Press Release - January 14th, 2010

Full Frame Announces 2010 Career Award

Durham, N.C., - January 14, 2010 - The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has announced it will honor filmmakers Liz Garbus and Rory Kennedy with the 2010 Career Award.  The filmmaking team co-founded their production company Moxie Firecracker Films in 1998.  Together, they have produced and directed a wide range of work exploring social issues through the lives of everyday people, including examinations of the U.S. legal system, AIDS, violence, abuse, and human rights.

“We are honored to celebrate the work of Liz Garbus and Rory Kennedy. It has been a privilege to exhibit their work since the Festival’s beginning,” Tillery said. “Their unique directing and producing partnership is responsible for such an incredible collection of films, and we look forward to having the opportunity to showcase a selection from their outstanding careers.”

Garbus’ Academy Award® nominated “The Farm: Angola, USA”, made in collaboration with Jonathan Stack, received Full Frame’s first Audience Award in 1998. Kennedy’s film “American Hollow” , screened at Full Frame in 1999 along with “Different Moms”, their first joint venture under the Moxie Firecracker banner. Other Moxie Firecracker productions featured at Full Frame include “Juvies”,  “The Execution of Wanda Jean”, “Coma” and most recently “Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech”, which received the 2009 Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights.

“My relationship with Full Frame, then Doubletake, started in its first years, with “The Farm”, in 1998,” said Garbus.  “Since then, I have enjoyed many wonderful years coming back to the festival with my films, having the chance to screen the extraordinary work of colleagues.  Full Frame is truly a festival for the documentary filmmaking community, and of that community.  It is for that reason that I feel extremely honored to receive the 2010 Career Award.”

The team has received numerous accolades over the years, including Grand Jury prizes at various festivals, including Sundance, alongside Academy Award® and Independent Spirit Award nominations. In 2007, Kennedy received a Primetime Emmy Award for “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.” Along with theatrical screenings, their films have been broadcast on HBO, A&E, PBS, Lifetime Television and The History Channel, among others.

 "I was absolutely thrilled to learn that Liz and I had been chosen for the 2010 Career Award,” said Kennedy. “It is such an honor to join past recipients such as Ken Burns, Barbara Kopple, and DA Pennebaker - filmmakers that I have admired for years. Full Frame is one of the premier documentary film festivals and I am so deeply honored to be receiving their lifetime achievement award."

The 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 8-11, in Durham, N.C., with Duke University as the presenting sponsor. Festival passes can be purchased online at www.fullframefest.org.

Contact Information:
Peggy Albertson, Jennings, 919-929-0225, palbertson@jenningsco.com
Full Frame, 919 687-4100, info@fullframefest.org

About Full Frame
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema. Each spring Full Frame welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to historic downtown Durham, N.C., for a four-day, morning to midnight array of over 100 films as well as discussions, panels, and southern hospitality. Set within a single city block, the intimate festival landscape fosters community and conversation between filmmakers, film professionals and the general public.

The festival is produced by Doc Arts, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and receives support from corporate sponsors, private foundations and individual donors whose generosity provides the foundation that makes the event possible. To learn more on the mission of Full Frame or for information on membership or sponsorship opportunities, scheduled films or festival passes visit www.fullframefest.org.