What do you get when you send an English teacher, a cultural historian, and a documentary filmmaker down South to report on 82 documentary films in four days? A conglomeration of pedantry, antiquarianism, and sanctimony, at worst.  At best, a choice sense of what’s going on in the documentary world according to Full Frame, the premiere Documentary Film Festival in the United States.

We’ll give you our best.  This is the trio’s third year covering Full Frame, and the festival’s 10th year of providing a space for screening and discussing thought-provoking, or just provoking, documentaries. They come because the food is as free as it is tasty, the atmosphere is unpretentious, and, as you’ll soon learn, the films are not just good, they’re good for you, too.

Incidentally, Gunther has known both of her co-writers for over 20 years, though the men have only gotten to know each other of late. She is recently in love with one of them, while the other has been her best friend for quite some time. (Cast your vote on which is which and win a free pen and pencil kit.)

Who knows?  After a taste of the festival provided in these three installments, maybe you’ll feel compelled to come down to Durham, North Carolina, next April.

 Castells, dir. Gereon Wetzel
 The Monastery, dir. Pernille Rose Gronkjaer
 War/Dance, dir. Sean Fine & Andrea Nix Fine
 The Devil Came on Horseback, dir. Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern
 Meeting Resistance, dir. Molly Bingham & Steve Connors
 The Rape of Europa, dir. Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen & Nicole Newnham
 Manda Bala, dir. Jason Kohn
 La Vie Commence Demain, dir. Nicole Vedres
 Charleen & Backyard, dir. Ross McElwee
 Field of Stone, dir. Shambhavi Kaul
 Tootie’s Last Suit, dir. Lisa Katzman
 Cul De Sac: A Suburban War Story, dir. Garrett Scott
 Gonzo: The Life and Death of Hunter S. Thompson, dir. Alex Gibney