Four Days of Docs at Full Frame

www.documentary.org

2010-04-14

Four Days of Docs at Full Frame
By Ron Sutton

From April 8 through 11 in Durham, North Carolina, thousands of people came to see the 13th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. They didn't care whether the films were New docs in Competition (57), docs in the Thematic Program of Labor & Work (18), docs by the Career Award honorees (seven), or the Invited films (19). Attendees bought tickets, stood in line, saw films and talked about them with anyone who would listen. The films came from 27 different countries, and over 50 filmmakers were in attendance, eagerly receiving immediate feedback in lively Q & A sessions. Quite a few filmmakers were presenting their first festival film. Full Frame's compact, easy-going, laid-back southern environment seems supportive and nurturing to a beginning filmmaker.

I attended with interest all the films featured in the festival's Center Frame program:

--Kings of Pastry
--Do It Again
---Everything is Going Fine

While these three films were entertaining and extremely well-attended, for me they were a bit fluffy and self-centered, relatively oblivious to a world in need of redemption. I found that concern to transform elsewhere in films such as:

Summer Pasture is a compassionate, honest look at the lives of a yak-herding family in the Kham area of Tibet. Lynn True and Nelson Walker have captured the hardship and the genuine love this young couple have for one another and their life "following the yak's tail." Whether they will continue this way of life or move to the city and a very different life is the question posed by this beautiful and sensitive film.

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