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A CDS Program
dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of nonfiction cinema

Festival 2024

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Cinema 1

10:00–12:00
Mur Murs After returning to Los Angeles from France in 1979, Agnès Varda created this kaleidoscopic documentary about the striking murals that decorate the city. Bursting with color and vitality, Mur Murs is as much an invigorating study of community and diversity as it is an essential catalog of unusual public art.
1:00–3:00
Daybreak Express Shot in 1953, though not completed until 1957, Daybreak Express was the first film D. A. Pennebaker made, a mad rush of images of New York City captured from a train and edited to the rhythm of Duke Ellington’s song of the same name. A jazz aficionado, Pennebaker thought his career would continue along this path, making short films cut to songs.
Dont Look Back The legendary documentarian finds Dylan in England during his 1965 tour, which would be his last as an acoustic artist. In this wildly entertaining vision of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Dylan is surrounded by teen fans, gets into heated philosophical jousts with journalists, and kicks back with fellow musicians Joan Baez, Donovan, and Alan Price.
4:00–6:00
Sugarcane An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.
Last Minute Line Only
7:30–9:00
Agent of Happiness Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way?
Last Minute Line Only

Cinema 2

Fletcher

10:30–12:30
Every Little Thing Amid the glamour of Hollywood, Los Angeles, a woman finds herself on a transformative journey as she nurtures wounded hummingbirds, unraveling a visually captivating and magical tale of love, fragility, healing, and the delicate beauty in tiny acts of greatness.
1:30–3:30
A New Kind of Wilderness On a small farm in the Norwegian forest, the Payne family seeks a wild and free existence. They practice home-schooling and strive for a closely-knit family dynamic in harmony with nature. However, when tragedy unexpectedly strikes the family, it upends their idyllic world and forces them to forge a new path into modern society.
4:30–6:30
Look Into My Eyes A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing.
8:00–10:15

OPENING NIGHT FILM

Girls State What would American democracy look like in the hands of teenage girls? A political coming-of-age story and a stirring reimagination of what it means to govern, Girls State follows young female leaders—from wildly different backgrounds across Missouri—as they navigate an immersive experiment to build a government from the ground up.

Cinema 3

2:00–4:00
Among the Wolves To share an entire year in the life of a pack of wild wolves is a dream for Yves the painter and Olivier the photographer. Throughout the four seasons, motionless and silent amid an unchanging scenery, they gradually become part of the “picture” and immerse themselves in the life of the wolves.
5:00–7:00
The Loving Story The Loving Story tells the dramatic story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple living in Virginia in the 1950s, and their landmark Supreme Court Case, Loving v. Virginia, that changed history.

Cinema 4

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Cinema 1

10:00–12:00
waking up in silence Ukrainian children are confronted with their past as they explore their new home in Germany: a former Wehrmacht military barracks.
On The Way Home Thirty years after the War in Abkhazia, two generations of Georgian refugees squat in abandonedSoviet sanatoriums, haunted by echoes of the past while they continue to wait for aid in the form ofgovernment housing.
1:00–3:00
Town Bloody Hall On April 30, 1971, a standing-room-only crowd of New York’s intellectual elite packed the city’s Town Hall theater to see Norman Mailer—fresh from the controversy over his essay “The Prisoner of Sex” and the backlash it received from leaders of the women’s movement—tangle with a panel of four prominent female thinkers and activists: Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, and Diana Trilling. 
4:00–6:00
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy Inspired by Glenn Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic, Nancy Buirski’s documentary explores the groundbreaking movie, but her attention is trained on the people who made it and the times in which it was made.
7:00–9:00
Love Machina Love Machina follows Bina48, a humanoid AI, commissioned in 2007 by Martine and Bina Rothblatt. An early sketch of potential digital consciousness, Bina48 is our vehicle to explore the Rothblatt’s futurist ideas and their quest to be in love forever.

Cinema 2

8:00–10:00
A Poem Is a Naked Person Les Blank considered this free-form feature documentary about beloved singer-songwriter Leon Russell, filmed between 1972 and 1974, to be one of his greatest accomplishments. Hired by Russell to film him at his recording studio in northeast Oklahoma, Blank ended up constructing a unique, intimate portrait of a musician and his environment.
Last Minute Line Only
5:00–7:00
A Bigger Splash Jack Hazan’s intimate and innovative film about English-born, often California-based artist David Hockney and his work honors its subject through creative risk-taking. The improvisatory narrative-nonfiction hybrid features Hockney—a wary participant—as well as his circle of friends, and captures the agonized end of the lingering affair between Hockney and his muse, an American named Peter Schlesinger.
Last Minute Line Only

Fletcher

11:00–1:00
The Bitter Pill With his hometown ravaged by the opioid epidemic, plaintiff attorney Paul Farrell Jr. sets out to take on giant pharmaceutical companies to recover enough money to make a lasting impact for the area. When his legal strategy catches the attention of lawyers across the country, all of the cases get rolled into the biggest civil litigation in US history. Will the case become too big for this small-town lawyer, or will he rise to the occasion and effect change not just for his hometown but for the entire nation?  
2:00–4:00
All We Carry All We Carry follows a young Honduran family as they flee persecution—migrating in cargo trains across Mexico, claiming asylum at the US border, and enduring separation in detention before being released in Seattle. There, a local synagogue sponsors the family for two years while they await the final decision on their asylum case. As the family tries to settle into their new home, we witness their everyday moments—both sorrowful and joyful—along the way.
5:00–7:00
Family Tree Black families fighting to preserve their land and legacy. Family Tree’s cinéma vérité approach reveals the vast task of maintaining the land while navigating challenging family dynamics, unscrupulous developers, and changing environmental needs. The forest itself and the beauty of its changing seasons become a primary character in this family drama.
8:00–10:00
Daughters Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail.Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail.

Cinema 3

10:30–12:30
Fortune Through an embodied camera eye that moves freely in the in-between place that is an alley connecting two streets,Fortuneevokes a sense of magical realism and offers texture to the meditation on the Chinese American identity, which can also be characterized as a liminal space.
American Seams The stories of three quilters combine to reveal an intimate portrait of rural women in the American West. 
The School of Canine Massage At a unique training program in Southern California, people heal dogs and dogs heal people.
George-Peterland Five eight-year-olds found the imaginary world ‘George-Peterland’—a dreamy forest land with cute chickens everywhere, to which one can travel by just closing their eyes. When the school interferes and rules take over the imaginary world, it becomes a nightmare.
The Sparkle Kim and Billy work at carnivals. Over the summer, Kim procrastinates. He plans to leave this family of colleagues to devote himself to his passion, the search for precious stones. The layoff of Billy, his best friend, accelerates his disenchantment.
Stud Country Stud Country is the largest queer country western line dancing night in America, continuing a little-known fifty-plus year tradition in Los Angeles. Despite its success and fiercely committed community, due to gentrification, the event is set to lose its venue.
1:30–3:30
The Bus This round-trip bus ride takes passengers on Friday mornings towards the weekend and picks them up on Sunday afternoons to take them back to the place where they came from.
The Final Chapter Ten years after Frøydis cut all contact with her parents due to neglect and violence during her upbringing, she is confronted with her father being on his deathbed.
Ôte-toi de mon soleil Joseph cannot live at his own place anymore. For many years, he has travelled around the city with his trolley to gather tons of miscellaneous papers and objects of all kinds, thus filling his flat with labyrinthine chaos. He is said to have “the Diogenes syndrome.” He is gifted with vertiginous erudition and witty humor. As the filmmaker helps him with his home, a friendship forms.
4:30–6:30
Elefsina Notre Amour Deserted landscapes, ancient ruins, and abandoned shipwrecks at sea—Elefsina’s archeological sites don’t come close to being as hauntingly beautiful as these dead ships. Elefsina Notre Amour is a short sci-fi essay, a timeless archive, filmed on 16mm color Kodak.
Ever Since, I Have Been Flying A poetic immersion into a man’s memory, where realities are merging.
Remaining A year-long journey through the mountains of Sicily, a fleshed-out and depopulated territory seen through the eyes of a young shepherd, a wingless vulture, and an astronomical observatory.
7:30–9:30
Ashima Ashima is an intimate portrait of elite rock climber Ashima Shiraishi as she travels to South Africa to try to become the youngest person in the world to climb a v14 graded boulder problem. Accompanying Ashima is Poppo, an eccentric, hermit-like, retired avant-garde dancer, who also happens to be her father. Emotional and rooted in character, Ashima is a love letter not only to climbing, but to immigrant parents and the realization of the American Dream.
Last Minute Line Only

Cinema 4

2:30–4:30
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes explores the life and music of the legendary drummer, composer, bandleader, and social activist through a remarkable series of creative peaks, struggles, and personal reinventions—from the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights years, surveying the heady days of post-war modern jazz to hip hop and beyond.
5:30–7:30
Julia’s Stepping Stones Pioneering filmmaker Julia Reichert, who passed away in 2022, shares the intimate story of her youth, as a working-class girl, and how she began to dream of a larger life for herself, coming to embrace her working-class identity, and discovering feminism, documentary filmmaking, and her own voice. This luminous short film was edited and completed by Julia’s partner Steven Bognar.
Growing Up Female Julia Reichert and Jim Klein’s first film, widely seen as the first feature documentary of the modern-day Women’s Liberation Movement, offers six portraits of girls and women at various ages, examining how they are socialized. Added to the National Film Registry in 2011, Growing Up Female remains in active distribution fifty-three years after its initial release. 
8:30–10:30
1489 Over two years, filmmaker Shoghakat Vardanyan documented her parents and herself, waiting to hear about the fate of her twenty-one-year-old brother Soghomon, a musician, who disappeared in the front line of the brutal 2020 Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) War. Filming with her phone, Vardanyan turns her family’s grief into a film as an act of escape.

Elsewhere

8:30–10:00
Outdoor Screening: Good Night Oppy Good Night Oppy tells the inspirational true story of Opportunity, a rover that was sent to Mars for a 90-day mission but ended up surviving…

Durham Central Park

Speakeasy

12:30–1:30
Speakeasy Conversation: Documentary Dealmaking Doc filmmakers, we never “talk amongst ourselves.” The documentary ground is shifting under our feet, and we keep hearing that the “golden age” of documentary…

The Durham Hotel

3:30–4:30
Speakeasy Conversation: Remembering D. A. Pennebaker The festival is honored to celebrate D. A. Pennebaker with the 2024 Full Frame Tribute. In this intimate panel discussion friends and collaborators share stories…

The Durham Hotel

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Cinema 1

10:00–12:00
Je m’appelle Mariia This town was a place where they could sleep peacefully, but now the time has come for them to go. 
Echo of You People in their eighties and nineties, and even some centenarians, talk candidly and eloquently about love, loneliness, grief, life, and death. A poetic, tender group portrait of a Danish generation slowly saying goodbye.
1:00–3:00
The War Room The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House—and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their own right as they injected a savvy, youthful spirit and spontaneity into the process of campaigning.
4:00–6:00
Hollywoodgate When the United States withdrew from its twenty-year “forever war” in Afghanistan, the Taliban retook control of the ravaged country and immediately found an American base loaded with weaponry—a portion of the over $7 billion in U.S. armaments still in the country. Unprecedented and audacious, director Ibrahim Nash’at’s Hollywoodgate spends a year inside Afghanistan following the Taliban as they take possession of the cache America left behind—and transform from a fundamentalist militia into a heavily armed military regime.
Last Minute Line Only
7:00–9:00
This Is Going to Be Big Peer behind the curtain as a cast of neurodivergent teens prepare to come of age and hit the stage in their school’s time-travelling, John Farnham–themed musical.

Cinema 2

5:00–7:00
A Poem Is a Naked Person Les Blank considered this free-form feature documentary about beloved singer-songwriter Leon Russell, filmed between 1972 and 1974, to be one of his greatest accomplishments. Hired by Russell to film him at his recording studio in northeast Oklahoma, Blank ended up constructing a unique, intimate portrait of a musician and his environment.
Last Minute Line Only
8:00–10:00
A Bigger Splash Jack Hazan’s intimate and innovative film about English-born, often California-based artist David Hockney and his work honors its subject through creative risk-taking. The improvisatory narrative-nonfiction hybrid features Hockney—a wary participant—as well as his circle of friends, and captures the agonized end of the lingering affair between Hockney and his muse, an American named Peter Schlesinger.
Last Minute Line Only

Fletcher

11:00–1:00
Remembering Nancy Buirski Full Frame is honored to celebrate Nancy Buirski, who passed away unexpectedly last year, with a special gathering as part of our 2024 Tribute program.
2:00–4:00
Power Driven to contain threats to social order, American policing has exploded in scope and scale over hundreds of years. Now, it can be described by one word: power.
5:00–7:00
Union The Amazon Labor Union (ALU)—a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island—takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.
8:00–10:00
Eno Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno — known for producing David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, among many others; pioneering the genre of ambient music; and releasing over 40 solo and collaboration albums — reveals his creative processes in this groundbreaking generative documentary: a film that’s different every time it’s shown.

Cinema 3

10:30–12:30
Story & Pictures By This inspiring film tells a story about the boundary pushers who shape souls and give children strange dreams. The stars of Story & Pictures By are picture book creators changing the narrative for the next generation, even when their own lives are not fairytales. 
1:30–3:30
Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field A candid fly-on-the-wall glimpse into the creative process and the extraordinary life and career of Emmy-winning costume designer Patricia Field, whose unique vision has impacted fashion and popular culture for nearly six decades.
Last Minute Line Only
4:30–6:30
Anyuka Interweaving super 8 family films, archival material, and experimental animation, a granddaughter takes a deep dive into the remarkable life of her indomitable grandmother— a writer, WWII refugee and Holocaust survivor. Anyuka (Hungarian for mother) explores intergenerational trauma, the Jewish diaspora, immigration, motherhood, and religious identity, to tell the story of a tragic and marvelous life across continents.
Light of the Setting Sun A Taiwanese American filmmaker questions her family’s silence around the cycles of violence that have persisted since the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. Light of the Setting Sun is a poetic family portrait of what’s been left unsaid.
7:30–9:30
A Photographic Memory A Photographic Memory is an intimate, genre-bending portrait of a daughter’s attempt to piece together a portrait of her mother, an avant-garde journalist and a woman she never knew. Uncovering the vast archive Sheila Turner-Seed produced, including lost interviews with iconic photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Lisette Model, and others, the film explores memory, legacy, and stories left untold.

Cinema 4

11:30–1:30
The Poot The Poot serves as a beautifully crafted tribute to the ancient Iranian tradition of carpet weaving, documenting the detail and precision that goes into each hand-loomed creation.
Christo’s Valley Curtain Christo’s Valley Curtain celebrates the Bulgarian-born artist’s dramatic hanging of a huge orange curtain between two Colorado mountains. Since the late 1950’s, Christo’s large-scale temporary works of art have helped change our perception of art and society.
2:30–4:30
Elephant An elephant arrives on an island off the coast of Maine and, on a day like any other, the tightly wound circle of life unfurls.
The Elk Calf Katya is a professional “elk calf.” Every spring she delivers elk calves. Right after the delivery, Katya takes a newborn away from its mother.  Sometimes it’s simpler to be an elk calf than to work things out with her own son.
5:30–7:30
There’s a star Samuel LeBlanc, a young transgender musician, embarks with his friends on a musical journey through the work of Acadian musician Angèle Arsenault. Does queer Acadia exist?
8:30–10:30
A Stranger Quest In the eyes of an artificial mind, the last thirty years of David Rumsey—spent amassing one of the biggest historical maps collections in the world he secretly calls his poem—seem like an unexplainable quest. A Stranger Quest follows him on a road trip confronting the ghosts of his past and the end inching ever closer.

FF Theater

12:00–2:00
Shorts 1 The four films in this program provide different meditations on time and transitions.
3:00–5:00
Shorts 2 This program offers vivid explorations of community and connection. 
6:00–8:00
Shorts 3 The four films in this program express powerful personal narratives.   Anyuka Je m’appelle Mariia Ever Since, I Have Been Flying The Final Chapter  

Elsewhere

8:30–10:00
Outdoor Screening: Apollo 11 From director Todd Douglas Miller comes a cinematic event fifty years in the making. Crafted from a newly discovered trove of 70mm footage, and more…

Durham Central Park

Speakeasy

12:30–1:30
Speakeasy Conversation: Architects of the Story While the documentary editor’s job is to achieve seamlessness for the audience, the road to get there isn’t set in stone. Join editors in discussing how collaboration in…
3:30–4:30
Speakeasy Conversation: The Intersection of Art and Impact Many documentary filmmakers have embraced the political, social, and cultural change that powerful nonfiction stories can create, but what does it take to balance artistic…
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Cinema 1

1:30–3:30
Sunday Encore 1—Hollywoodgate
4:30–6:30
Sunday Encore 3—Sugarcane
10:00–12:00
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One Director William Greaves presides over a beleaguered film crew in New York’s Central Park, leaving them to try to figure out what kind of movie they’re making. A couple enacts a break-up scenario over and over, a documentary crew films a crew filming the crew, locals wander casually into the frame: the project defies easy description. Yet this wildly innovative sixties counterculture landmark remains one of the most tightly focused and insightful movies ever made about making movies.

Cinema 2

2:30–3:30
School of Doc School of Doc is a free camp for teens who are interested in learning the art of documentary filmmaking. Led by professional filmmakers, a select…

Fletcher

11:00–1:00
False Positive Track-and-field gold medalist and world-record holder Butch Reynolds is one of Akron, Ohio’s finest athletes. But his reputation and career took a debilitating hit when the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) falsely accused him of using performance-enhancing drugs, costing him the 1992 Olympic Games.
2:30–4:30
Sunday Encore 2—Daughters
5:30–7:30

FREE CLOSING NIGHT FILM

Luther: Never Too Much Luther: Never Too Much, the documentary film, chronicles the story of a vocal virtuoso. Using a wealth of rarely seen archives, Luther tells his own story with assistance from his closest friends and musical collaborators including Mariah Carey, Dionne Warwick, Valerie Simpson, and Roberta Flack. The film relives the many stunning moments of Luther’s musical career, while exploring his unrequited love life, health struggles, and a lifelong battle to earn the respect his music deserved.

Cinema 3

10:30–12:30
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil le Clercq Tanaquil Le Clercq inspired choreographers unlike any ballerina before her, but in 1956, at the height of her fame, she was stricken with polio. A mesmerizing film of love, loss, and surprising grace.
2:00–4:00
Red Whiteville and Blue In a moment of extreme polarization, a group of millionaires makes an unlikely bet that the working-class residents of a diverse Southern town can set aside their differences to help them convince legislators to unrig the economy so it works for everyone.
Last Minute Line Only
5:00–7:00
Sunday Encore 4—Shorts Award Winners Stud Country / American Seams / Je m’apelle Mariia / Ever Since, I Have Been Flying

Elsewhere

11:30–1:30

Awards Barbecue