Full Frame Announces Additional Programming for 2015

    Still from MERU, the 2015 Opening Night Film, directed by Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi

    Durham, N.C.March 19, 2015 – The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has announced the Opening Night Film and additional programming for the 2015 festival: three Center Frame programs, five free screenings, the presentation of this year’s Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant recipients, and the Fresh Docs program.

    MERU, about an elite climbing team’s attempt to ascend the treacherous Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru, will be the festival’s Opening Night Film, screening on Thursday, April 9, at the Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall. The film’s directors, Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi, will be in attendance for an extended conversation after the screening.

    Sunshine Superman, directed by Marah Strauch, will screen as the free Closing Night Film on Sunday, April 12.

    Three films previously announced in the Invited Program will exhibit as Center Frame screenings in Fletcher Hall of the Carolina Theatre: 3 ½ MINUTES by Marc Silver, Harry & Snowman by Ron Davis, and The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution by Stanley Nelson.

    Filmmakers and subjects from the films will participate in extended conversations after the Center Frame screenings. Special guests include Ron Davis, father of Jordan Davis, from 3 ½ MINUTES; show jumping legend Harry deLeyer from Harry & Snowman; and former Black Panther activist and professor of law Kathleen Cleaver from The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.

    Full Frame 2015 will feature four free screenings in addition to the Closing Night Film, continuing its tradition of showing free films Friday and Saturday nights. Love is All and Dinosaur 13 will each screen twice: once indoors at the Full Frame Theater in the Power Plant at American Tobacco Campus and once outdoors at Durham Central Park. Food truck roundups will precede the Durham Central Park showings on Friday and Saturday nights. These free screenings and the Closing Night Film are presented by PNC.

    The 2015 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant, now in its ninth year, has been awarded to Ted Passon for The Trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal and to Elisa Haradon and Gabriel Miller for Sweetheart Deal. Grant organizers will join the filmmakers in presenting short excerpts from their works-in-progress prior to a screening of (T)ERROR by David Felix Sutcliffe and 2013 grant recipient Lyric R. Cabral. The grant is awarded in honor of filmmaker Garrett Scott, who made a distinctive mark in the documentary genre during his brief career. It recognizes first-time filmmakers who, like Scott, bring a unique vision to the content and style of their documentary films.

    The Fresh Docs program, a free event, will feature in-the-works excerpts from Farmer Veteran directed by Alix Blair and Jeremy Lange. The screening will be followed by a moderated conversation with the filmmakers. Fresh Docs, presented by the Center for Documentary Studies and the Southern Documentary Fund, provides audiences with the opportunity to watch documentaries in various stages of production and to participate in the critique process. It also gives filmmakers the opportunity to receive feedback from a dedicated assembly of their peers and serious documentary enthusiasts.

    Opening Night Film at Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall
    OPENING NIGHT FILM – Thursday, April 9, at 7:40pm
    MERU (Directors: Jimmy Chin, E. Chai Vasarhelyi)
    An elite climbing team tries to ascend the treacherous Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru. Remarkably photographed by the climbers themselves, their journey tests the boundaries of endurance, trust, and friendship.

    Center Frame Screenings at Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall
    CENTER FRAME – Friday, April 10, at 7:30pm
    3 ½ MINUTES (Director: Marc Silver)
    In 2012, Jordan Davis, an African American teenager, was shot and killed while sitting in a car with three friends at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida. This powerful film examines the ensuing trial.

    CENTER FRAME – Saturday, April 11, at 4:30pm
    Harry & Snowman (Director: Ron Davis)
    The story of the deep friendship between a former plow horse and a gifted equestrian, who together make an unexpectedly formidable show jumping team.

    CENTER FRAME – Saturday, April 11, at 7:30 pm
    The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (Director: Stanley Nelson)
    A clarifying and vibrant history of the Black Panther Party, rich with rare archival footage, from the Party’s early beginnings to its ultimate dissolution.

    Free Screenings Presented by PNC

    FREE CLOSING NIGHT FILM
    Sunday, April 12, at 8:00pm – Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall (Ticket Required)
    Sunshine Superman (Director: Marah Strauch)
    This portrait of the “father of BASE jumping,” Carl Boenish, weaves recollections from friends and family through an astounding array of his own daring 16mm documentation.

    FREE SCREENINGS
    Friday, April 10, at 4:30pm – Full Frame Theater (Ticket Required)
    Saturday, April 11, at 8:30pm – Durham Central Park
    Dinosaur 13 (Director: Todd Douglas Miller)
    Years after a team of paleontologists excavates a rare Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, the U.S. government alleges the fossils were stolen from federal land. This film reveals the incredible story of “Sue,” and the ensuing legal case over her remains.

    FREE SCREENINGS
    Friday, April 10, at 8:30pm – Durham Central Park
    Saturday, April 11, at 6:30pm – Full Frame Theater (Ticket Required)
    Love is All (Director: Kim Longinotto)
    This romantic whirl through the British film archives captures love and courtship in the 20thcentury through a kaleidoscopic montage of clips.

    Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant
    Saturday, April 11, at 1:00pm – Cinema 3
    The Trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Director: Ted Passon)
    New discoveries, unearthed footage, and animated transcript recreations bring to life the courtroom drama of the most contested and divisive death-row case in modern American history.

    Sweetheart Deal (Directors: Elisa Haradon, Gabriel Miller)
    In Seattle, three women struggling with heroin addiction find solace, care, and support in the form of one man whose charity does not come without a heavy price.

    Fresh Docs
    Friday, April 10, at 7:00pm – Full Frame Theater
    Farmer Veteran (Directors: Alix Blair, Jeremy Lange)
    A wounded veteran, adrift after three tours of combat duty in Iraq, becomes a farmer in an attempt to bury his demons and cultivate a life beyond war.