Durham’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival to pause until 2024, organizers say
Durham’s iconic Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be on hiatus next year as organizers pause to plan the festival’s future, they announced Tuesday.
The annual festival, a program of Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, put North Carolina on the map in the documentary film industry and is an important stop on the festival circuit for filmmakers around the world.
The festival, typically held in the spring in downtown Durham’s Carolina Theatre, has been a virtual event since 2020 due to COVID-19 safety concerns.
The Board of Directors at the CDS and its staff will spend the next year planning around new goals under executive director Opeyemi Olukemi, according to a news release. He became the center’s director in Oct. 2021.
The festival is expected to be held in person in 2024, the center said.
“We recognize that this may be disappointing news to our fans and community, but this strategic planning phase presents a natural time and opportunity for us to pause programs, including Full Frame, while we create a new vision for the organization that expands our leadership and role in amplifying the power of documentary art,” Olukemi said in a statement.
The festival began in 1997 and is a qualifying event for nominations for the Academy Award Documentary Short Subject category and the Producers Guild of America Awards. Many films have gone on to be nominated — and win — Oscars.
These include “Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405,” which won two awards at the Full Frame festival in 2017 and went on to win a 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).
The documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” which chronicles a rural Black community in Alabama, won awards in the 2018 Full Frame festival and was nominated for a 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
The acclaimed “RBG,” about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was screened in Durham before hitting theaters in wide release. It was nominated for an Oscar.
The festival’s documentaries are known for analyzing difficult contemporary and historical issues, and festival attendees are given guidance to watch the films at their own discretion due to most of the films being unrated.
The organization also screens documentaries throughout the year at other Durham venues as part of its “Road Show.”
“We are building on a rich legacy as we reimagine and elevate CDS and its programs to operate with the greatest impact,” said Olukemi. “This time will allow us to strengthen the business operations of the organization to ensure longevity and sustainability in the long-term.”
