The Circuit

The latest from the festival scene this week.  A link exchange by indieWIRE and Variety.com.

TFF '08 | Van Peebles, La'Bassiere, and Byrd
With just two weeks to go, the Tribeca Film Festival kicked things off with a reception downtown with IFP.

DISPATCH FROM DALLAS
AFI Dallas Goes for the Robust and Finds a Niche in Year Two

DISPATCH FROM NORTH CAROLINA
Full Frame Forges Ahead Without Its Charismatic Founder at the Helm


More at indieWIRE.

Two Sundance doc winners took top prizes at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, N.C.  Carl Deal and Tia Lessin's caught-on-tape doc of Hurricane Katrina, "Trouble the Water," won the Anne Dellinger Grand Jury Award and Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights.  James Marsh's "Man on Wire," a look back at the 1974 illegal tightrope between the World Trade Center towers, pulled in a special jury prize as well as the audience award. 

"In a Dream," Jeremiah Zagar's doc on his father, mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar, won the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award while Ellen Kuras' film on Laotian refugees, "The Betrayal" (Nerakhoon) picked up its second win with the Full Frame President's award, just weeks after grabbing the top honors at the Ann Arbor film fest.

Full Frame sought to expand this year by booking bigger venues and incorporating a new ticketing system.  The fest projects that 29,000 tickets were sold this year, a boost from last year.

"Full Frame 2008 was a huge success and we look forward to releasing the official numbers next week," said Peg Palmer, exec director of Full Frame.  "The Festival hosted an eclectic audience of filmmakers and film lovers from all over the world who were completely engaged with our program."


Full list of winners:
       
Anne Dellinger Grand Jury Award – “Trouble the Water”

Special Jury Award – “Man on Wire”

Full Frame Audience Award – “Man on Wire”

Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award – “Lioness”

Honorable Mention – "Up the Yangtze"

The Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award – “In A Dream”

Full Frame Inspiration Award – “At the Death House Door”

Full Frame President’s Award – “Summerchild”

Full Frame Spectrum Award – “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”

Honorable Mention – "Up the Yangtze”

Full Frame Women In Leadership Award – “Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai”

Full Frame/Working Films Award – “Please Vote for Me” and “Trouble the Water”

The Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights – “Trouble the Water”

Full Frame has announced their New Docs lineup.  At first glance, it's good to see Jay Rosenblatt with a new doc, "Beginning Filmmaking."  Sundance hit "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*" is on the list as is the much-buzzed about SXSW doc, "Bulletproof Salesman" (pictured).

Full list is here.

On the heels of their opening night announcement, we're starting to hear about other titles in the Full Frame program, including Bari Pearlman's doc "Daughters of Wisdom." about a rare Buddhist Monastery exclusively for women in Nangchen, in remote northeastern Tibet. The photography is stunning.

Peter Askin's film, "Trumbo" will open the Full Frame Documentary Festival on April 3 in Durham, NC.  Based on the play written by Christopher Trumbo, the docu profiles "Spartacus" screenwriter Dalton Trumbo through readings of the famous scribe's letters by Joan Allen, Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, and Dustin Hoffman among others. Trumbo was a member of the blacklisted Hollywood 10 and served 10 months in federal prison for contempt of Congress.

His Oscar-winning script for "Roman Holiday" was written under a pseudonym.

"We are honored to present the U.S. premiere of 'Trumbo' as the opening night film at the 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival," said Peg Palmer, exec director of Full Frame.  "This film is a stirring reminder of the struggle and high price some pay for freedom of speech.  With the recent Writer's Guild of America strike, we are even more keenly aware of the power of words and the impact a writer's absence can have on our entertainment culture."

Full Frame will run April 3-6.

Photo:  Dalton Trumbo in his favorite writing location, courtesy of Mitzi Trumbo.

The Full Frame Docmentary Film Festival in Durham, NC, will preem Dan Klores' new doc "Black Magic" in a Festival Preview Benefit on February 11. While the fest will host the theatrical version, the full doc will run on ESPN in a four-hour, two-part commercial free series.  Klores last film, "Crazy Love," was acquired at Sundance 2007 by Magnolia.

"Black Magic" is about the lives of black basketball players during the Civil Rights Movement.  Samuel L. Jackson and Wynton Marsalis contribute as narrators.  Basketball legends Earl Monroe and Al Attles will attend the screening with Klores.

Full Frame runs April 3-6, 2008.

Artistic director Nancy Buirski is stepping down from the festival she founded in 1998, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, based in Durham, NC.  She'll continue as a consultant and will curate a special sidebar for the 2008 fest, running April 3-6.

Wanting to return to her creative roots, Buirski is looking to create a fund for doc and fiction films.