“One Place” Exhibit Includes Installation of Photographer Paul Kwilecki’s Office
Exhibitions director Courtney Reid-Eaton describes the installation that’s part of an exhibit on view at the Center for Documentary Studies through July 27, 2013—One Place: Paul Kwilecki and Four Decades of Photographs from Decatur County, Georgia. The exhibit features selected photographs from a book of the same name edited by CDS director Tom Rankin and [...]
Celebration of “One Place”: Exhibit Reception, Talk, and Book Signing with Editor Tom Rankin, April 25
Oxford American editor Roger Hodge calls the book “a masterpiece of documentary art.” Renowned photographer Alec Soth says it’s “an American classic.” An event celebrating the publication of One Place: Paul Kwilecki and Four Decades of Photographs from Decatur County, Georgia, will include a talk and signing by Center for Documentary Studies director Tom Rankin, [...]
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 [...]
“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, [...]
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 [...]
“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 [...]
Free Screening: Oscar Nominated “How to Survive a Plague” Concludes Full Frame Winter Series, January 24
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival‘s annual series of wintertime screenings showcases three films that were shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature for the 2013 Academy Awards (Searching for Sugar Man and How to Survive a Plague were nominated on January 10). The Full Frame Winter Series screenings are free and open to the public; all begin at 7:30 p.m. [...]
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, [...]
MFA Student Eric Barstow Directs Short Doc, “¿Que Será Del Caribe?,” on Costa Ricans’ Fight to Save Their Home
Dice que de San Jose viene un monstro (They say that a monster is coming from San Jose) Va para el Caribe Sur (It’s headed to the Caribe Sur) Viene a dejar sin trabajo a mi gente (It’s coming to leave my people without work) Dejara desolación (It will leave desolation) — ¿Que Será Del Caribe? by [...]
“Coney Island 40 Years”: Photo Exhibit Featuring the Work of Harvey Stein Closes October 27
Coney Island 40 Years will close a popular three-month run at CDS on October 27; the exhibit features black-and-white images from renowned photographer Harvey Stein‘s recent book of the same name as well as a small selection of color images from an earlier book. Stein first went to shoot at Coney Island in 1970, never imagining that it would [...]
Watch: Editor Eric L. Muller on the Rare Photos from a Japanese American Internment Camp Featured in “Colors of Confinement”
Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II showcases sixty-five stunning images from a rare collection of color images taken by Bill Manbo, an internee at a Japanese American internment camp in the early 1940s. In this audio slideshow, editor Eric L. Muller talks about his impressions of Manbo’s photographs, [...]
Movies on the Lawn Series Wraps Up October 5 With Double Feature: “Under African Skies” and “Shut Up and Play the Hits”
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and American Tobacco‘s annual Movies on the Lawn series kicked off monthly outdoor screenings in July and will close out the series this month with a double feature: Under African Skies—rescheduled due to inclement weather—will begin at dusk (approximately 7:15 p.m.) followed by Shut Up and Play the Hits at around 9 p.m. The Movies on the [...]
Event at CDS for Acclaimed Book “Colors of Confinement,” Thursday, September 27
Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II showcases sixty-five stunning images from a rare collection of color images taken by Bill Manbo, an internee at a Japanese American internment camp in the early 1940s. On September 27, editor Eric L. Muller will give a presentation on the photos at the [...]
Fresh Docs Film Series Relaunches With “Landscapes of the Heart,” Friday, September 14
The Center for Documentary Studies in partnership with the Southern Documentary Fund is re-launching the works-in-progress series Fresh Docs, featuring documentaries straight out of the editing suite. The idea is to watch these not-quite-finished films as a community, and then give constructive feedback to the filmmakers. First up will be Sharon Swanson and Rebecca Cerese’s latest film, Landscapes of the Heart, a [...]
Free Film Screening on the Duke Campus: “Indochina: Traces of a Mother,” Tuesday, September 11
The Center for Documentary Studies is co-sponsoring the Duke Screen/Society‘s free screening of Indochina: Traces of a Mother, the latest film from one of Africa’s foremost documentary filmmakers, Duke Visiting Assistant Professor Idrissou Mora Kpai. A Q&A with the filmmaker will follow the screening. Tuesday, September 11, 7 p.m. Griffith Film Theater, Bryan University Center, Duke West [...]
Watch: Students Produce “Forward Together, Not One Step Back,” a Voter Advocacy Video
Duke University undergraduates in this past spring’s Documentary Studies: Video for Social Change course produced a short video in association with Democracy NC highlighting the growing nationwide trend of potentially restrictive voting laws. (The nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice estimates that the new laws “could make it significantly harder for as many as five million eligible Americans to [...]
Groundwork Radio Special Hosted by NPR’s Scott Simon Airing on Stations Nationwide
A one-hour radio special hosted by NPR Weekend Edition‘s Scott Simon features stories from Groundwork, a radio and multimedia project of the Center for Documentary Studies. The show will air on more than a hundred public radio stations nationwide, including WNYC New York, WBEZ Chicago, KUOW Seattle, Minnesota Public Radio, KALW San Francisco, and many others. Check with your [...]
Take Three: Professor Diablo Returns to Durham’s Club Casbah, Tuesday, August 28
The Center for Documentary Studies, in partnership with The Hinge, is thrilled to present the third installment of Professor Diablo’s True Revue, an evening of art and performance at the Durham, North Carolina, club Casbah featuring writers, musicians, visual artists, and others who make extensive use of documentary fieldwork and research in the creation of [...]
“Colors of Confinement”: New Book Features Rare Color Photos of Japanese American Internment
In 1942, Bill Manbo and his family were forced from their Hollywood home into the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment camp in Wyoming. While there, Manbo documented both the bleakness and beauty of his surroundings using Kodachrome film—a technology then just seven years old—to capture community celebrations and to record his family’s struggle [...]
Watch: Short Films from Full Frame’s 2012 School of Doc
Pelican’s SnoBalls is a short documentary about a family-owned business in Durham, North Carolina, that was produced, directed, shot, and edited by high school students at the 2012 School of Doc; Noah’s ARC is a work-in-progress about local jazz vocalist Noah Powell made by filmmakers Nic Beery and Todd Tinkham in association with the School of Doc. The [...]
Watch: Video Tribute to a Dearly Departed Show
CDS exhibitions director Courtney Reid-Eaton is preparing the Kreps Gallery for the upcoming Harvey Stein photography exhibit, which meant first taking down the prints from the Full Color Depression show. We were sad to see them go; during their six months here, curator Bruce Jackson’s restored Depression-era color photos attracted a large and enthusiastic fan-base, as [...]
Watch: “Professor Diablo’s True Revue II,” Wherein the Professor Examines Power
So far, so great. Professor Diablo’s True Revue, a regular evening of documentary art and performance presented by the Center for Documentary Studies in partnership with The Hinge, has played to packed and enthusiastic (standing ovation) audiences in its first two shows at the Casbah. The next performance will be Tuesday, August 28, 8 p.m., [...]
