This year's Full Frame Film Festival kicks off in Durham, North Carolina this Thursday with an impressive slate of nonfiction features and shorts set to screen at the venerable nonficiton film event.
Always worth watching are the Full Frame Awards, announced at the casual and fun Sunday BBQ, where a number of prizes (some catering to a very specific social justice/thematic topic niche) are handed out. Specifically worth noting is the Grand Jury Prize, which for the past six years has always gone to a film that ends up being nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar (but never winning) unless said feature is eliminated from Oscar consideration due to the old rogue international television screening bugaboo. To wit: BURMA VJ (2009), TROUBLE THE WATER (2008), THE MONASTERY - MR. VIG AND THE NUN (2007 - not eligible for Oscar nomination), IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS (2006), MURDERBALL (2005 - shared with SHAPE OF THE MOON, which was not eligible), and CONTROL ROOM (2004 - not eligible for Oscar nomination).
This year, 16 films will vie for Full Frame's top award, including Sundance winner RESTREPO and IDFA champ LAST TRAIN HOME. Jury members Stephanie Black, Doug Block, Micha X. Peled and Gita Pullapilly will sort it all out. This year's contenders:
12TH AND DELAWARE
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
LA BELLE VISITE
Directed by Jean-François Caissey
CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY
Directed by Alex Gibney
ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE
Directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath
GENIUS WITHIN: THE INNER LIFE OF GLENN GOULD
Directed by Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont
I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN
Directed by Peter Sillen
LA ISLA - ARCHIVES OF A TRAGEDY
Directed by Uli Stelzner
ITO - A DIARY OF AN URBAN PRIEST
Directed by Pirjo Honkasaio
LAST TRAIN HOME
Directed by Lixin Fan
MY PERESTROIKA
Directed by Robin Hessman
THE OATH
Directed by Laura Poitras
THE PLAYER
Directed by John Appel
RESTREPO
Directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
SUMMER PASTURE
Directed by Lynn True and Nelson Walker
TODAY IS BETTER THAN TWO TOMORROWS
Directed by Anna Rodgers
WASTE LAND
Directed by Lucy Walker
ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE, LAST TRAIN HOME, MY PERESTROIKA, RESTREPO and TODAY IS BETTER THAN TWO TOMORROWS are also among the twenty films that will vie for the Charles Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award, to be juried by Aron Gaudet, Ivy Meeropol and Jenny Warburg. Those films are:
AHEAD OF TIME
Directed by Bob Richman
CAPITAL
Directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin
DIARY OF A TIMES SQUARE THIEF
Directed by Klaas Bense
DIRTY BUSINESS: "CLEAN COAL" AND THE BATTLE FOR OUR ENERGY FUTURE
Directed by Peter Bull
DIVINE PIG
Directed by Hans Dortmans
THE EDGE OF DREAMING
Directed by Amy Hardle
ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE
Directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath
FAMILY AFFAIR
Directed by Chico Colvard
GARBO: THE SPY
Directed by Edmon Roch
GENERATION EXILE
Directed by Rodrigo Dorfman
Directed by Zippi Brand Frank
LAST TRAIN HOME
Directed by Lixin Fan
LOUIS SULLIVAN: THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE
Directed by Mark Richard Smith
MY PERESTROIKA
Directed by Robin Hessman
PROMISED LAND
Directed by Yoruba Richen
REGRETTERS
Directed by Marcus Lindeen
RESTREPO
Directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
SURVIVING HITLER: A LOVE STORY
Directed by John-Keith Wasson
TODAY IS BETTER THAN TWO TOMORROWS
Directed by Anna Rodgers
WAR DON DON
Directed by Rebecca Richman Cohen
All films in the New Docs section of the festival are eligible for the Audience Award and for the Center for Documentary Studies Award. The fest will also present awards for Best Short, Best Student Film as well as awards for Human Rights and for depiction of Religion/Spirituality.
All full list of this year's films (including films playing out of competition) can be found at the Full Frame website.
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