Full Frame Film Festival

As I wrote in my previous post, after 8+ years of attending the Sundance Film Festival, it became pretty clear that the charm for me had waned and I was looking for a change. By sheer luck during that last year, I shared a shuttle from the Salt Lake City airport to Park City with a guy who asked me, "what films are you most interested in?" I'd never really thought about it until that moment, but a quick mental inventory made it clear that the movies I gravitated to most were documentaries. "Have you heard of Full Frame? It's all docs and one of the best, if not THE best, doc film festival in the country."

I tucked that nugget away for a few years until John and I decided to give it a go. Now it's become a regular affair. We look forward to the annual trips to Durham, NC. The historic downtown used to be a bit of a ghost town, but even in the few years that we've been visiting, there has been a lot of change. Old warehouses have been converted into hip new condos, coffee shops and wine bars are bustling with activity, DPAC (The Durham Performing Arts Center) opened, and critically acclaimed restaurants are attracting new visitors to downtown.

But back to the movies. We saw 13 films this year (including shorts) over three days. I've posted our list below if you're interested in searching them out. As usual, nearly all of them were wonderful, but our top 3 picks this year were:

1. Divine Pig - Danish free-range butcher believes meat from happy pig is better, so he raises his own

2. Waste Land - Brazilian artist Vik Muniz travels to Rio to create portraits, constructed out of garbage, of the catadores who pick through the rubbish in the world's largest landfill

3. Surviving Hilter: A Love Story - incredible true love story that provides a fresh angle on life in Germany during the Third Reich

Other noteworthy films:
*Casino Jack and the United States of Money - story of Jack Abramhoff
*Dirty Business - coal industry expose
*The Poot - visually stunning movie that pays tribute to the tradition of Iranian carpet weaving
*Summer Pasture - the story of nomadic yak farmers in Tibet
*12th & Delaware - abortion clinic and pro-life pregnancy center sit at opposite corners of intersection
*China Blue - the inside story of a blue jeans factory in China and its workers
*Book of Miri - the search for belonging as expressed by a fashionable Korean-born blogger in Sweden

In January, Full Frame hired a new executive director to grow and evolve the festival, building on its previous success. We're eager to see how things might change next year, but rest assured...we'll be there standing in line for movie tickets and trying to fit in a gourmet meal or two!