press release

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Announces Curated Series

Film Festival To Feature MIGRATIONS Curated By Lourdes Portillo

DURHAM, N.C. — The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (www.fullframefest.org) has announced that the curated series for the 2008 festival will focus on the theme of migration. Full Frame selected Lourdes Portillo, an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker whose films have focused on the search for Latino identity, to curate the series. With special support provided by the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the “Migrations” will feature the following films:

“Calavera Highway” (Renee Tajima-Peña)

This pitch-perfect road-trip film documents the odyssey of Armando and Carlos Pena as they gather together their five brothers to carry their mother’s ashes to her final resting place in McAllen, Texas.
“El cielo gira (The Sky Turns)” (Mercedes Álvarez)

The filmmaker travels to the village in Northern Spain where she was born to produce this breathtakingly beautiful meditation on place. Just as she thinks the village is on the brink of extinction, she finds it renewed by a wave of new migrants.
“Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter” (Deborah Hoffmann)

The migration portrayed in this stirring film is from independent living to a nursing home, as filmmaker Deborah Hoffman diligently documents the cruel progression of her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease and her own process of coming to terms with the illness.
“DeNADIE” (Tin Dirdamal)

This film follows Central American immigrants who take a long and perilous illegal train journey north to the United States in search of a better life, falling prey along the way to immigration police, gangs and the dangers of the train itself.
“The New Americans” (Susana Aiken, Carlos Aparicio, Jerry Blumenthal, Gordon Quinn, Fenell Doremus, Indu Krishnan, Steve James, Renee Tajima-Pena)

Shot in the cinéma-vérité style, this epic mini-series depicts the heartbreaking struggles and hard-fought triumphs of five families as they migrate from India, the West Bank, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic and Mexico to the United States.
“Sewing Woman” (Arthur Dong)

Based in part on the life story of the filmmaker's mother, Zem Ping Dong, Sewing Woman interweaves rare footage shot in rural villages of China and in factories in San Francisco’s Chinatown, treasured home movies, and intimate family photographs to paint a bittersweet portrait of early-twentieth-century migration.
“The Sugar Curtain” (Camila Guzmán Urzúa)

Camila Guzman offers a moving portrait of a generation of Cuban exiles who grew up during the golden years of the revolution and were raised on the heady promises of Cuban socialism only to find hemselves disillusioned by the subsequent economic crisis and the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 3-6 in downtown Durham. Recognized as the premier documentary film festival in the United States by both The New York Times and indieWIRE, Full Frame is an arena for documentary filmmakers to showcase their work theatrically in an environment that stimulates conversation and community between filmmakers, industry executives and the general public. For more information on attending the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, visit www.fullframefest.org.

News Facts:

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (www.fullframefest.org), has announced that the curated series for the 2008 festival will focus on the theme of migration.
Full Frame selected Lourdes Portillo, an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker whose films have focused on the search for Latino identity, to determine the direction for the series.
With special support provided by the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the series will feature the following films: “Calavera Highway,” “El cielo gira (The Sky Turns),” “Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter,” “DeNADIE (No One),” “The New Americans,” “Sewing Woman” and “The Sugar Curtain.”
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 3-6 in downtown Durham.
Recognized as the premier documentary film festival in the United States by both The New York Times and indieWIRE, Full Frame is an arena for documentary filmmakers to showcase their work theatrically in an environment that stimulates conversation and community between filmmakers, industry executives and the general public.
For more information on attending the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, visit www.fullframefest.org.

Quotes:

“I see the constant migration of people as a given historical phenomenon, and one of the great themes of human existence.”Portillo said. “We have long admired Lourdes Portillo’s work as a filmmaker and as an artist,” said Phoebe Brush, director of programming. “We knew we wanted to explore migration and in our initial conversations, her eloquent and thoughtful approach to the theme went beyond our expectations. We are thrilled with her choices and look forward to the conversations that the series will inspire.”

Keywords:

Full Frame, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, City of Durham, North Carolina Central University, Duke University, Phoebe Brush, The New York Times, “Calavera Highway,” “El cielo gira (The Sky Turns),” “Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter,” “DeNADIE ” “The New Americans,” “Sewing Woman,” “The Sugar Curtain”

Media Contacts:

Patty Briguglio
Kate Catlin
MMI Associates, Inc.
(919) 233-6600
(919) 233-0300 (fax)
patty@mmimarketing.com
kate@mmimarketing.com
PR Firms Raleigh, NC

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is produced by Doc Arts Inc. a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The presenting sponsors are The New York Times and Duke University.

Contact:

Samantha Coles, Communications Manager
919.687.4100 x820
samantha.coles@fullframefest.org