Full Frame Honors Duke University President Richard Brodhead with 2017 Advocate Award

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, celebrating its 20^th anniversary April 6–9 in Durham, N.C., today announced that it will honor Duke University President Richard Brodhead with its 2017 Advocate Award.

The prestigious Advocate Award is given annually in recognition of individuals who exemplify the heart, soul, and spirit of Full Frame through their leadership and support of the festival and the documentary community. As Duke’s president, Brodhead has personally invested his time and energy as a catalyst for Full Frame, a program of the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University. This focus is indicative of his commitment to the arts, which have flourished at Duke during his 13-year tenure. President Brodhead is also recognized for cultivating and strengthening the vital relationships between the festival, the university, and the city of Durham and its residents.

“Full Frame has become an integral part not only of Duke and Durham but of the international community of artists and professionals working in documentary cinema,” said Brodhead. “I am honored by this recognition, as it has been my privilege to watch the festival grow and thrive, and it has been a continual enjoyment for the university to celebrate this important and inspiring art form every year.”

While much of the recent focus in education has been on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), Brodhead has remained a passionate champion of the arts.  At a university with a deserved reputation for producing world-class doctors, lawyers, and business leaders, Brodhead succeeded in simultaneously elevating Duke’s focus on arts as integral to higher education.

“President Brodhead’s support for the arts ensures his legacy of creating more well-rounded students and citizens,” said Full Frame director Deirdre Haj. “He understands that the arts broaden the educational experience from learning how to make a living, to appreciating and valuing what makes a life worth living. I can’t imagine a worthier recipient for the Full Frame Advocate Award on our 20^th anniversary.”

Haj added that Brodhead’s involvement was particularly valuable in returning Full Frame to the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, aligning the festival more closely with the university and making it central to Duke’s contributions to the Triangle region. He is also credited with helping to generate more than $3 billion in financial gifts for the university’s Duke Forward campaign—contributing to the funding of numerous arts-focused programs, including the acclaimed Nasher Museum of Art, the Center for Documentary Studies, and Full Frame—and establishing Duke’s only Master of Fine Arts degree in Experimental and Documentary Arts.

As a result, Full Frame has enjoyed continued success; renowned for its film curation, artist support, and vibrant atmosphere, the festival has evolved into one of the world’s premiere showcases for nonfiction film, and attracts more than 12,000 attendees from around the world to Durham every spring.

Past recipients of the Advocate Award include Durham icons Jim Goodmon and Michael Goodmon, president and vice president of Capitol Broadcasting Company; the eminent Molly Thompson, president of A&E IndieFilms; and Josh Braun, co-president of Submarine Entertainment, the renowned distribution and production company.

Haj will present this year’s award to President Brodhead at the Full Frame Opening Night champagne reception on Thursday, April 6.