Members of the documentary production program viewed films and met with filmmakers.
Members of the 2013-2014 elondocs production program attended Full Frame Film Festival in Durham, N.C., April 3-6. The students, who were participating in the festival’s fellows program, had the opportunity to see a variety of documentaries, attend panel discussions and meet with filmmakers.
On April 3, the group attended the world premiere of “112 Weddings,” a film by Doug Block that revisits couples whose weddings Block had filmed years earlier. Following the film, Block and two of the featured couples held a question-answer-answer session.
There was a wide variety of films at the festival, with subjects ranging from hip-hop to politics to buffalo, and the films were often followed by Q&A sessions with the filmmakers and the subjects of the films.
As a part of the fellows program, the elondocs group attended workshop sessions with “Hoop Dreams” director and Full Frame Tribute Honoree Steve James and Andrew Rossi, whose documentary “Ivory Tower” was screened at Full Frame. The students also had the chance to attend the opening night party and award ceremony, giving them the opportunity to interact and network with filmmakers.
On April 4, members of the School of Communications Producing the Documentary classes attended a special day of the RiverRun Film Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C. Junior Brad Hinkle participated in the annual RiverRun Documentary Student PitchFest, along with students from Duke University, Wake Forest University UNCG, UNCW, and NC School of the Arts.
The judging panel that included Matthew Graham, senior director of PBS Digital Studios, Gordon Quinn, artistic director at Kartemquin Films, and veteran Hollywood actor Bill Pullman, gave the students feedback and suggestions on their current works-in-progress. After the pitch session and lunch, the students attended an interactive panel discussion on film festival tips with programmers from the True/False, Camden and Indie Memphis film festivals.
— by Nicole Triche, assistant professor of Communications