Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Encyclopedia
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction
cinema. Each spring Full Frame welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to historic downtown Durham, North Carolina
for a four-day, morning to midnight array of over 100 films as well as discussions, panels, and southern hospitality. Set within a four-block radius, the intimate festival landscape fosters community and conversation between filmmakers, film professionals and the public.
The festival is a program of the Center for Documentary Studies (a non-profit, 501 c 3), and receives support from corporate sponsors, private foundations and individual donors whose generosity provides the foundation that makes the event possible. The Presenting Sponsor of the Festival is Duke University
. Additional sponsors include: A&E IndieFilms, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, National Endowment for the Arts
, Merge Records
, Whole Foods
,and the City of Durham
.
The festival began in 1998 with no more than a few hundred patrons and has grown tremendously since then. Full Frame is now considered to be one of the premier documentary
film festivals in the United States.
Full Frame's mission is to serve the documentary
form and its community by showcasing the contemporary work of established and emerging filmmakers. The festival provides a space that nurtures conversation between artists, students, and the Full Frame audience. Full Frame is committed to enhancing public understanding and appreciation of the art form and its significance, while making films more accessible to a wider audience.
Full Frame also promotes the festival’s mission throughout the year by presenting documentary work in other venues both locally and nationally, partnering with organizations like the American Tobacco Historic District/Capitol Broadcasting Company
, Des Moines Art Center
, Duke University
, the IFC Center
, the International Affairs Council of North Carolina, the Nasher Museum of Art
at Duke University, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, Rooftop Films
, and the University of North Carolina
(UNC) School System.
Full Frame has reached national recognition not just from its impressive programming but also the presence of numerous filmmaking celebrities. Over the years, those attending have included Morgan Spurlock
, Michael Moore
, DA Pennebaker, Martin Scorsese
, Danny DeVito
, Ken Burns
, Joan Allen
, Mira Nair
, Al Franken
, Sydney Pollack
, Barbara Kopple
, Steve James
, George Butler
, Alex Gibney
and many others.
The festival receives about 1200 new films for consideration for the New Docs program.
The prizes awarded at the 2011 festival:
Past Grand Jury Award winners are:
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
cinema. Each spring Full Frame welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to historic downtown Durham, North Carolina
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
for a four-day, morning to midnight array of over 100 films as well as discussions, panels, and southern hospitality. Set within a four-block radius, the intimate festival landscape fosters community and conversation between filmmakers, film professionals and the public.
The festival is a program of the Center for Documentary Studies (a non-profit, 501 c 3), and receives support from corporate sponsors, private foundations and individual donors whose generosity provides the foundation that makes the event possible. The Presenting Sponsor of the Festival is Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. Additional sponsors include: A&E IndieFilms, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, Merge Records
Merge Records
Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as a way to release music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expanded to include artists from around the world and records...
, Whole Foods
Whole foods
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...
,and the City of Durham
City of Durham
The City of Durham was, from 1974 to 2009, a non-metropolitan district of County Durham in North East England, with the status of borough and city.-Formation:...
.
The festival began in 1998 with no more than a few hundred patrons and has grown tremendously since then. Full Frame is now considered to be one of the premier documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
film festivals in the United States.
Full Frame's mission is to serve the documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
form and its community by showcasing the contemporary work of established and emerging filmmakers. The festival provides a space that nurtures conversation between artists, students, and the Full Frame audience. Full Frame is committed to enhancing public understanding and appreciation of the art form and its significance, while making films more accessible to a wider audience.
Full Frame also promotes the festival’s mission throughout the year by presenting documentary work in other venues both locally and nationally, partnering with organizations like the American Tobacco Historic District/Capitol Broadcasting Company
Capitol Broadcasting Company
Capitol Broadcasting Company is a TV and radio broadcast company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They also own and operate the minor league baseball team, the Durham Bulls.-TV:*WRAL-TV 5...
, Des Moines Art Center
Des Moines Art Center
The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. It was established in 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa.-Description:...
, Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, the IFC Center
IFC Center
IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, New York City in the United States of America. It is located at 323 Sixth Avenue, on the former site of the Waverly Theater, which was itself a well known art house movie theater...
, the International Affairs Council of North Carolina, the Nasher Museum of Art
Nasher Museum of Art
The Nasher Museum of Art is the art museum of Duke University, and is located on Duke's campus in Durham, North Carolina, USA. The $24 million museum was designed by architect Rafael Viñoly and opened on October 2, 2005...
at Duke University, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, Rooftop Films
Rooftop Films
Rooftop Films is a non-profit film organization based in Gowanus, Brooklyn. They are best known for their Rooftop Films Summer Series, a screening series/film festival that runs from June through September every year and consists of as many as 47 outdoor screenings of new, independent short and...
, and the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
(UNC) School System.
Full Frame has reached national recognition not just from its impressive programming but also the presence of numerous filmmaking celebrities. Over the years, those attending have included Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and journalist best known for the documentary film Super Size Me...
, Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
, DA Pennebaker, Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...
, Ken Burns
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...
, Joan Allen
Joan Allen
Joan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...
, Mira Nair
Mira Nair
Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
, Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
, Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
, Barbara Kopple
Barbara Kopple
Barbara Kopple is an American film director, primarily known for her work in documentary film.-Biography:She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of a textile executive and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.Kopple has won two...
, Steve James
Steve James
Steve James may refer to:* Steve James , American actor* Steve James , Welsh contemporary Christian musician* Steve James , English cricketer and journalist* Steve James , English football player...
, George Butler
George Butler
George Butler is an English photographer and documentary filmmaker.After meeting John Kerry in 1964 he worked with him on the book The New Soldier published in 1971....
, Alex Gibney
Alex Gibney
Alex Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, Esquire magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time."...
and many others.
The festival receives about 1200 new films for consideration for the New Docs program.
Curated Series
Each year the festival invites a member of the documentary filmmaking community to curate a series of films on a specific topic. The curated series have included:- 2011: Archival Footage, curator Rick PrelingerRick PrelingerRick Prelinger is an archivist, writer and filmmaker, and founder of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of 60,000 advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur films acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002 after 20 years' operation.Rick has partnered with the Internet Archive to make...
- 2010: Work and Labor, curators Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert
- 2009: This Sporting Life, curator Steve JamesSteve JamesSteve James may refer to:* Steve James , American actor* Steve James , Welsh contemporary Christian musician* Steve James , English cricketer and journalist* Steve James , English football player...
- 2009: Migrations, curator Lourdes PortilloLourdes PortilloLourdes Portillo is an American screenwriter and filmmaker. While the majority of her work is in the documentary film genre, she has also created video installations and written for the stage...
- 2007: The Power of 10, curators St. Clair BourneSt. Clair BourneSt. Clair Bourne was an American documentary filmmaker, who focused on African American social issues and themes. He also developed projects which explored African American cultural figures, such as Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson.Born in Harlem, he moved to Brooklyn when he was two years old...
, Charles BurnettCharles BurnettCharles Burnett may refer to:*Charles Burnett , American film director*Charles Burnett , Scottish Officer of Arms*Charles Burnett , Royal Air Force officer and Australian Chief of the Air Staff...
, Ariel DorfmanAriel DorfmanVladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.-Personal...
, Cara Mertes, Michael MooreMichael MooreMichael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
, Walter MosleyWalter MosleyWalter Ellis Mosley is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los...
, Mira NairMira NairMira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
, DA Pennebaker, Julia Reichert, and Martin ScorseseMartin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation... - 2006: Class in America, curator St. Clair BourneSt. Clair BourneSt. Clair Bourne was an American documentary filmmaker, who focused on African American social issues and themes. He also developed projects which explored African American cultural figures, such as Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson.Born in Harlem, he moved to Brooklyn when he was two years old...
- 2005: Why War?, curator Cara Mertes
- 2004: Hybrid: A New Film Form, curator Mary Lea Bandy
- 2003: Leadership Through a Gender Lens, curators Marie WilsonMarie WilsonMarie Wilson may refer to:*Marie Wilson , American radio, film, and television actress*Marie Wilson *Marie Wilson , wife of Nanos Valaoritis...
and Chris Hegedus - 2002: Score!, curator DA Pennebaker
- 2001: 2001 - Fast Forward, curator Kent JonesKent JonesThomas Kenton "Kent" Jones is a writer and performer on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, airing live M-F at 9 p.m. Eastern time...
, Film Society of Lincoln Center - 2000: Outside Looking In: Coming of Age Stories, curator Alan BerlinerAlan BerlinerAlan Berliner is an American filmmaker. Many of his films have been aired on PBS Public Broadcasting Service program P.O.V.. Most of his films are generally classified as documentaries...
- 1999: World Without Limits
- 1998: Tolerance, curator Larry Kardish
Career Award
Each year, the festival presents a filmmaker with the Full Frame Career Award. Past recipients include:- 2011: Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg
- 2010: Liz GarbusLiz GarbusLiz Garbus is an award-winning documentary film director and producer. Her most recent film, Bobby Fischer Against the World, opened the Premiere Documentary Section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, reserved for master American documentary filmmakers...
and Rory KennedyRory KennedyRory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy is an American documentary filmmaker and producer. She is the youngest of the eleven children of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel .-Early life and education:... - 2009: St. Clair BourneSt. Clair BourneSt. Clair Bourne was an American documentary filmmaker, who focused on African American social issues and themes. He also developed projects which explored African American cultural figures, such as Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson.Born in Harlem, he moved to Brooklyn when he was two years old...
- 2008: William GreavesWilliam GreavesWilliam Greaves is a documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of African-American filmmaking. He has produced over two hundred documentary films writing and directing more than half of them...
- 2007: Ross McElweeRoss McElweeRoss McElwee is an American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer, and Harvard professor, known for his autobiographical films about his family and personal life, usually interwoven with an episodic journey of some sort. Many cultural aspects of his southern upbringing are present in his...
- 2006: Richard LeacockRichard LeacockRichard Leacock was a British-born documentary film director and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité.-Early life and career:...
- 2005: Ken BurnsKen BurnsKenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...
, Ric BurnsRic BurnsRic Burns is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced historical documentaries for nearly 20 years, beginning with his collaboration on the celebrated PBS series The Civil War , which he produced with his older brother Ken Burns and wrote with Geoffrey C... - 2004: Marcel OphulsMarcel OphulsMarcel Ophüls is a documentary film maker and former actor.He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of the director Max Ophüls...
- 2003: Charles GuggenheimCharles GuggenheimCharles Guggenheim was an American film director and producer.- Early life :Guggenheim was born into a prominent German Jewish family in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was a furniture salesman. While studying farming at Colorado A&M in 1943, Guggenheim was drafted into the United States Army...
- 2001: Barbara KoppleBarbara KoppleBarbara Kopple is an American film director, primarily known for her work in documentary film.-Biography:She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of a textile executive and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.Kopple has won two...
- 2000: DA Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus
- 1998: Albert Maysles, Michael AptedMichael AptedMichael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...
Industry Award
Occasionally, the festival honors an industry member who has made important contributions to the field with the Full Frame Industry Award. Past recipients include:- 2007: P.O.V.P.O.V.POV is a Public Broadcasting Service Public television series which features independent nonfiction films. POV is a cinema term for "point of view"....
/Marc Weiss - 2003: Pat MitchellPat MitchellPat Mitchell is the current President and Chief Executive Officer of The Paley Center for Media in New York City and the former President and CEO of Public Broadcasting Service ....
- 2001: Soros Documentary Fund/Diane Weyermann
- 2000: Sheila Nevins
Awards
The festival offers a number of prizes at each festival.The prizes awarded at the 2011 festival:
- The Full Frame Grand Jury Award for best overall film.
- The Full Frame Audience Award is chosen by ballot of the attendees of the festival.
- The Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short is given to the best film of 40 minutes or less.
- The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) Filmmaker Award for the film which best gives a firsthand look at the central issues of contemporary life and culture.
- The Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award for the best first-time documentary feature filmmaker.
- The Full Frame Inspiration Award for the best film examining religion and spirituality.
- The Full Frame President's Award for the best student film.
- The The Nicholas School Environmental Award for the film that best depicts the conflict between our drive to improve living standards through development and modernization, and the imperative to preserve both the natural environment that sustains us and the heritages that define us.
- The Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights for a film that addresses a significant human rights issue in the US.
Past Grand Jury Award winners are:
- 2011: Scenes of a Crime
- 2010: Enemies of the People
- 2009: Burma VJBurma VJBurma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a 2008 documentary film directed by Anders Østergaard. It follows the September 2007 uprisings against the military regime in Burma. Some of it was filmed on hand-held cameras, and the footage was smuggled out of the country...
- 2008: Trouble the WaterTrouble the WaterTrouble the Water is a 2008 documentary film produced and directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, producers of Fahrenheit 9/11. Trouble the Water is a redemptive tale of a couple surviving failed levees, bungling bureaucrats, and their own troubled past and a portrait of a community abandoned long...
- 2007: The MonasteryThe MonasteryThe Monastery: a Romance is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. Along with The Abbot, it is one of Scott's Tales from Benedictine Sources and is set in the time of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Elizabethan period.-Plot introduction:...
- 2006: Iraq in FragmentsIraq in FragmentsIraq in Fragments is a documentary feature directed by James Longley. Longley shot the film in Digital Video on a Panasonic DVX100 miniDV camcorder. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film is also a part of the Iraq Media Action Project film collection. It was nominated for...
- 2005: Murderball, Shape of the Moon
- 2004: Control RoomControl RoomControl Room is a 2004 documentary film about Al Jazeera and its relations with the US Central Command , as well as the other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq...
- 2003: Etre et AvoirÊtre et avoirTo Be and To Have is a 2002 French documentary film directed by Nicolas Philibert about a small rural school. It was nominated as an "Out of Competition" film at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and achieved commercial success...
- 2002: The First YearThe First YearThe First Year is a film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The movie was written by Lynn Starling from Frank Craven's play and directed by William K. Howard.-Cast:* Janet Gaynor as Grace Livingston* Charles Farrell as Tommy Tucker...
- 2001: Benjamin SmokeBenjamin SmokeBenjamin Smoke was a musician who fronted the Atlanta, Georgia band Smoke. He was noted for being a radical, gay rock 'n' roll performer. He died on January 29, 1999 due to liver failure caused by Hepatitis C at age 39. He performed his final concert in Atlanta, Georgia on New Year's Eve, 1998...
, Avant de Partir - 2000: La Bonne du Conduite: 5 Histoires d' Auto Ecole (The Way I Look at You: 5 Stories of Driving School)
- 1999: Return with Honor, Fotoamator
- 1998: In Harm's Way, Travis