Screenings of Student Documentary Video Projects From Scotland Neck, North Carolina, May 24

Anytown, USA is a class at the Center for Documentary Studies offered annually through our Continuing Education program, in which students produce and edit videos related to a small town in North Carolina. This year’s class, taught by filmmaker Randolph Benson, focused on the town of Scotland Neck, and each of the eleven students created a [...]
Spring 2013 Certificate in Documentary Arts Students Present Final Projects on Friday, May 17
Eleven continuing education students in the Certificate in Documentary Arts program at the Center for Documentary Studies will present their final projects to the public and receive their certificates. A reception will follow at the Center for Documentary Studies. The students and their projects are described below. Certificate in Documentary Arts Project Presentations Friday, May 17, [...]
Upcoming Continuing Ed Classes Explore Copyright, Animation, and Creative Nonfiction

Check out these three great offerings from our Continuing Education program—one- and two-day workshops and an online class: Copyright Issues for Documentarians Saturday, May 11, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Copyright is an increasingly important—and sometimes treacherous—subject for documentarians, who are both owners and users of copyrighted works. Learn about issues of copyright, fair use, and how the law [...]
Audio Documentary Listening Party: Students to Present a Selection of Works, April 29

The general public is enthusiastically invited to this presentation in the new Power Plant building by undergraduate and graduate students in the Short Audio Documentary class taught by Center for Documentary Studies audio director John Biewen. The students will present a selection of works produced during the spring semester. The short audio documentaries will be [...]
Certificate in Documentary Studies Project Presentations and Exhibit: “Beyond the Front Porch 2013″

Eight graduating seniors who are completing the Certificate in Documentary Studies at Duke University will present their final projects to the public in an open house celebration at the Center for Documentary Studies: David Chou, Michaela Dwyer, Melanie Houston, Alice Kim, Haley Read, Hannah Scott, Sarah Van Name, and Katie Vo. An exhibit of the students’ work, [...]
Upcoming One-Day Workshops: Wet Plate Processing and Documentary and the Three-Act Structure

We’re pleased to offer these upcoming one-day CDS Continuing Education classes, one of which an online course. Alternative Processing: Wet Plate Workshop Saturday, April 20, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Center for Documentary Studies / 1317 W. Pettigrew St., Durham, North Carolina Wet plate processing is a beautiful, antique photographic process practiced in the nineteenth century by [...]
Register Now for Summer Course: One-Week Doc Filmmaking Boot Camp
This summer CDS will offer its tenth annual Documentary Video Institute, our one-week video boot camp that has turned out over two hundred full-fledged documentarians. From June 15 through June 22, with expert guidance from multiple instructors, students will learn all aspects of video production: pre-production and scouting locations, camera operation, lighting and sound, editing [...]
Register Now for New Workshops: “Writing About Nature” and “Animation in Documentary”

We’re pleased to offer these two new additions to our lineup of CDS Continuing Education classes. Both courses will be held here at the Center for Documentary Studies, 1317 W. Pettigrew St., Durham, North Carolina. Directions Writing About Nature Thursdays, April 11 to May 16, 7–9 p.m. This six-week workshop led by writer Belle Boggs (fiction and nonfiction in The Paris [...]
CDS Undergraduates Create Videos for National Farmworker Awareness Week 2013

Working in collaboration with Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) and other farmworker organizations nationwide, ten undergraduate students at CDS have created a series of short videos to be used as part of the media campaign for the 14th annual National Farmworker Awareness Week, to be held March 24-31, 2013. The students are enrolled in DOCST 332S “Farmworkers [...]
Register Now: Multimedia Storytelling Workshop and Short-Doc Class Anytown, USA

There are a few spots left in two upcoming CDS Continuing Education classes: Multimedia Storytelling Workshop Thursday, March 7: 6–9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 8–9: 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday, March 10: 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Instructors Catherine Orr and Elena Rue, founders of the visual storytelling company StoryMineMedia, use a combination of critiques, hands-on learning, [...]
Final Projects by Fall 2012 Certificate in Documentary Arts Graduates

Throughout the year, the Center for Documentary Studies offers Continuing Education courses in the documentary arts. Some students choose to enroll in the Certificate in Documentary Arts program, which offers a more structured sequence of courses culminating in the Final Seminar in Documentary Studies, where students finish and present a substantial documentary work—projects that often move [...]
Register Now for Continuing Ed Classes: Documentary and the Three-Act Structure, Intro to Audio Docs, Online Photo Course

The Continuing Education program at the Center for Documentary Studies offers classes in photography, video, audio, narrative writing, multimedia, and other creative media for adults who are interested in learning or continuing to do their own documentary work. Register now for these upcoming courses and workshops. Documentary and the Three-Act Structure Saturday, February 9, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Center for Documentary [...]
Continuing Education Information Night: Wednesday, January 23
Prospective and current students are welcome to this information session on CDS Continuing Education classes in the documentary arts—photography, video, audio, writing, and multimedia. Continuing Ed program director April Walton and other CDS staff will answer questions, provide recommendations and advice, and discuss the Certificate in Documentary Arts program. There will be a brief presentation on documentary tools and [...]
Interview with Photographer Harlan Erskine

CDS undergraduate student Charles Jo conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012 Although your projects vary considerably in style, theme, and subject matter, it seems that a somber, almost ominous, tone pervades them all. Would you agree? If so, what attracts you to photographing these types [...]
Interview with Photographer Donna Wan

CDS undergraduate student Courtney McDaniel conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012. Your project In the Landscape does not include an artist statement. Can you elaborate on your choice of location and composition? There is an artist statement for this project. However, at the time that [...]
Interview with Photographer Kerry Mansfield

CDS undergraduate student Danielle Duhl conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012. You speak a lot about the sense of space in your photographs. What draws you to the topics of spaces, and more specifically, the spaces that lie between? I’ve never been one to photograph people (self portrait [...]
Interview with Photographer Samantha VanDeman

CDS undergraduate student Kara Wilson conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012. What was your motivation for creating a portfolio with a hotel theme? Did you have a particular traveling experience that led to the desire to create a portfolio on hotels? Before I started photographing [...]
Interview with Photographer Santiago Vanegas

CDS undergraduate student Ryan Schott conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012. What were some difficulties of taking photographs in Antarctica? Difficulties beyond the obvious cold weather, staying dry, not dying in 80+ mph wind and 50ft+ waves, sea sickness…. One constant difficulty was its overwhelming [...]
Interview with Photographer Dimitri Mellos

CDS undergraduate student Jackson Conway conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012. What does your process of finding suitable material to photograph consist of as a street photographer? Well, as far as I am concerned the essence of photography (and even more so street photography) is [...]
Interview with Photographer Charlotte Niel

CDS undergraduate student Devon Edwards conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012. Your project Body Options deals with women’s issues of image and beauty. Can you explain why you made the choice to do this project? As a woman, I have always been concerned about how the media [...]
Interview with Photographer Isa Leshko

CDS undergraduate student Jesse Dembo conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012. In your artist statement on Elderly Animals you state that you “began this series shortly after [you] had spent a year in New Jersey helping to take care of [y]our mom who has Alzheimer’s [...]
Interview with Photographer Brandon Thibodeaux

CDS undergraduate student Mariesha McAdoo conducted this interview as part of the “Multimedia Documentary” class in the fall of 2012. When you travelled to the Mississippi Delta in summer of 2009, was When Morning Comes a preconceived project or did the collection develop spontaneously over the duration of the trip? My first trip to [...]



