duke and full frame documentary film festival formally join forces
DURHAM, N.C. — For the average movie-goer, the annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will continue to be a four-day event where the latest and best nonfiction cinema from around the world will be shown each spring. In 2011, that means nearly 100 films, chosen from about 1,200 submissions, will be aired in downtown Durham from April 14 to 17.
Behind the scenes, the organizational structure for Full Frame will formally shift, with the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University providing an institutional home for the festival. Full Frame will continue to operate out of its offices at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham with the same mission, staff and budget.
“While our connection to Full Frame goes back to its origins, we’re looking forward to working even more closely with the festival as we move ahead with exciting plans for year-round programming and other joint projects,” said CDS director Tom Rankin.
Duke President Richard H. Brodhead noted that the university and Full Frame “have been partners since the very beginning of the festival. By broadening and deepening our relationship, the documentary arts will play an even greater role in the intellectual life of the university, and will bring that same vibrancy to the loyal and devoted fans of the leading documentary film festival in the country.”
in my mind
Director: Gary Hawkins, Producer: Emily LaDue, Executive Producer: Tom Rankin
In My Mind, a new film from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, traces the creation and performance of jazz pianist Jason Moran’s original interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s legendary performance at New York City’s Town Hall in 1959. Deeply inspired by Monk’s performance, Moran created IN MY MIND, a vivid visual and acoustic tribute to the infamous jazz icon. IN MY MIND brings together an eight-piece band, The Big Bandwagon, for a full-length, multimedia performance incorporating audio recordings and images made by noted photographer W. Eugene Smith. Smith’s involvement is especially noteworthy because he lived and worked in the loft building where Monk, his collaborator Hall Overton, and the entire band, toiled away arranging music and endlessly rehearsing.
