Electric, infectious buzz pervaded the streets of downtown Durham this past weekend with the Bull City playing host to what has become an essential cultural event for Triangle and international filmmakers and film lovers.
The 13th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival came to a close Sunday after four full days of screenings, panel discussions and parties.
“Full Frame 2010 has been an enormous success both financially and artistically,” Full Frame Executive Director Deirdre Haj wrote in an e-mail Sunday. “Most of all, the spirit of our audience was upbeat, joyous and eager for more.”
At an awards brunch in American Tobacco Bay 7, the festival’s jury announced this years winners. “Enemies of the People,” claimed the Anne Dellinger Grand Jury Award, the festival’s top prize. The documentary follows a Cambodian journalist as he investigates the reasoning behind millions of murders under the Khmer Rouge regime. “The Poot,” an insight into the process of Iranian carpet weaving, was awarded Best Short documentary.
The festival also gave Special Jury Prizes to al Qaeda documentary “The Oath” and Sundance-winner “Restrepo,” which chronicles the lives of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Festival-goers voted “Waste Land,” a portrait of a Brazilian artist who turns trash into new artworks, the festival’s best. Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies deemed “My Perestroika” the best film that “is a potential catalyst for education and change.” The film follows five Russians as they revisit the fall of the Soviet Union.
The festival kicked off Thursday evening with a screening of D.A. Pennebaker’s latest offering “Kings of Pastry.” Haj welcomed the crowd to the festival at the beginning of the sold-out premium event.
“Full Frame is strong,” Haj said. “We are poised to move forward, continuing to explore the medium of the documentary as it changes and grows.”
Haj, a Hollywood ex-pat who was appointed to helm Full Frame this past January, said she enthusiastically reached out to the local community for support.
“If you own a business, we want to partner with you,” Haj said. “If you’re an individual… [we want you to] be a member of the Full Frame family,”
Haj also stressed her desire to become better integrated with Durham, announcing this summer’s upcoming series, “Movies on the Lawn,” which will feature four outdoor screenings of environmentally-focused films at the American Tobacco Campus.
Director of Programming Sadie Tillery followed up Haj’s sentiments, urging the audience to take in the festival at its fullest.
“Screen films until your eyes can take no more,” Tillery said. “[I hope] that the stories in the films we offer will affect you as intellectually, emotionally and aesthetically as they have us.”
The audience took Tillery’s words to heart. According to a statement released by Haj yesterday, attendance and ticket sales “climbed dramatically” this year, and the free outdoor screenings, which included “Pelada” by Duke alumnus Gwendolyn Oxenham, Trinity ’04, were attended by hundreds.
Rodrigo Dorfman, Trinity ’89, who presented his new film “Generation Exile” Thursday, said he found the atmosphere and energy of the festival to be ideal.
“I could never have imagined a better place to premiere my film than Full Frame,” Dorfman wrote in an e-mail. “What makes this festival unique is that it is not geared towards the ‘business’ of documentary filmmaking, but the art and appreciation of the form. It offers audiences and filmmakers alike a place to share their love of storytelling.”
Center for Documentary Studies visiting lecturer Gary Hawkins, who directed the Jason Moran and Thelonius Monk musical exploration “In My Mind”, also benefitted from the hub of documentary talent. He said this year’s festival experience was the best he’s had, citing the opportunities the festival offered to trade and connect with other filmmakers.
Geoff Edgers, a former (Raleigh) News & Observer reporter turned filmmaker, came to the festival to premiere “Do It Again,” which chronicles Edgers’ efforts to reunite The Kinks. The screening, Friday evening’s premium event, marked a personal and professional achievement for Edgers.
“Full Frame is a huge dream of mine—I love this state and this place,” he said. “I never really thought I’d be in it and standing here.”
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