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Our History

In 1998, Nancy Buirski launched the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival, as Full Frame was then named. Her vision then was to give documentary film the credit it was due as one of the most important art forms of our times. By featuring only documentaries, the festival hoped to create a new community, a new conversation, and a new appreciation for the power and artistry of documentary cinema.
 
"The uniqueness of this festival lies in its focus on film content, its emphasis on issues that matter, and its ability to reach out to the community and act as a bridge to its concerns," Buirski wrote in the inaugural festival program.
 
More than anything else, Full Frame has been about community: about filmmakers and film lovers coming together to share ideas and dreams, to communicate in an intimate, open environment.
 
Over the years, the festival has celebrated the talents and inspiration of master filmmakers. In 1998, Al Maysles and Michael Apted. In 1999 Errol Morris and Henry Hampton. In later years, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Barbara Kopple, Abbas Kiarostami, Frederick Wiseman, Charles Guggenheim, Marcel Ophuls, Vittorio De Seta, Ric and Ken Burns and Richard Leacock. In 2007, we honored North Carolina native Ross McElwee.
 
The Full Frame family has been on the cutting edge of documentary programming with curated series such as Why War?, Music and Documentary, Hybrid Forms, 2001: Fast Forward, and the 2006 showcase of the first hurricane Katrina documentaries.
 
We believe in the films we show. We believe that they will entertain our audiences and that they will inspire and nourish them, too. Most of all, We believe that documentary films can lead the way to life-changing experiences.
 
Our mission has always been to create a place where people can come together and make documentary happen. Since 1998, Full Frame has been proud to provide filmmakers a home for their films and an audience eager to wrestle with the ideas embodied in them.