the famed director (Out of Africa, The Interpreter) will follow.
The bulk of the Full Frame schedule, however, is devoted to New Docs: Films in Competition. This sweeping assortment of documentaries is selected by a diverse committee ranging from filmmakers to teachers of film, chaired by Duke Professor of Political Science David Paletz.
Close to 1,200 films were submitted for the competition this year, said Paletz, who screened more than 300 films himself.
According to Paletz, this year's standouts include Black Sun, which follows the life of a man blinded in an attack, The Intimacy of Strangers, which consists of overheard and one-sided cell phone conversations, and his personal favorite, John and Jane Toll-Free, which documents the staff of outsourced call centers in India, who are trained to act like Americans.
One of the more intriguing of Paletz's top picks is called The Chances of the World Changing. This dramatic film is about the heroic mission of one tortured man who loses everything to save... turtles?
"In my mind [it] is almost a quintessential documentary, because it's about turtles," Paletz said. "You think, 'Turtles? Who would want to watch a film about turtles?' They don't have the charm of penguins and they move slower, but it's fascinating."
As for predicting which documentaries might hit the big time, Paletz said that the task is idiosyncratic. "In the past I've often favored films that no one else did," he said. "You win some and you lose some."
Paletz said his best bets are Wide Awake, a comedic spin on insomnia, In Search of Mozart and Iraq in Fragments. These films have both the dramatic power and commercial potential to make it in the public spectrum, Paletz said.
With not only the biggest showing of documentary films in the country but also many big-name special guests like Al Franken and Danny DeVito, tickets to Full Frame are selling out fast, Buirski said. She credits this continued success to Full Frame's broad mix of organizational support, including a new partnership with Duke.
Beginning this year and continuing for the next three years, Duke will give $100,000 annually as a presenting sponsor of the festival, alongside The New York Times. Richard Riddell, special assistant to President Richard Brodhead and a key facilitator of the agreement, said the relationship between Full Frame and Duke will be mutually beneficial. Duke will get exclusive access to the festival archive for research purposes, and new fellowship and internship programs coordinated by both organizations have been made available to students. Additionally, Duke students and staff will be able to purchase discounted festival tickets.
Aspiring student filmmakers might also take advantage of the festival's vast networking opportunities. Take Duke graduate Peter Jordan, Trinity '01, as an example. Jordan volunteered at Full Frame while a student at Duke and this year will be returning to the festival-this time as a filmmaker. Jordan will be showcasing his documentary Stand Like Still Living, which follows two people with AIDS living in Botswana.
Jordan was inspired to make his first film after watching the documentary Streetwise at Full Frame in 2000, he wrote in an e-mail. "The festival is a great opportunity for students to see films not shown anywhere else and to learn about people, places and things that can inform, challenge and sometimes even transcend their academic work," he wrote.
The festival offers students the chance of a lifetime, Buirski said. "There are so many issues documentaries talk about that intersect with the students at Duke, he said. There are many people considering being documentary makers-they have an opportunity to be exposed to the greatest filmmakers in the world."
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Whether people wish to indulge in Franken's left wing acumen, rock out to a performance by Dexter Romweber and Crow (who happen to be the subject of the documentary Two Headed Cow) or simply bask in the glow of the silver screen, Full Frame has it all.
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will run this Thursday through Sunday at The Carolina Theatre and various other locations around downtown Durham. For more information, visit the website at www.fullframefest.org.