Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_3248" align="alignnone" width="550"]Amir Bar-Lev[/caption]

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will honor who the festival describe as “three remarkable Americans who have impacted the art, issues and business of documentary filmmaking” at its 16th annual festival April 4-7, 2013. 

Full Frame will pay tribute to Jessica Yu’s visionary film work, has selected Amir Bar-Lev to curate the Thematic Program and will honor A&E IndieFilm’s Vice President Molly Thompson with the Advocate Award.

FULL FRAME TRIBUTE
The Full Frame Tribute will honor Academy Award® winning filmmaker Jessica Yu and will feature a retrospective of her work. Yu is a director of both documentaries and scripted work. Capturing profound stories, she has made bold choices in her films to embrace the experiences of the individuals she has documented. Yu will premiere her new documentary,“The Guide” at this year’s festival.

[caption id="attachment_3249" align="alignnone" width="550"]Jessica Yu[/caption]

Featured selections in the Full Frame 2013 retrospective include:

“Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien” / Jessica Yu
Stricken with polio as a child and confined to an iron lung, one man refuses to let this limitation define his existence.

“The Guide” / Jessica Yu – World Premiere
Set in Mozambique, this new film examines the human side of environmental sustainability.

“The Kinda Sutra” / Jessica Yu
A whimsical mix of interview and animation depicts childhood confusion about where babies come from.

“In the Realms of the Unreal” / Jessica Yu
For decades, reclusive artist Henry Darger immersed himself in a magical world. This film brings his incredible fantasies to life.

“Last Call at the Oasis” / Jessica Yu
The world water crisis isn’t coming, it’s here. Cities are close to disaster and water wars have begun, but the good news—it’s still manageable.

“Meet Mr. Toilet” / Jessica Yu
Forty percent of the world population lacks access to a toilet. Businessman Jack Sim aims to break the taboos around talking about basic sanitation.

“Protagonist” / Jessica Yu
The distinct experiences of a reformed gay Christian, bank robber, martial artist, and terrorist are woven together to present universal themes.

“Sour Death Balls” / Jessica Yu
This black-and-white short captures a series of children’s and adult’s attempts to consume an extremely unpalatable candy.

FULL FRAME THEMATIC PROGRAM: STORIES ABOUT STORIES
Curated by award-winning filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev, the Full Frame 2013 Thematic Program, “Stories About Stories,” examines the intersections of truth and perspective through a series of films.

“Attending Full Frame, what always inspires me most is the infinite variety of approaches to storytelling,” said Bar-Lev. “Every documentary is a unique, thorny relationship – between filmmaker and ‘character,’ fact and representation, reality and story. As guest curator, I’ve selected a handful of films that wrestle, each in their own way, with the medium of documentary filmmaking itself.”

Amir Bar-Lev directed the documentary films “Fighter” (2001), “My Kid Could Paint That” (2007), and “The Tillman Story” (2010). He co-produced the documentary “Trouble The Water” (2008), which won the 2008 Full Frame Grand Jury Award and was a 2009 Academy Award® Nominee. Bar-Lev is currently directing “Happy Valley,” a film about the Penn State scandal. Bar-Lev served on the Full Frame Grand Jury in 2011.

“Driving Me Crazy” / Nick Broomfield
A disastrous attempt to document a play becomes a broader meditation on show business and the filmmaking process.

“F for Fake” / Orson Welles
Forgery, misrepresentation, and reinterpretation of past events swirl together in a kaleidoscopic illustration of fact and fiction.

“Fighter” / Amir Bar-Lev
As two friends, both survivors of Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, travel to revisit the past, they find the journey threatens their relationship.

“Forbidden Lie$” / Anna Broinowski
Con or artist? Nourma Khouri, author of a bestselling book about the honor killing of a friend, is accused of taking significant artistic liberties.

“A Man Vanishes” / Shôhei Imamura
A film crew sets out to discover what became of a Japanese salesman who disappeared in the 1960s.

“My Kid Could Paint That” / Amir Bar-Lev
Everything changes when there’s a suggestion that the celebrated paintings of a prodigy toddler may not be entirely hers.

“Operation Filmmaker” / Nina Davenport

Good intentions go terribly awry when the filmmakers of a Hollywood movie bring an aspiring filmmaker from Iraq to intern on set.

“Stories We Tell” / Sarah Polley
This extremely personal film tenderly exposes a deep family secret, revealing the various, and varied, recollections of everyone involved.

“Theater of War” / John Walter
A behind-the-scenes look at a modern production of Mother Courage and Her Children gives way to a nuanced examination of storytelling.

FULL FRAME ADVOCATE AWARD
Full Frame will honor A&E IndieFilm’s Vice President Molly Thompson with the Advocate Award. Thompson is devoted to the proliferation of the documentary medium and Full Frame is pleased to spotlight Thompson’s career and personal vision.

“I’m honored to be chosen for the Advocate’s Award,” said Thompson. “I’ve had so many rewarding experiences being part of Full Frame over the years. This festival offers the cream of the nonfiction crop, which is why I and all of us at A&E feel very lucky to be a part of it.”

Under Thompson’s guidance, A&E IndieFilms’ productions include the Oscar®-nominated, Sundance Award-winner “Murderball,” the Oscar®-nominated “Jesus Camp” and the Emmy Award-winners “The Tillman Story” and “Under African Skies.”  Thompson executive produced the division’s original productions including: “My Kid Could Paint That,” “American Teen,” “The September Issue,” “The Tillman Story” and “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.”  Thompson’s latest film for A&E IndieFilms, “The Imposter” was shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature in the 2012 Academy Awards®. It was also nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2012 Critic’s Choice Movie Awards and received two nominations for the 2013 EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) – Best Documentary and Outstanding Debut.  Thompson is a current member of the Full Frame Advisory Board.

The 16th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 4-7, 2013, in Durham, NC, with Duke University as the presenting sponsor.

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The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has announced its 2013 Thematic Program and Tribute celebrating the work of Academy Award winning filmmaker Jessica Yu. 

The program will be curated by Amir Bar-Lev director of the documentary films “Fighter” (2001), “My Kid Could Paint That” (2007), and “The Tillman Story” (2010). He co-produced the documentary “Trouble The Water” (2008), which won the 2008 Full Frame Grand Jury Award and was a 2009 Academy Award Nominee. Bar-Lev is currently directing “Happy Valley”, about the Penn State scandal.

The festival will honor Jessica Yu with the Full Frame Tribute and will feature a retrospective of her work. Yu is a director of both documentaries and scripted films. She won an Oscar® for Best Documentary Short for “Breathing Lessons” (1996), a film about Mark O’Brien, a poet confined to an iron lung. Her latest film for Participant Media, “Last Call at the Oasis” (2011), is a chronicle of the water crisis.  Her documentaries include the award-winning features “Protagonist” (2007), “In the Realms of the Unreal” (2004), and HBO’s “The Living Museum” (1998), and the shorts “Meet Mr. Toilet” (2012) and “The Kinda Sutra” (2009).

Both Yu and Bar-Lev will attend the festival. Specific titles for the Thematic Program and Full Frame Tribute, along with additional attending guests, will be announced in March.

The 16th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 4-7, 2013, in Durham, N.C.

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Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival have been chosen by The Producers Guild of America as qualifying events for the annual awards.

To determine award nomination eligibility for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture, a documentary is eligible for awards consideration if it satisfies one of the exhibition methods stated by the PGA.  Starting this year, a theatrically released documentary that was “in competition” can now be nominated if it screened at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs and South By Southwest. Other exhibition methods include completing a seven day commercial run in a theater located in a PGA sanctioned market or if the documentary premieres on national television.  

Full Frame, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs, and South By Southwest join an impressive festival list which has traditionally included AFI Fest, Berlin International Film Festival, Cannes Festival International Du Film, Los Angeles Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Venice Film Festival.

 

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[caption id="attachment_2165" align="alignnone"]Special Flight[/caption]

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival announced the 2012 Festival award recipients with “Special Flight” receiving two awards, the Full Frame Grand Jury Award and the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award..  The 57 documentaries screened in the NEW DOCS Program were eligible.  Twelve awards were presented, including a Special Jury Award and two Honorable Mentions, to eleven different titles.

2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Award Winners

The Anne Dellinger Grand Jury Award was presented to “Special Flight (Vol Spécial),” directed by Fernand Melgar. The film focuses on a Swiss detention center where tensions build as rejected asylum seekers await their forced removal from the country they now call home. This award is sponsored by Chuck Pell, CSO Physcient, Inc. and Alpha Cine Labs, Seattle.

The Jury, Judith Ehrlich, Eric Metzgar, and Marco Williams, stated, “Director Fernand Melgar takes us deep inside the world of detained immigrants in Switzerland. With incredible access and patient observation, we experience the complex and powerful relationships between the captives and their captors. An exceptional work of vérité filmmaking, “Special Flight” forces us to confront the contradictions of humane incarceration.”

A Special Jury Award was also presented to “The Law in These Parts (Shilton Ha’Chok),” directed by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, a meticulously constructed exploration of the complex military laws imposed by Israel on citizens in the occupied territories. The Jury commented, “The Law in These Parts” we honor with a Special Jury Award. We admire its intelligence and unique Brechtian treatment of a very controversial subject.”

The Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short was given to “The Time We Have (Den tid vi har),” directed by Mira Jargil, a beautiful, intimate, and deeply tender look at saying goodbye to the love of your life after 67 years of marriage. The Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short is provided by Drs. Andrew and Barbra Rothschild.

The Jury, Steven Ascher, Jessica Edwards, and Edwin Martinez, stated: “The Jury Award goes to an elegantly realized portrait of a marriage that tenderly explores a husband’s last days with his wife. Beautifully observed, expertly paced, “The Time We Have” intimately captures the power of simple gestures between two people who will always be in love.”

The Jury awarded an honorable mention to “Sivan,” directed by Zohar Elefant, a minimalist portrait of an Israeli soccer fan in thrall to a team and an obsession.  The Jury said: “This Special Jury Award is presented to “Sivan,” a film that employs an innovative directorial approach to a fascinating character to capture a myriad of themes and emotions from one camera angle.”

[caption id="attachment_2757" align="alignnone" width="550"]Trash Dance[/caption]

“Trash Dance,” directed by Andrew Garrison, received the Full Frame Audience Award.  The film documents an unusual partnership between a dancer and the Austin Department of Solid Waste Services to stage a public performance starring man, music, and machine.” Sponsored by Merge Records, the Audience Award is determined by counting audience ballots filled out during the festival.

An Honorable Mention was presented to the short with the highest score, “Fanuzzi’s Gold,” directed by Georgia Gruzen. The film focuses on Ed Fanuzzi, a Staten Island inventor, treasure hunter, and eternal optimist, who sees gold where others see trash.

The Center For Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award was given to “Special Flight (Vol Spécial),” directed by Fernand Melgar. Provided by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, this award honors a documentary artist whose work is a potential catalyst for education and change. Representatives from the Center for Documentary Studies juried the prize: Randy Benson, Katie Hyde, Marc Maximov, Lynn McKnight, Dan Partridge, Tom Rankin, Elena Rue, Teka Selman, and April Walton.

“The Waiting Room,” directed by Peter Nicks, was awarded the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award. This gripping vérité film is a symphony of patients, caregivers, and loved ones, bureaucracy and hard choices, in an Oakland ER’s waiting room. Provided by the Charles E. Guggenheim family,this prize honors a first-time documentary feature director. Natalie Bullock Brown, Heather Courtney, and Mark Elijah Rosenberg participated on the Jury.

“Mr. Cao Goes to Washington,” directed by S. Leo Chiang, received the Full Frame Inspiration Award.  The film captures rookie congressman Joseph Cao of Louisiana as he angers fellow Republicans by befriending President Obama; will bipartisanship reward or ruin his chances for re-election?Sponsored by the Hartley Film Foundation, this award is presented to the film that best exemplifies the value and relevance of world religions and spirituality. Jim Klein, Sarah Masters, and Fiona Otway participated on the Jury.

The Full Frame President’s Award was presented to the “Grandmothers (Abuelas),” directed by Afarin Eghbal. This animated documentary about Argentina’s Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo features stories of women who search for their missing grandchildren. Sponsored by Duke University and aimed at recognizing up-and-coming filmmakers, this prize is awarded to the best student film. Representatives on behalf of the President’s Office juried the prize.

“ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare,” directed by Susan Froemke and Matthew Heineman, received The Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights.  American healthcare has evolved into a profit-driven disease-care system—this film closely examines the medical industry and bold new measures that may help ease what ails us. Provided by the Julian Price Family Foundation, this award is presented to a film that addresses a significant human rights issue in the United States. Representatives from the Kathleen Bryan Edwards family juried the prize: Anne Arwood, Laura Edwards, Clay Farland, Margaret Griffin, and Pricey Harrison.

The Nicholas School Environmental Award was presented to “Chasing Ice” directed by Jeff Orlowski. In this film, scientific fact and aesthetic beauty merge in monumental and dramatic time-lapse photos illustrating global warming’s chilling ravages. The Nicholas School Environmental Award honors 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. Representatives from the Nicholas School of the Environment juried the Prize: Cindy Horn, Stephen Nemeth, Rebecca Patton, and Tom Rankin.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival was held April 12-15 in downtown Durham with Duke University as the presenting sponsor.  105 films representing 27 countries were shown from morning to midnight, many with panel discussions following the screening.  In addition to the NEW DOCS Program, Full Frame presented a Thematic Program consisting of 10 films, a collection of four films surrounding the Full Frame Tribute, and an Invited Program comprised of 30 films.

 

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[caption id="attachment_2622" align="alignnone" width="550"]2012 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant Winner , Let the Fire Burn (Director: Jason Osder)[/caption]

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival announced additional programming news for the 2012 festival: The Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant, the Southern Documentary Fund: In-the-Works program, and a celebration of 40 years of New Day Films. The festival will also feature a retrospective of short films in honor of its fifteenth anniversary, featuring one title from each previous year of the festival.

The 2012 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant has been awarded to Jason Osder for “Let the Fire Burn” and Ben Powell for “Barge.”

The Southern Documentary Fund (SDF) will once again present their In-the-Works presentation at this year’s festival. The program will include the short film “Café Sense” directed by D.L. Anderson and Brooke Shuman, along with excerpts from “Can’t Stop the Water” directed by Rebecca Marshall Ferris and Jason Ferris and “untitled LUCY film” directed by Elisabeth Haviland James.

Full Frame will honor the 40th anniversary of New Day Films and exhibit New Day Film’s very first titles. The four films will screen as one program: Liane Brandon’s “Anything You Want to Be” and “Betty Tells Her Story,” Jim Klein and Julia Reichert’s “Growing Up Female,” and Amalie R. Rothschild’s “It Happens to Us.” A separate panel conversation around New Day Film’s history and legacy will also take place at the festival.

Full Frame has curated a selection of short films from the Full Frame vault. The fourteen shorts will, representing each year of the festival, will be screened in three separate programs over the course of the weekend. Vault One features “A Thousand Words,” “Caretaker for the Lord,” “For a Miracle,” and “Salt.” Vault Two features “Picture Day,” “Crow Film,” “The Intimacy of Strangers,” and “Lost Book Found.” Vault Three features “Metacarpus,” “Bitter and Sweet,” “A Love Supreme,” “Seltzer Works,” “Breadmakers,” and “Leche.”  Directors and festival years are included below.

The 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 12-15, in Durham, N.C.

2012 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant

Barge (Director: Ben Powell)
This film examines the impact of one of America’s great rivers, documenting the next chapter of life on the Mississippi. Fascinating riverboat workers—notorious captains and seasoned first mates—expose both the decidedly colorful and highly specialized aspects of their profession.

Let the Fire Burn (Director: Jason Osder)
In 1985, police closed in on the Philadelphia row home headquarters of MOVE, a radical group some considered terrorists. Through archival footage, this film reveals a remarkable example of how intolerance, and incompetence, can lead to unthinkable acts of violence.



2012 SDF: In-the-Works

Café Sense (Directors: D.L. Anderson, Brooke Shuman)
In the last few decades, specialty roasting companies have tried to make the connection between the small farms that grow the plant to what we find at gas stations and in whipped drinks. Durham’s Counter Culture Coffee hosts a weekly tasting where drinkers learn to distinguish the flavors associated with different countries.

Can’t Stop the Water (Directors: Rebecca Marshall Ferris, Jason Ferris)
Over the last fifty years, Isle de Jean Charles has been gradually shrinking, and is now almost gone. Four months into filming the lives of the families that call this place home, one of the greatest environmental disasters in history left the people of this tiny island in south Louisiana with an even more uncertain future.

untitled LUCY film (Director: Elisabeth Haviland James)
Lucy Daniels believes a family secret radically impacted the trajectory of her life. Despite early promise, she endured brutal treatment in mental institutions only to pen a bestseller and win a Guggenheim fellowship, all before the age of twenty-two. Re-creations, animated dream sequences, and intimate interviews tell her story.



40th Anniversary of New Day Films

Anything I Want to Be (Director: Liane Brandon)
A teenager’s parents tell her time and again that she can grow up to be anything she wants to be. Through playful, yet troubling, reenactments, “anything” is discovered to be what exists within the realm of certain limitations.

Betty Tells Her Story (Director: Liane Brandon)
A woman sits in a chair before the camera. At the urging of the filmmaker, she describes a past event. She finishes her story, but then the filmmaker asks her to recount it. The distinctions between the first and second telling are restrained yet perceptible, raising ideas about femininity and self-worth.

Growing Up Female (Directors: Jim Klein, Julia Reichert)
This documentary captures six women, from ages four to twenty-six, as they experience coming of age in America. Touchingly revelatory, this pioneering feminist film acknowledges the countless pressures applied to young women and the many forms these influences can take.

It Happens to Us (Director: Amalie R. Rothschild)
Women of different ages, races, and economic backgrounds boldly speak to having had an abortion. This diverse collection of stories articulate and connect the viewer to powerful, sometimes graphic, recollections of the physical and emotional experience.



2012 Vault

Bitter and Sweet (Director: Johanna Lee) – 2001 Festival
Witness a day at an acupuncture shop in New York’s Chinatown, with Mom, Pop, and the family cat. A delightful, affectionate portrait of both a business and a marriage.

Breadmakers (Director: Yasmin Fedda) – 008 Festival
At the Garvald Bakery, a team of workers with mental disabilities prepare bread for all of Edinburgh. The participants, each in their own way, contribute to the rhythm of this choreographed effort.

Caretaker for the Lord (Director: Jane McAllister) – 2011 Festival
The maintenance man of a church in Glasgow’s East End muses about its future as he mops the floors and changes the light bulbs. The run-down church ministers to more members of its vulnerable community than those in charge realize.

Crow Film (Director: Edward P. Davee) – 2003 Festival
Ubiquitous and much-maligned crows are transformed into stately, mysterious objects of beauty. This film captures the intricate rhythms and textures of the birds flying and pecking their way through their world and ours.

For a Miracle (Po Cud) (Director: Jarek Sztandera) – 2005 Festival
This astonishing film of the national pilgrimage of disabled people and their caregivers from Poland to Lourdes by train—under the auspices of Catholic clergy—is a surreal passage that inspires faith and mercy, anxiety and despair.

The Intimacy of Strangers (Director: Eva Weber) – 2006 Festival
Cellphone conversations have the ability to collapse the distinctions between public and private space. Capturing intimate moments obliviously performed for strangers, this film is a love story of the modern age, transmitted for all to hear.

Leche (Director: Naomi Uman) – 1999 Festival
A dreamlike evocation of a dairy farm in Mexico through a textured film surface—the filmmaker develops her film in buckets. A document of a timeless place and the magic of crafting things by hand.

Lost Book Found (Director: Jem Cohen) – 1998 Festival
This film updates the venerable city symphony, but without the genre’s grandiose claims. Instead, this is more of a chamber piece; it starts as a personal documentary but then shifts from the private to the enigmatic.

A Love Supreme (Director: Nilesh Patel) – 2002 Festival
In this stunning and elegant tribute, Nilesh Patel pays homage to his aging mother as he captures the beauty and artistry of her life’s work: making samosas. A delicacy.

Metacarpus (Director: Nicole Triche) – 2007 Festival
Magicians, musicians, doctors, and others sing the praises of their hands. A collage of insight and image portrays this special limb’s beauty and diverse utility, its development and distinctive form.

Picture Day (Director: Steven Bognar) – 2000 Festival
One school. 601 kids. 12 frames per kid. What do you get? This playful, funny parade of images reveals the range of possibilities contained in half a second’s worth of pictures.

Salt (Directors: Michael Angus, Murray Fredericks) – 2009 Festival
Every year a photographer ventures to the middle of Lake Eyre, a desolate salt flat in South Australia, pitching camp at its very core. With neither land nor water in sight, he looks into the abyss and finds that, in the midst of nothingness, there is everything.

Seltzer Works (Director: Jessica Edwards) – 2010 Festival
Regular consumers are a rare breed but the dedicated owner of Gomberg Seltzer Works in Brooklyn takes great pride in his work and the details involved in creating the real throat-tingling spritz.

A Thousand Words (Director: Melba L. Williams) – 2004 Festival
Williams’s lack of communication with her father, especially after a stroke silences his memories, leads her to explore his enthralling home movie footage and accomplished still photos from the Vietnam War, which speak of a fettered artistic soul.

 

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[caption id="attachment_1891" align="alignnone"]Big Boys Gone Bananas![/caption]

Full Frame announced the 16 titles that will screen as part of its 2012 Invited Program. This section features films screening out of competition. The Invited Program also includes the festival’s Center Frame screenings, which are premium events that feature moderated panel discussions following the films and take place in Fletcher Hall of the Carolina Theatre.

The US Premiere of Ross McElwee’s “Photographic Memory” will screen as a Center Frame on Friday, April 13. Fredrik Gertten’s “Big Boys Gone Bananas!*” and Macky Alston’s “Love Free or Die” will also screen as Center Frame programs on Saturday, April 14.  Filmmakers for all Center Frame programs will be in attendance. Additional special guests will be announced in the coming weeks.

As previously announced, the World Premiere of Laurens Grant’s “Jesse Owens” will screen on Opening Night.

The 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 12-15, in Durham, N.C.

2012 Invited Program

OPENING NIGHT FILM Jesse Owens     (Director: Laurens Grant)
The African American track and field star triumphed at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin but returned home to find that his brilliant start was not followed by easy opportunity. World Premiere

CENTER FRAME Big Boys Gone Bananas!*     (Director: Fredrik Gertten)
A David and Goliath story unfolds as Fredrik Gertten learns the premiere of his film has been hijacked by Dole’s lawsuit against him.

CENTER FRAME Love Free or Die     (Director: Macky Alston)
As the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church of America, Gene Robinson faces death threats and the possibility of schism.

CENTER FRAME Photographic Memory     (Director: Ross McElwee)
McElwee’s strained relationship with his young adult son leads him to France, where he seeks out the people he was once close to and reflects on his own life as a young man. US Premiere

Bones Brigade: An Autobiography     (Director: Stacy Peralta)
Members of the renowned skateboarding team share their stories of triumph and struggle in this touching return to form for director Stacy Peralta.

The Bus     (Director: Damon Ristau)
Hit the open road with VW bus devotees who rhapsodize about the siren call of freedom embodied by this distinctive counter culture icon. World Premiere

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel     (Director: Lisa Immordino Vreeland)
A richly layered and spirited tribute to the outspoken icon, whose vision steered both Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue through revolutionary periods in fashion history.

First Position     (Director: Bess Kargman)
Talented young dancers strive for scholarships and career-making acclaim as they perform in the world’s fiercest ballet competition.

[caption id="attachment_2195" align="alignnone"]Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present[/caption]

Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present     (Director: Matthew Akers)
A three-month-long performance exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art tests the limits of the fearless artist and the audience alike.

Marley     (Director: Kevin Macdonald)
A comprehensive look at the music, and the life, loves and death, of reggae legend Bob Marley.

Putin’s Kiss     (Director: Lise Birk Pedersen)
A Russian woman’s extreme dedication to Nashi, a nationalistic youth movement, is threatened by her association with liberal journalists.

[caption id="attachment_2290" align="alignnone"]The Queen of Versailles[/caption]

The Queen of Versailles     (Director: Lauren Greenfield)
A character-driven documentary about a billionaire family and their financial challenges in the wake of the economic crisis.

Samsara     (Director: Ron Fricke)
This intoxicating cross-continental journey, captured on 70mm film, reveals a startling visualization of our world, from monasteries to meat-processing.

St-Henri, the 26th of August (À St-Henri le 26 août)     (Director: Shannon Walsh)
This kaleidoscopic romp through a Montreal neighborhood captures everyday life in the lively working-class community.

Under African Skies     (Director: Joe Berlinger)
Paul Simon returns to South Africa twenty-five years after the release of the historic Graceland album, to reunite with musicians and reconcile political debates.

Under Control (Unter Kontrolle)     (Director:  Volker Sattel)
A visually arresting, exquisitely articulated Cinemascope essay on the design, operation, and decommissioning of German nuclear plants.

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[caption id="attachment_2480" align="alignnone" width="549"]Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry[/caption]

57 films have been selected for the 2012 NEW DOCS program at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

The 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 12-15, in Durham, N.C..

2012 NEW DOCS                         * Indicates short film, 40 minutes or under in length
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry     (Director: Alison Klayman)
This portrait of the intrepid artist and his work is also a reflection on modern-day China and the struggle for freedom of expression.   

An Angel in Doel (De Engel van Doel)     (Director: Tom Fassaert)   
In this mesmerizing black-and-white elegy to the Belgian village of Doel, Emilienne, an older resident, is caught between past and future. US Premiere

Aranda     (Director: Anu Kuivalainen)
Existential explorers aboard a marine research vessel contemplate iceburgs, ocean currents, and life itself. North American Premiere

Beauty Is Embarrassing     (Director: Neil Berkeley)   
Paul Reubens, Todd Oldham, Mark Mothersbaugh, Matt Groening, and Mimi Pond love this LBJ puppet suit–wearing, profanity-spewing, banjo-picking artist and iconoclast—you will too!

CatCam *     (Director: Seth Keal)
Ever wonder what your pet does all day? This romp with Mr. Lee satisfies an itch most animal owners never dreamed they’d get to scratch.

Chasing Ice     (Director: Jeff Orlowski)   
Scientific fact and aesthetic beauty merge in monumental and dramatic time-lapse photos illustrating global warming’s chilling ravages.

Children of the Sea (Les enfants de la mer/mère) *     (Director: Annabel Verbeke)
Students at Belgium’s Ibis school are urchins in uniform, reflecting the maritime tradition of this institution for troubled boys.

Cutting Loose *     (Directors: Finlay Pretsell, Adrian McDowall)
Francis Duffy, three-time champ of the Scottish Prison Service hairdressing competition, defends his title just days before his release.

The D Train *     (Director: Jay Rosenblatt)    
To the accompaniment of a jaunty Shostakovich waltz, black-and-white found footage tells a life story, at once singular and universal.

DETROPIA     (Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)
An affecting and surprising portrait of Detroit, heart of the American Dream, and the unprecedented challenges facing its citizens.

Eating Alabama     (Director: Andrew Beck Grace)   
Attempts to eat locally in Alabama yield surprising, often funny results, for one couple on a quest for a simpler life.

ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare      (Directors: Matthew Heineman, Susan Froemke)
American healthcare has evolved into a profit-driven disease-care system—this film closely examines the medical industry and bold new measures that may help ease what ails us.

Ethel      (Director: Rory Kennedy)
Ethel Kennedy’s life, told in intimate interviews and never-before-seen archival footage, reveals her place, both public and private, in the Kennedy legacy.

Fanuzzi’s Gold *     (Director: Georgia Gruzen)   
Ed Fanuzzi is a Staten Island inventor, treasure hunter, and eternal optimist—he sees gold where others see trash.   World Premiere

Five Star Existence     (Director: Sonja Lindén)   
A stimulating and exquisitely filmed exploration of technology’s ever-increasing affect on our lives—its benefits, and its limitations. North American Premiere

A Girl Like Her     (Director: Ann Fessler)   
“Nice” girls didn’t get pregnant in the 50s and 60s. They had their babies far away from prying eyes and were then forced to give them up. World Premiere

Girl Model     (Directors: David Redmon, A. Sabin)
Hunting for beauty and the fulfillment of dreams, two women bookend this story of hope, ambition and exploitation.   

Grandmothers (Abuelas) *     (Director: Afarin Eghbal)
This animated documentary about Argentina’s Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo features stories of women who search for their missing grandchildren.

Herman’s House     (Director: Angad Singh Bhalla)    
An artist forms a relationship with a man who’s been in solitary confinement for over three decades, embarking on a project to design and construct his dream home. World Premiere

The House I Live In     (Director: Eugene Jarecki)
The impact of narcotics on one family’s lives gives way to this comprehensive, multilayered interpretation of America’s War on Drugs.

How to Survive a Plague     (Director: David France)
Astounding archival footage chronicles the courageous, and innovative, battle waged by early AIDS activists against drug companies and the government as they fight the epidemic.

I Send You This Place     (Directors: Andrea Sisson, Peter Ohs)   
A personal and experimental essay that transports the viewer to and from Iceland in search of clues to a family mystery. World Premiere

The Imposter     (Director: Bart Layton)   
A Texas boy who mysteriously disappeared resurfaces years later in Spain. There’s a remarkable reunion, but something’s not quite right.

The Invisible War     (Director: Kirby Dick)   
A shocking percentage of servicewomen and men are sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers. This film bears witness to their powerful and emotional stories.

ITALY LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT     (Directors: Gustav Hofer, Luca Ragazzi)
A couple sets out on a road trip through Italy, to decide whether or not they should stay in the country, or leave it, like so many of their other friends have done already.

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet     (Director: Jesse Vile)   
Twenty years after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, the metal guitar god has not only survived, he continues to compose music.

Justice for Sale     (Directors: Ilse van Velzen, Femke van Velzen)
Attorney Claudine Tsongo winds her way through the Congo’s evolving justice system in search of truth in the case of a soldier who may have been unjustly convicted of rape. North American Premiere   

The Kingdom of Mister Edhi     (Director: Amélie Saillez)
Mr. Edhi’s kingdom is a sprawling network of support systems for Pakistan’s most vulnerable, especially at-risk women and children. North American Premiere  

Kiss the Paper *     (Director: Fiona Otway)    
No amount of technology has been able to curb one man’s passion for hand-set type and the poetry of letterpress printing.

The Law in These Parts (Shilton Ha’Chok)     (Director: Ra’anan Alexandrowicz)   
A meticulously constructed exploration of the complex military laws imposed by Israel on citizens in the occupied territories.

A Letter to Dad (Pismo ocu)      (Director: Srdjan Keca)   
When his father dies unexpectedly in a Serbian hospital, a son interviews close friends and family to piece together his own unfocused recollections. North American Premiere

The Lifeguard (El Salvavidas) *     (Director: Maite Alberdo)   
A Chilean beach is the setting for this vividly filmed collection of interactions with Mauricio, the complicated titular subject. North American Premiere

Light Plate *     (Director: Josh Gibson)   
Hand processed film presents an evocative, whimsical and contemplative document of an Italian interlude.

Mr. Cao Goes to Washington     (Director: S. Leo Chiang)   
Rookie congressman Joseph Cao of Louisiana angers fellow Republicans by befriending President Obama; will bipartisanship reward or ruin his chances for re-election?

Nation (Nació)     (Director: Homer Etminani)   
A young man in Catalonia tirelessly trains amidst a sprawling landscape in this meditation on extensive preparation toward a mysterious end. North American Premiere

Needle Exchange *     (Director: Colm Quinn)    
Spencer and Glenn are best mates and recovering addicts who have traded heroin for copious amounts of tattoo ink, and each other.

Peak     (Director: Hannes Lang)   
The Alps are the backdrop for this wry take on climate change and the idiosyncratic responses to its affects on natives and tourists alike. North American Premiere

A People Uncounted     (Director: Aaron Yeger)   
This film bears witness to the Porrajmos or “devouring” of the Roma by the Nazis during WWII and their ongoing struggles.

The Photographer’s Wife (Die Frau des Fotografen) *     (Directors: Karsten Krause, Philip Widmann)
A widow revisits four decades of photos her husband took of her—nude portraits taken at home, in cars, and in the great outdoors. North American Premiere

Radio Unnameable     (Directors: Paul Lovelace, Jessica Wolfson)   
Bob Fass has been broadcasting his midnight free-form show from New York City for nearly 50 years to reflect the decades’ alternative cultural scenes.  World Premiere

Raising Resistance     (Directors: Bettina Borgfeld, David Bernet)   
For some in Paraguay transgenic soy is “green gold,” but for others it is an unprecedented ecological and cultural disaster. North American Premiere

Reportero     (Director: Bernardo Ruiz)   
A veteran journalist and his fearless colleagues at the Mexican newspaper Zeta investigate corrupt officials and drug lords despite increasing violence and repeated death threats. US Premiere

Santa Land *    (Director: Kim Nguyen)   
Meet a husband and wife Mr. and Mrs. Claus team and the Real Bearded Santas—men so committed to portraying Santa they maintain their lustrous whiskers year-round. North American Premiere

Silent Springs *     (Director: Erin Espelie)   
Taking a cue from Rachel Carson, this experimental film attempts to make visible what’s hard to see, the disappearance of species and a natural world under mortal threat.

Sivan *     (Director: Zohar Elefant)
A minimalist portrait of an Israeli soccer fan in thrall to a team and an obsession.

Special Flight (Vol Spécial)     (Director: Fernand Melgar)   
Tensions build at a Swiss detention center as rejected asylum seekers await their forced removal from the country they now call home. US Premiere

Tahrir: Liberation Square     (Director: Stefano Savona)
An intense and deft account of the first weeks of protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square at the beginning of the Egyptian Arab Spring.   

The Time We Have (Den tid vi har) *     (Director: Mira Jargil)   
A beautiful, intimate, and deeply tender look at saying goodbye to the love of your life after 67 years of marriage. US Premiere

Trash Dance     (Director: Andrew Garrison)    
An unusual partnership between a dancer and the Austin Solid Waste Services to stage a public performance starring man, music, and machine.

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom *    (Director: Lucy Walker)   
Survivors of Japan’s recent tsunami find courage and solace in the cherry blossoms that emerge not long after the disaster.

Unfinished Spaces     (Directors: Alysa Nahmias, Benjamin Murray)
A thrilling and unknown story of the visionary architecture of the early Cuban revolution—its creation, decay, renewal, and rediscovery.

Violated Letters (Cudze Listy)     (Director: Maciej Drygas)   
The Polish Secret Service monitored private correspondence during the Cold War. Brilliantly edited footage sets the stage for this story of repression, censorship, letters never delivered.  North American Premiere

The Waiting Room     (Director: Peter Nicks)   
This gripping vérité film is a symphony of patients, caregivers, and loved ones, bureaucracy and hard choices, in an Oakland ER’s waiting room. World Premiere

While You Were Gone (Medan du var borta) *     (Director: Frida Kempff)
Absence doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder. It can sometimes make it cold, violent, or even forgiving.

Winter Light (Vinterlys) *     (Director: Skule Eriksen)   
In the Arctic archipelago of Lofoten in Norway, winter sun makes for a subtle yet spectacular landscape.

Without A Fight     (Director: Jason Arthurs)    North American Premiere
Far more than a mere sport, soccer equals survival and a sensible haven for the young men of Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum. North American Premiere

Young Bird Season *     (Director: Nellie Kluz)   
The flyers at the Braintree Pigeon Racing Club pass the time as their treasured birds race the hundreds of miles back home.

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[caption id="attachment_2533" align="alignnone"]The Block family in 1973, from left, Mike, Ellen Doug, Karen and Mina in Doug Block’s film “51 Birch Street” [/caption]

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, held April 12-15, in Durham, N.C., announced the lineup for its 2012 Thematic Program, entitled “Family Affairs”. The program curated by filmmaker Ross McElwee features 10 selections that explore the delicate terrain along the fault line of family.

The program features the work of 9 directors: Steven Ascher, Alan Berliner, Doug Block, Morgan Dews, Alfred Guzzetti, Jeanne Jordan, Ed Pincus, Lucia Small, and Marco Williams, who will attend the festival to take part in the exhibition of their films.

2012 Thematic Program – “Family Affairs”

51 Birch Street (Director: Doug Block)          
Shortly after his mother’s death, Doug Block is stunned to learn that his father is moving in with his secretary from 40 years before—so begins his journey to understand the parents he thought he knew.

Diaries (Director: Ed Pincus)          
In this intensely personal memoir, Ed Pincus films his wife, children, and lovers in an effort to faithfully record his, and their, struggle to find and experience intimacy, commitment, and fulfillment.

Family Portrait Sittings (Director: Alfred Guzzetti)          
First released in 1975, this introspective and unprecedented film depicts Alfred Guzzetti’s family history through extended and candid interviews and carefully curated home recordings.

In Search of Our Fathers (Director: Marco Williams)          
Marco Williams’s quest to discover the father he never knew ultimately reveals more about the women in his family, particularly his mother and her efforts to enrich his upbringing.

Intimate Stranger (Director: Alan Berliner)          
This vibrant film is full of the still photographs, celluloid film, and ephemera of a well-traveled life, that of Alan Berliner’s grandfather, whose yearning for success and acclaim took him far away from home.

Must Read After My Death (Director: Morgan Dews)          
After uncovering a trove of family movies and audio recordings, Morgan Dews assembles the materials together to present this daring portrait of his grandparents’ strained relationship, and their very different expectations of family life.

My Father, The Genius (Director: Lucia Small)          
Architect Glen Small asks his estranged daughter, Lucia, to craft his biography, which ultimately evolves into this documentary that delicately traces the lines of tension between artistic brilliance and familial disappointment.

Time Exposure (Director: Alfred Guzzetti)
In this short, Alfred Guzzetti deconstructs a single photograph taken by his father some seven decades earlier.

TRANSLATING EDWIN HONIG: A Poet’s Alzheimer’s (Director: Alan Berliner)          
A transfixing portrayal of a poet as he succumbs to a fading memory, and his patterns of speech give way to new kinds of artistic expression.

TROUBLESOME CREEK: A Midwestern (Directors: Jeanne Jordan, Steven Ascher)          
Faced with mounting debts, the Jordan family embraces a radical plan to save their Iowa farm. With husband Steven Ascher, Jeanne Jordan poignantly chronicles the emotional and physical landscape of her parents’ attempt to maintain their way of life.

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[caption id="attachment_2254" align="alignnone"]Ross McElwee – Photographic Memory[/caption]

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has announced its 2012 Thematic Program and Tribute. The annual Full Frame Tribute will be presented to Stanley Nelson for his significant contribution to the documentary form. The 2012 Thematic Program will focus on family, with a series of films curated by Ross McElwee. McElwee will also present his most recent film “Photographic Memory” at the April event.

“Exploring one’s family seems deeply entwined with the desire to document and record one’s surrounding world,” said director of programming Sadie Tillery. “For many, the first form of documentary encountered was through family pictures, videos, albums. We consider many personal stories each year, and we wanted to bring a selection of that work to the forefront and view it as a collective.”

“Documentary cameras have long courted danger,” said McElwee. “Recently, they’ve been hauled onto the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, slipped behind the fences of polluting oil industries, and onto the streets during crackdowns by military dictatorships.   But perhaps the most challenging place to try to film is within the realm of your own family.  The risk in doing so is, of course, not physical, but rather emotional. In this selection of American documentaries, the filmmakers explore the delicate terrain along the fault line of family.”

Ross McElwee grew up in North Carolina. He has made nine feature-length documentaries as well as several shorter films, many of which were shot in his homeland of the American South. His films include “Sherman’s March,” “Time Indefinite,” “Six O’Clock News,” and “Bright Leaves.” He has screened numerous films at Full Frame and received the Festival’s Career Award in 2007. McElwee has been teaching filmmaking at Harvard University since 1986 where he is a professor in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies.

McElwee’s latest film “Photographic Memory” contemplates the filmmaker’s relationship with his young adult son, Adrian. In exploring their strained bond, McElwee travels back to St. Quay-Portrieux in Brittany, where he spent time as a young man himself, and seeks out those he was close to there at a similar time of his own life. Adrian McElwee and the film’s producer Marie-Emmanuelle Hartness will also be present for the screening in Durham.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has received a $20,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to support the 2012 Thematic Program.

The Festival will also honor filmmaker Stanley Nelson with the annual Full Frame Tribute. Nelson’s body of work includes the critically acclaimed films “A Place of Our Own,” “Freedom Riders,” “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple,” “Wounded Knee,” “Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice,” and “The Murder of Emmett Till,” among numerous other titles.  An Emmy-winning MacArthur “genius” Fellow, Nelson is co-founder and Executive Director of Firelight Media, which provides technical education and professional support to emerging documentarians, and co-founder of the documentary production company, Firelight Films.

“Stanley Nelson is an incredible filmmaker, and it’s been a privilege to showcase his films over the years,” said Tillery. “We not only look forward to screening a selection of his work during the Festival, but also spotlighting the significant ways in which he supports and encourages up and coming filmmakers through Firelight Media. We’re excited that he will be joining us in Durham.”

“I am thrilled to be honored with the 2012 Full Frame Tribute,” said Nelson.  “Full Frame’s past honorees include not only some of the most important documentary filmmakers working today, but some of my personal mentors and role models. I am humbled to be in their illustrious company.

“I have been working in documentary film for decades, and I believe that now, in these difficult and tumultuous times, independent documentary films are more important than ever.  We need a diversity of voices and vision of independent filmmakers of all kinds, particularly from those communities that have been left out of the mainstream, to tell us who we are as a nation, and where we are – and should be – going.  That is what I try to do through my work as a filmmaker and through the Firelight Media Producers’ Lab, and that is what Full Frame has shown itself committed to as well.

“In providing a creative community, an exhibition showcase, and building audiences for documentaries, Full Frame is a rare and critical organization in the field.  I’m grateful to be part of the Full Frame family.”

Specific titles for the Thematic Program and Full Frame Tribute, along with attending guests, will be announced in March.

The 15th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 12-15, 2012, in Durham, N.C., with Duke University as the presenting sponsor. Festival passes can be purchased online at www.fullframefest.org.

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The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded $455,000 to 25 U.S. film festivals for the 2012 calendar year.

The 2012 film festival grants allocations are as follows:

 

$50,000

• Chicago International Film Festival – World Cinema Spotlight program
• Cleveland International Film Festival – Focus on Filmmakers

$30,000

• Los Angeles Film Festival – Free Screenings program
• San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival – World Cinema Spotlight program

$20,000

• Ann Arbor Film Festival (MI) – 50th Anniversary Archival program
• Chicago International Children’s Film Festival – Directors in the Schools, Educational
  Curriculum Development and free tickets
• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (Durham, NC) – Thematic program
• Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival – “30 Years of Outfest” retrospective program
• Palm Springs International ShortFest – Filmmaker Forums
• Santa Barbara International Film Festival – Field Trip to the Movies program
• True/False Film Fest (Columbia, MO) – Visiting Filmmaker program; SWAMI Mentoring program; Film Academy Student Track; Outreach to Students and Minorities
• Virginia Film Festival (Charlottesville) – Community Outreach and Education program

$15,000

• RiverRun International Film Festival (Winston-Salem, NC) – 2010 Spotlight program: Landmark Science Fiction Films
• St. Louis International Film Festival – Women in Film Sidebar

$10,000

• Athens International Film and Video Festival (Ohio) – “Let’s Talk About Water” screening and seminar program
• Berkshire International Film Festival (Great Barrington, MA) – Talent Campus
• Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Missoula, MT) – Retrospective Programming and the
  Reel Sounds Sidebar
• Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilmington, NC) – Voices program
• Indie Memphis Film Festival – Visiting Filmmakers and Community Outreach
• Maryland Film Festival (Baltimore) – New Waves in World Cinema program
• Pan African Film Festival (Los Angeles) – StudentFest

$5,000

• New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival (New York City) – Retrospective Program
• South East European Film Festival (Los Angeles) – Audience Development
• Tallgrass Film Festival (Witchita, KS) – Filmmaker Hospitality

Since its establishment in 1999, the Academy’s Festival Grants Program has distributed 277 grants totaling $4.85 million in funding.

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