Great Lineup for Look3 Photo Festival in Charlottesville, VA, June 13–15
A self-described “celebration of photography, created by photographers, for those who share a passion for the still image,” the annual LOOK3 Charlottesville Festival of the Photograph takes over downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, for “three days of peace, love, and photography.” This year’s event (Thursday, June 13–Saturday, June 15) includes artist conversations, exhibits, outdoor projections, book signings, parties, and [...]
Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project on View at the Power Plant
The Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project will be on view through June 27 in the newly renovated Power Plant building on the historic American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham, North Carolina. The eleven banners that make up the exhibit tell the story of some of Durham’s most significant civil rights activities using photographs, texts, and quotes from [...]
A Must-See: “Light Sensitive: Photographic Works from North Carolina Collections” Closes May 12
Catch this wonderful exhibit at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University while you can: Light Sensitive: Photographic Works from North Carolina Collections includes over a hundred works, from tiny early daguerreotypes to large-scale contemporary color prints and videos, and is drawn from twelve public and private North Carolina collections. Photographs by Center for Documentary Studies director [...]
Special Rescreening of Duke Film Instructor David Gatten’s Acclaimed “The Extravagant Shadows”
The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York is presenting a special reprise screening of filmmaker David Gatten’s The Extravagant Shadows. Fourteen years in the making, the Duke film instructor’s first digital feature—shot with a Nikon DSLR—premiered at the 50th New York Film Festival last fall to great acclaim, screening in the festival’s Views from [...]
CDS Meet Up Group: Audio Guru Shea Shackelford Talks Equipment and Software, April 22
The CDS Meet Up Group, organized and run on a volunteer basis, provides a monthly forum for students at the Center for Documentary Studies and others doing documentary work to network, talk shop, and learn. The next meeting will be led by Shea Shackelford, a documentary producer and a founder of the award-winning production company Big [...]
New Event Space Lights Up Downtown Durham’s American Tobacco Campus
We’re excited about the Power Plant (slideshow of images below), a newly renovated building on the historic American Tobacco Campus (ATC) in downtown Durham. The Center for Documentary Studies and the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts program are partnering with ATC to offer programming and event space at the dynamic new facility, which features [...]
Free Screening of Acclaimed “Lion’s Den” Closes Out Feminism & Freedom Film Series
Next up in Duke University’s annual 2013 Feminism and Freedom Film Series is Argentinian director Pablo Trapero’s Lion’s Den, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Havana Film Festival in 2008, nominee for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and a New York Times Critic’s Pick (film trailer included in review). Free screening: Lion’s Den Wednesday, April 10, 7 p.m. White [...]
“Good Ol’ Freda”: Duke Grad Ryan White’s Feature Doc to Screen at Full Frame on Friday, April 5
Filmmaker Ryan White is on a roll. The 2004 Duke University graduate’s newest documentary, Good Ol’ Freda, just had its world premiere at SXSW, and will screen at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on Friday, April 4. The film (tagline: “Behind a Great Band, There Was a Great Woman”) tells the story of Freda Kelly, [...]
Heads Up: Conversations with Subjects and Filmmakers Follow Full Frame’s “Center Frame” Screenings
A reminder that the complete schedule for the sixteenth annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is available online, and that tickets to individual films and events are now on sale; there are already some sell-outs, so go ahead and make your picks! Click here for details. For those attending the festival, note that as you [...]
First Survey of Wangechi Mutu in the United States at Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art
The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University has organized Wangechi Mutu’s first survey in the United States, the most comprehensive and innovative show yet for this internationally renowned multidisciplinary artist. The touring exhibition opens at the Nasher on Thursday, March 21, and runs through July 21 before moving on to the Brooklyn Museum of [...]
“The Guestworker”: Reception, Free Screening, and Filmmaker Q&A on March 21
A film event at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh focuses on The Guestworker, which documents a grueling season on a North Carolina farm. At a time when American immigration policies are generating heated debate, the film offers an evenhanded look at some of those policies in action. The Guestworker Thursday, March 21: 6:30 p.m. reception; [...]
“Street Exposure: The Photographs of Ronald Reis”—March 22 Reception for New Duke Libraries Exhibit
Ronald Reis was born in New York City in 1935 and began taking photographs when he was twelve, focusing his lens on ordinary people and the routine tasks of the everyday. He kept at it through college at the University of Pennsylvania, inspired by documentary photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt, and Louis Stettner. After graduating [...]
“40 Acres and a Mule: The Spike Lee Film Series” Kicks Off March 16 at Durham’s Golden Belt
We’re looking forward to the upcoming Spike Lee Film Series, hosted by writer/activist Lamont Lilly and sponsored by Liberty Arts and the Durham Art Guild. The series of five films kicks off with School Daze on March 16 and will continue with weekly screenings through April 13. Admission is free; open to the general public. Guest speakers include Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, [...]
Feminism & Freedom Film Series: “Flame” Tells Story of Women Soldiers in Zimbabwe’s Liberation War
Duke University’s Screen/Society is the school’s umbrella organization presenting most of its annual film series, all of which are free and open to the public. Screen/Society works in conjunction with other Duke entities to curate series that highlight significant films from around the world that are not readily available to the public. Next up in the [...]
Photographs by CDS Instructor Christopher Sims Featured in “Guantanamo Public Memory Project” Exhibit Traveling to Ten Venues Nationwide
A new exhibition reveals the history of a place both infamous and unknown to most Americans: the United States naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Opening last December at New York University, and now traveling to ten sites across the country through 2014, the first exhibit by the Guantánamo Public Memory Project explores GTMO’s history, [...]
Bull City Food Exchange Part Deux: Friday, February 22, at CDS
Building on the success of their first Bull City Food Exchange in May 2012, the Durham, North Carolina–based nonprofit Zomppa is hosting the Bull City Food Exchange Part Deux at the Center for Documentary Studies on February 22, 2013. Zomppa aims to transform kids’ relationship with food through healthy eating, sustainability, and cultural awareness. Bull City Exchange Part Deux: Food [...]
“Welcome to Pine Point”: Interactive Love Letter to a Lost Town
“…an understated work of stupefying grace…quietly breaking hearts around the world….” –The Globe and Mail (Toronto) For Valentine’s, this amazing homage to a lost love—Welcome to Pine Point is an award-winning interactive web documentary that tells the story of a Canadian mining town that was demolished after the mine closed in 1988. The work was produced [...]
Call for Entries: First Annual Will Grossman Memorial Photography Competition
Amateur and professional photographers are invited to submit entries to the First Annual Will Grossman Memorial Photography Competition, established by family and friends of the late Durham, North Carolina, community activist and artist. The competition will be held each year in remembrance of Grossman and to promote photography in North Carolina’s Triangle region. The theme of [...]
Watch Interview: Photographer Ben Lowy and Dancer (and Photographer) Mikhail Baryshnikov
In a recent episode of Reserve Channel‘s Capture with host Mark Seliger, 2010 CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography winner Benjamin Lowy is interviewed along with dancer and photographer Mikhail Baryshnikov. Seliger, a renowned portrait photographer, Lowy, and Baryshnikov talk about Lowy’s work in Iraq | Perspectives along with his war and iPhone photography and Baryshnikov explains his transition [...]
A Discussion with Solo Performer Mike Daisey, Moderated by CDS Writer in Residence Duncan Murrell
In a featured “performance” as part of his artist’s residency at Duke University, master storyteller Mike Daisey will discuss the Occupy Movement, the concept of liberty, and Daisey’s newest production, American Utopias, with Duke law professor Jedediah Purdy; the moderator will be Center for Documentary Studies writer in residence Duncan Murrell. The event is free and open to the [...]
Learn More About CDS Continuing Education at the CDS Meet Up Group, Monday, January 28
The CDS Meet Up Group, organized and run on a volunteer basis, provides a monthly forum for students at the Center for Documentary Studies and others doing documentary work to network, talk shop, and learn. At the next meeting, CDS Continuing Education director April Walton will lead the meeting, and a few other instructors will share some work. Learn [...]
CDS Director Tom Rankin and Son Julian on Life and Art in Mississippi
Malcolm White from the Mississippi Arts Hour, a program that airs on the Mississippi Public Broadcasting radio network, recently interviewed Center for Documentary Studies director Tom Rankin and his son Julian, new-media director for the Mississippi Museum of Art. Tom talks about his time in Mississippi, including working at the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Center for the Study [...]
Home Movie Day Durham 2013; Saturday, January 26
Do you have home movies collecting dust, or just want to enjoy other people’s home movies that have been collecting dust? Come join celebrated film archivist Skip Elsheimer, founder of A/V Geeks, as he hosts Home Movie Day Durham 2013 at the Center for Documentary Studies. Home Movie Day is an annual worldwide celebration of amateur films and filmmaking held [...]
Fourth Annual Strange Beauty Film Festival, January 24–26; Tickets Go Fast, Buy Now!
The fourth annual Strange Beauty Film Festival will take place in Durham, North Carolina’s Manbites Dog Theater, January 24–26, 2013. The Festival, organized by Center for Documentary instructor Jim Haverkamp along with Joyce Ventimiglia, showcases strange and beautiful films from around the world and the Triangle, including works by CDS staffer Marc Maximov, intern Ian McClerin, [...]
