The 10th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

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.

Movies Reviewed in this PopMatters‘ Special Feature

 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

Writer Bios: Jyllian Gunther is a documentary film maker and an Emmy award-winning television writer and producer. Kevin Greer is a writer and co-founder and English Department Chair of the Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School. Isaac Miller is a cultural/intellectual historian with a Ph.D. from Berkeley. He has taught at Stanford University, Oberlin College, and the University of Melbourne, and is currently a free-lance writer. Greer and Gunther covered Full Frame last year for Alternet.org. Gunther is currently directing a film about Greer’s school.