DURHAM -- The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival quietly gave out its awards Sunday morning at the American Tobacco Campus's Bay 7 venue, where Full Frame staffers as well as jurors, visiting filmmakers and other spectators convened and had a brunch buffet.
"Enemies of the People" was a big winner, as it received the Anne Dellinger Grand Jury Award, with special jury prizes going to "The Oath" and "Restrepo." "Restrepo" also received an honorable mention from jurors for the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award, which also went to "Enemies."
While some of the winning filmmakers weren't in attendance and dispatched acceptance statements that were read by Full Frame programming director Sadie Tillery, the filmmakers who were there to pick up their honors were quite appreciative. While accepting the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award for her movie "My Perestroika," director Robin Hessman saluted the festival's communal environment for documentarians.
"Full Frame really does embody, as a festival, where we really get to have time to have conversations and see each other's films," said Hessman.
The same sentiment was shared by a flustered Lucy Walker, who accepted The Full Frame Audience Award for her movie, "Waste Land."
"This festival is so special, in terms of making the craft of what we do feel so honored and supported and appreciated," Walker said.
Short films were also saluted at the brunch, as the Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short went to "The Poot" and the Full Frame President's Award went to the 29-minute short "Book of Miri." Other award recipients were "Surviving Hitler: A Love Story" for the Full Frame Inspiration Award (with "Summer Pasture" getting an honorable mention) and "12th & Delaware" for the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights (with an honorable mention going to "Dirty Business: 'Clean Coal' and the Battle for Our Energy Future").
Tillery said Full Frame had another successful, heavily populated, four-day run of documentary films screened in and around Durham, playing in spots including The Carolina Theatre, the Durham Convention Center and even a couple of free, outdoor screenings at Durham Central Park. And while staffers were a bit overwhelmed to find swarms of people covering the main box office at the Armory on Thursday morning, which resulted in some brief computer glitches dispensing tickets, festival organizers eventually saw it as a good thing.
"From where we sit, we apologize that people had to wait in line a few extra minutes," said Tillery. "But it's a great problem to have, because they're so interested in seeing our films."
