Documentary festivals are an enigma in the filmmaking industry. Rooted in reality but flirting with the glitter of cinematic exposition, festivals such as last weekend's Full Frame Documentary Film Festival offer a flicker of truth against the backdrop of velvet curtains and tiered auditoriums. You can just as easily run into a gastroenterologist from California waiting in line for a screening as you can bump into Sydney Pollack wandering in the Durham Marriott lobby or Danny DeVito loitering around the buffet line during an awards ceremony.
Such a provocative mixture of people and films attracted a record-breaking number of attendees to Full Frame's downtown campus last weekend. Nearly 23,000 people purchased tickets and passes over the course of four days. Student festival passes tipped the scales at a whopping $145, but a frugal movie-goer could buy a pass to just one film for $10-20. Those who took heed of the festival's advice-lining up more than half an hour early to snatch up limited seating-were able to avoid the haphazard sprint of mere on-timers who were met with rejection at the doors of sold out theatres.
With ongoing traffic surrounding the festival's four locations-the American Tobacco Campus, the Marriott, the Durham Arts Council and the Carolina Theatre-and lines rivaling those of Space Mountain sans fast pass, the eight-year-old festival proved that it's all grown up.
"Full Frame is getting so big," said Full Frame veteran Joe Murphy, while waiting for a screening outside Fletcher Hall in the Carolina Theatre. "I've been coming here since the beginning, when there were 100 to 200 people. It's been getting so intense. For an old guy, I almost had a heart attack."
Special guest Danny DeVito, leaning casually against a wall outside the Durham Armory following the festival's traditional barbecue dinner and awards ceremony, said the only thing he wished for in his Full Frame experience was to have had more time to see all the documentaries.
"I really enjoyed it. [Full Frame] is celebrating documentary films, and that's a great thing to do. It's right up in the top echelon of film festivals," said Devito, who incidentally, is just as short in person as he is on screen. Maybe shorter.
For many of the attendees, the sheer extent of programming at the festival became fully realized after days jam-packed with consecutive screenings. "It really is, 'How much reality can you handle!'" Murphy said, in reference to the festival's tagline.
Indeed, with a line-up of carefully selected documentaries from a pool of nearly 1,200, sniffles were routine, standing ovations frequent and laughter more prevalent than snores.
Take for example, Word Play, a film documenting the American obsession with the illustrious New York Times crossword. Whether the audience was composed of old school puzzle aficionados scorning the rise of Sudoku, or viewers recovering from Ken Burns' work-in-progress tearjerker War, World Play was a shoe-in crowd-pleaser. Celebrity testimonies from Bill Clinton to Jon Stewart added to the hilarity. In one example, Stewart hunches over his desk and yells, "Bring it!" He then proceeds to challenge puzzle Editor Will Shortz by threatening to use a sharpie to fill in the blocks. Seemingly destined for popular buzz, World Play was purchased by IFC films and will be released in June.
While Full Frame wasn't exactly a hot spot for distribution deals, it was for many a first step along the path of publicity-a site where filmmakers could gain invaluable exposure and watch their films on the big screen for the first time.
In some cases, the festival and the screening of films grew to be an emotional experience.
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, co-directors of A Lion in the House (given Honorable Mention by the Full Frame Grand Jury), which follows the stories of child cancer patients, revealed how meaningful the festival was to them personally. Reichert, in a tragic twist of fate, had been recently diagnosed with lymphoma.
This is the first time the couple has been able to travel since Reichart's diagnosis. "To see such incredible films is going to let us get though this stupid chemo," Reichert said. "Film is going to nourish us."
Barry Goldwater Jr., who joined his niece CC, the director of Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, said he had reservations about being part of the post-screening Q&A. "I told CC, I can't get up there, I've just been crying," said Goldwater Jr. regarding the documentary about his father, the losing 1964 Republican presidential candidate.
Like Goldwater Jr., the casts of the documentaries were sometimes present for the screenings-after all, these were films about actual people. Coach Bill Ressler, star of the highly praised documentary, Heart of the Game, about a high school women's basketball team, was in town for the festival and stopped by Duke to check out Cameron Indoor Stadium. Amid jaunty poses in front of the Krzyzewskiville sign and sightseeing in the women's basketball office, Ressler said he was astounded by the finished documentary.
"The first time I saw [the film], I was amazed. I was shocked because I didn't realize how much emotion [the director] had captured in the process of filming these girls," Ressler said, "It just bleeds off the screen."
Ressler said his experience with director Ward Serrill over the stunning seven years of filming was a mixture of luck and passion, one which led to a fairy tale athletic victory even Jerry Bruckheimer couldn't concoct.
Whether stirring or amusing-and more often a little of both-these documentaries have, nevertheless, faded from Durham screens in continuation of their passage through festivals and distribution deals across America. But with any luck, some of them might just land in a theater near you.
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