Screening a made-in-America documentary about a French artist in front of an audience of Parisians would make anyone anxious, let alone a pair of Durham filmmakers venturing for the first time into the critical world of film festivals.

That's what Penelope Maunsell and Kenny Dalsheimer did last week when they took "Bending Space: Georges Rousse and the Durham Project" to Europe. A Paris audience on Wednesday and another in Chambrey on Thursday saw what happened when Rousse transformed four abandoned warehouses in downtown Durham into a public art canvas in 2006.

Checking in by e-mail Thursday morning, Dalsheimer reported an overflow crowd of about 150 at the Paris screening and a display of Rousse's photographs at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie. "We felt very, very good about how the Durham work was displayed prominently and how the film was received," he said.

Dalsheimer is a former middle-school teacher who has made small documentaries about Durham's subcultures. His partner, Maunsell, has produced university and college films. They were accompanied by their own entourage: Maunsell, who was married in England the previous week, attended the screening with her groom, her sister and her father. Dalsheimer's wife, Marybeth Dugan, and two of the site captains for the Durham project, Cara O'Connell and Renee Oliverio and her husband, Michael, were also there.

France has been the highlight in a journey that has taken the co-directors to festivals across the United States since the film's premiere to local audiences in September. Audiences have attended screenings in Missoula, Mont.; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Memphis, Tenn.; Indianapolis; and Brooklyn, N.Y. Dalsheimer said they've been encouraged to enter the film in the growing number of micro and alternative festivals around the country, and they hope to be included in festivals in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

"Festivals are very subjective and very political," Dalsheimer said in a phone interview before leaving for France, adding, "The reaction has been quite positive. They love it."

Viewers tend to be intrigued by the army of volunteers -- including scores of artists, carpenters and errand-runners -- who carried out Rousse's vision in Durham. Coupled with the unexpected high turnout to see the completed project, the work was public art in every sense.

Rousse's work in Durham is hard enough to understand, let alone explain. Sometimes he constructed misshapen walls of different sizes and painted surfaces in three dimensions, then captured the resulting illusions with his camera. The pictures are usually what he displays as art, but in this case people were invited to visit the 11 installations.

"Bending Space" clarifies the project and its context in a way that is probably even better than having simply walked through. In the film, Duke professor Hans J. Van Miegroet says Rousse's play with perception is reminiscent of 15th- and 16th-century art that could only be understood from a single vantage point.

Rousse has his admirers in France, and Dalsheimer reported that after the Paris screening, a long line of people formed for his autograph. The documentary will be shown every Sunday at the Paris museum as part of a series of short films on his earlier work.

Both the Durham project and the film were financed with money raised locally, through the enthusiasm and support of Frank Konhaus and Ellen Cassily, a Durham couple who were fans of Rousse's work in abandoned European buildings. Maunsell and Dalsheimer hope to raise money for a French language edition and line up a European distributor.

They're still learning the festival ropes. Their biggest disappointment is that "Bending Space" didn't make it into last month's Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham.

"We're novices doing this," Dalsheimer said. "It's encouraging when a juror says this is a cool film for our festival."