The 11th annual Full Frame Festival, the premier documentary film festival in the United States, will take place April 3-6 in Durham. The opening night film will be the US premiere of "Trumbo", and today the list of films selected for competition was released. At some point they will also announce all the special programs and special films and stuff (ex. last year Ross Mcelwee showed "Sherman's March" and Michael Moore showed "Roger & Me", and there were a bunch of panels and stuff as well).

http://fullframefest.org/


Some photos from last year are available here http://fullframefest.org/about/photos.php Including a cameo by yours truly ON THE XYLOPHONE



And some of my own photos:












It really is cool, not to mention completely bizarre (wtf Durham?), to have this here.

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 2:36 PM. Reason : oops]

3/6/2008 2:36:16 PM

In competition this year:

34x25x36 | Jesse Epstein
An inside look at the Patina V Mannequin Factory, where model women are sculpted with perfect proportions.

Alone in Four Walls | Alexandra Westmeier
Teenage boys in a Russian prison tell their stories under a sympathetic yet incisive gaze.

At the Death House Door | Steve James, Peter Gilbert
This film offers an unflinching look at the career of Carroll Pickett, who presided over ninety-five executions during his fifteen-year tenure as death house chaplain to the Walls prison unit in Huntsville, Texas.

Be Like Others | Tanaz Eshaghian
In Iran, gay men and women are encouraged by the state to undergo sex-change operations or risk capital punishment if they remain true to their identity.

Beautiful Son | Julianne Yamamoto King, Don King North American Premiere
In their quest for answers to their son's autism, one family offers a comprehensive look at this heartbreaking condition, examining possible causes and seeking alternative treatments.

Beginning Filmmaking | Jay Rosenblatt
For her fourth birthday, a filmmaker father surprises his daughter with a video camera and the complications inevitable to both parenting and filmmaking ensue.

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) | Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath
Exquisitely photographed over twenty-three years, this epic film follows one family of Laotian refugees who escaped the ravages of the Vietnam War to resettle in the United States.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster* | Christopher Bell
An exhilarating synthesis of interviews, archival footage, and striking personal testimony provide an in-depth look at body image in America and the increasing role of performance enhancing drugs in Americans' quixotic search for perfection.

Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy | Alice Elliott
Buoyed by their profound friendship, two women with disabilities defy all odds to live independently in their own house.

Bomb It | Jon Reiss
The most comprehensive documentary about graffiti and street art to date, BOMB IT features original interviews from around the world and footage of graffiti writers in action.

Boogie Man | Stefan Forbes World Premiere
The rollicking, controversial story of Lee Atwater, a blues-playing kingmaker who helped elect three Presidents, reshaped American politics, and rocked the (Grand Old) Party.

Breadmakers | Yasmin Fedda
A brief and loving portrait of the Garvald Bakery, where a devoted team of workers with learning disabilities prepare breads for all of Edinburgh.

Bulletproof Salesman | Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker
When the United States invaded Iraq, it presented the Perfect War for Fidelis Cloer, supplier of luxury armored vehicles and self-confessed war profiteer.

Calavera Highway | Renee Tajima-Peña World Premiere
The sweeping story of a family of seven brothers grappling with the meaning of masculinity, fatherhood, and a legacy of rootless beginnings.

City of Cranes | Eva Weber
Crane operators offer us an unparalleled view of London as their huge, graceful machines sweep and pluck above the city's skyline.

La Corona | Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega
Four inmates compete fiercely for the crown in the annual beauty pageant of a Bogotá women's prison.

Daughters of Wisdom | Bari Pearlman
For the first time, cameras are invited into the Kala Rongo Monastery, home to a vibrant and resilient community of Tibetan Buddhist nuns.

Don't Get Me Wrong | Adina Pintilie
Patients debate the weather, God, and other forces beyond their control in this poignant view of life in a Romanian psychiatric hospital.

Flying On One Engine | Joshua Weinstein
The bizarre survival saga of Dr. S. Dicksheet, an eccentric and irreverent humanitarian who has performed more than 140,000 cleft lip surgeries for free in his native India.

Forbidden Lie$ | Anna Broinowski
The life and deceptions of a con artist, Norma Khoury, who wrote a "non-fiction" best-seller about an honor killing in Jordan.

Full Battle Rattle | Tony Gerber, Jesse Moss
In a fake village secluded deep within the Mojave Desert, the U.S. army enlists thousands of role-players, including over two hundred Iraqi exiles, to help train soldiers soon to be deployed to Iraq.

GLASS: a portrait of Philip in twelve parts | Scott Hicks
A riveting and intimate profile of the preeminent composer Philip Glass at work and at play, crafted in contrasting tones, from the comical to the profound.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson | Alex Gibney
A richly entertaining and thoughtful look at the "gonzo" journalist and great American iconoclast.

Good Ol' Charles Schulz | David Van Taylor
For fifty years, Charles Schulz captivated and comforted millions with his comic strip Peanuts, but worldwide success did not quiet his own Charlie Brown-style doubts.

The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo | Lisa F. Jackson
Filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson, a gang rape survivor herself, documents the tragic plight of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo who are raped in the name of war.

Holding Fast | Mary Harron & John C. Walsh World Premiere
This lyrical observation of a Tibetan refugee center in Darjeeling, India indelibly blends music and image.

The Horseman | Tell Johansson, Peter Gerdehag North American Premiere
This is the story of Stig-Anders, a truly old-fashioned farmer whose epic love for his horses and the remote Swedish village they call home represents the last of a dying breed.

In A Dream | Jeremiah Zagar
Isaiah Zagar, a renowned mosaic artist who has covered over forty thousand square feet of Philadelphia with tile, mirror, paint, and concrete, comes under the scrutiny of his son's camera in this portrait of a complicated marriage.

Infinite Justice | Karl Tebbe
This darkly whimsical short film reconstructs scenes from the Iraq War using action figures and war toys.

Lakshmi and Me | Nishtha Jain North American Premiere
A filmmaker in Bombay grapples with her relationship with her part-time maid, Lakshmi, against a backdrop of old feudal attitudes that still govern relationships between employers and their "servants."

The Last Conquistador | John Valadez, Cristina Ibarra World Premiere
When sculptor John Houser sets out to create an enormous bronze statue of Juan de Oñate for the city of El Paso, his subject's vexed colonial legacy sparks passionate opposition.

Left in Baghdad | Peter Jordan, John Kane
The tragicomedy of a soldier who has to pick out a new left arm after losing the original in Baghdad.

Life. Support. Music. | Eric Daniel Metzgar World Premiere
After a devastating brain hemorrhage fells a musician, he and his family mount an enormous and inspiring struggle for rehabilitation.

Lioness | Meg McLagan, Daria Sommers North American Premiere
This film presents the untold story of female support soldiers in Iraq who have been sent into direct ground combat in violation of the military's official policy.

3/6/2008 2:37:24 PM

Lucio | Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga
Lucio, a seventy-five-year-old Spanish anarchist, recounts his exploits as a "good bandit" who swindled twenty-five million dollars from the First National Bank (now CitiBank) in support of radical social movements.

Man on Wire | James Marsh
In 1974, young Frenchman Philippe Petite spent an hour balancing on a high wire suspended between the new Twin Towers of the World Trade Center before being hauled off by police. Through meticulous recreations and intimate interviews with all involved, this moving film unveils the intricate preparations for what was to become the "artistic crime of the century."

The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories | Andrey Paounov
Along the Danube in northern Bulgaria lies the sleepy and mosquito-ridden town of Belene, where the residents hold on to hopes of an atomic future, but are unable to deal with their troubled past.

My Daughter the Terrorist | Beate Arnestad
This rare, inside portrait of two young female Tamil Tigers provides sobering insight into the psychology and motivations of people who are firmly committed to a life of terrorism.

My Olympic Summer | Daniel Robin
In this somber and visually mesmerizing film, Daniel Robin re-examines 8mm home movies of his parents in the context of his own recently failed marriage.

Neither Memory Nor Magic | Hugo Perez World Premiere
The fascinating and poignant story of Hungarian poet Miklos Radnoti, who perished in the Holocaust but was able to preserve his startlingly original writings.

Observando El Cielo | Jeanne Liotta
An experimental film about the movement of the night sky.

Of Shadows and Men | Aurélien Foucault, Cédric Quennesson World Premiere
In this lovely short film, the centuries-old practice of Chinese shadow plays emerges as the forefather of cinema.

The Order of Myths | Margaret Brown
The secret societies and young kings and queens of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, inhabit a world invested in many traditions, including segregation.

Paradise | Jerzy Sladkowski
This wry and absorbing Swedish film depicts an older married couple as they embark upon an interior decorating project that uncovers their profound differences yet also suggests how relationships stand the test of time.

Paradise - Three Journeys In This World | Elina Hirvonen
A lyrical exploration of the fragile hopes and harsh realities of African immigrant journeys to Spain.

Please Vote For Me | Weijun Chen
When third graders in rural China elect a class monitor, three determined aspirants and their crafty parents plot strategies and devise dirty tricks for victory.

Salim Baba | Tim Sternberg
On the streets of Kolkota, India, Salim Baba runs a "cinema cart" with a one-hundred-year-old hand-cranked projector. Children trail this enchanting relic of an earlier age for a glimpse of a flickering magical world.

Sally Gross - The Pleasure of Stillness | Albert Maysles, Kristen Nutile US Premiere
This film chronicles avant-garde dancer and choreographer Sally Gross's fifty-year career with breathtaking archival performance footage and follows her for eight months as she prepares her newest piece, The Pleasure of Stillness.

The Siamese Connection | Josh Gibson World Premiere
Quirky and unpredictable, this film tells the story of conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker, who lived in Mt. Airy, North Carolina from 1839 to 1874.

Song of a Sperm Donor | Emmanuel Dayan World Premiere
This short movie pits the right to know against the need to know and nature against nurture as it brings new meaning to the phrase "Whose your Daddy?"

Stranded: I've come from a plane that crashed on the mountains | Gonzalo Arijon
The incredible story of the famous 1972 plane crash in the Andes reveals the importance of friendship and solidarity in the face of extreme obstacles.

Summerchild | Iris Olsson North American Premiere
Eleven-year-old Svetlana lives in a children's home in Karelia, Russia, but she will spend what promises only at first blush to be an idyllic summer in Finland with host parents.

Surfwise | Doug Pray
Trading in a budding medical career for surfing in the 1950s, Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz built his own way of life, traveling the continent in a 24-foot-long camper with his wife and nine kids in tow.


The Tailor | Óscar Pérez
Simultaneously comic and unsettling, this film casually observes the tense business transactions— replete with thinly veiled hostilities—that unfold inside Mohamed's tiny shop in Barcelona.

Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai | Lisa Merton, Alan Dater World Premiere
This film pays tribute to the determination and courage of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement to empower rural women in Kenya and ended up sparking a national political crusade to protect the environment, human rights, and democracy.

Tehran Has No More Pomegranates! | Massoud Bakhshi
Fusing hypnotic visual aesthetics with satirical humor, Tehran Has No More Pomegranates embraces the documentary tradition of the city symphony for a wry look at Tehran's cultural and political history.

To See If I'm Smiling | Tamar Yarom US Premiere
Female Israeli soldiers recall their mandatory military service in the Occupied Territories and reveal the real horror of war: it corrupts and destroys everyone it touches.

Today The Hawk Takes One Chick | Jane Gillooly
In Swaziland, a country ravaged by AIDS, elderly women—or "gogos" (grandmothers)—take care of children, many of them orphans. But what will happen when the gogo is gone?

Trouble the Water | Tia Lessin, Carl Deal
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Ninth Ward resident Kimberly Roberts turns on her video camera and so begins an inspiring story of heroism and resilience.

Up the Yangtze | Yung Chang
This film takes the viewer on a poignant farewell tour of the Yangtze River, meeting some of the two million inhabitants of shoreline villages who will lose their homes when the Three Gorges Dam is completed.

What Do We Want, When Do We Want It | Alex Jablonski
Ideas of activism, urgency, and religious faith (captured in a letter between Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz) flow in counterpoint to the casual soundtrack and visual pacing of this thought-provoking rumination on American protests of military activity in Iraq.

3/6/2008 2:37:45 PM

William Greaves will be getting the career award and they will be showing 4 of his films http://fullframefest.org/press/press_080312.php

Also, the special programming announced http://fullframefest.org/press/press_080310.php

Werner Herzog will be screening his new documentary

3/13/2008 1:39:29 PM