Documentary Doings

In April, the thirteenth annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will bring up the curtain on numerous documentary-film premieres—and a new executive director.

Deirdre Haj, an experienced documentary producer who was formerly a theater and film actor, will take over from Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies, who has been serving as interim head of the festival.

Full Frame, which is sponsored in large part by Duke, is a four-day festival devoted to the theatrical exhibition of nonfiction film. Set within a single city block in downtown Durham, the festival landscape fosters community and conversation among filmmakers, film professionals, and audiences.

This year's career award will be presented to filmmakers Liz Garbus and Rory Kennedy, who together have produced and directed a wide range of work exploring social issues through the lives of everyday people, including examinations of the U.S. legal system, AIDS, and human rights.

The thematic program, which operates alongside the general competition, will be on the subject of labor, and Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, directors of the 2009 film The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, will be curators. The festival will take place April 8 to 11.