The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will honor who the festival describe as “three remarkable Americans who have impacted the art, issues and business of documentary filmmaking” at its 16th annual festival April 4-7, 2013. 

Full Frame will pay tribute to Jessica Yu’s visionary film work, has selected Amir Bar-Lev to curate the Thematic Program and will honor A&E IndieFilm’s Vice President Molly Thompson with the Advocate Award.

FULL FRAME TRIBUTE
The Full Frame Tribute will honor Academy Award® winning filmmaker Jessica Yu and will feature a retrospective of her work. Yu is a director of both documentaries and scripted work. Capturing profound stories, she has made bold choices in her films to embrace the experiences of the individuals she has documented. Yu will premiere her new documentary,“The Guide” at this year’s festival.

Featured selections in the Full Frame 2013 retrospective include:

“Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien” / Jessica Yu
Stricken with polio as a child and confined to an iron lung, one man refuses to let this limitation define his existence.

“The Guide” / Jessica Yu – World Premiere
Set in Mozambique, this new film examines the human side of environmental sustainability.

“The Kinda Sutra” / Jessica Yu
A whimsical mix of interview and animation depicts childhood confusion about where babies come from.

“In the Realms of the Unreal” / Jessica Yu
For decades, reclusive artist Henry Darger immersed himself in a magical world. This film brings his incredible fantasies to life.

“Last Call at the Oasis” / Jessica Yu
The world water crisis isn’t coming, it’s here. Cities are close to disaster and water wars have begun, but the good news—it’s still manageable.

“Meet Mr. Toilet” / Jessica Yu
Forty percent of the world population lacks access to a toilet. Businessman Jack Sim aims to break the taboos around talking about basic sanitation.

“Protagonist” / Jessica Yu
The distinct experiences of a reformed gay Christian, bank robber, martial artist, and terrorist are woven together to present universal themes.

“Sour Death Balls” / Jessica Yu
This black-and-white short captures a series of children’s and adult’s attempts to consume an extremely unpalatable candy.

FULL FRAME THEMATIC PROGRAM: STORIES ABOUT STORIES
Curated by award-winning filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev, the Full Frame 2013 Thematic Program, “Stories About Stories,” examines the intersections of truth and perspective through a series of films.

“Attending Full Frame, what always inspires me most is the infinite variety of approaches to storytelling,” said Bar-Lev. “Every documentary is a unique, thorny relationship – between filmmaker and ‘character,’ fact and representation, reality and story. As guest curator, I’ve selected a handful of films that wrestle, each in their own way, with the medium of documentary filmmaking itself.”

Amir Bar-Lev directed the documentary films “Fighter” (2001), “My Kid Could Paint That” (2007), and “The Tillman Story” (2010). He co-produced the documentary “Trouble The Water” (2008), which won the 2008 Full Frame Grand Jury Award and was a 2009 Academy Award® Nominee. Bar-Lev is currently directing “Happy Valley,” a film about the Penn State scandal. Bar-Lev served on the Full Frame Grand Jury in 2011.

“Driving Me Crazy” / Nick Broomfield
A disastrous attempt to document a play becomes a broader meditation on show business and the filmmaking process.

“F for Fake” / Orson Welles
Forgery, misrepresentation, and reinterpretation of past events swirl together in a kaleidoscopic illustration of fact and fiction.

“Fighter” / Amir Bar-Lev
As two friends, both survivors of Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, travel to revisit the past, they find the journey threatens their relationship.

“Forbidden Lie$” / Anna Broinowski
Con or artist? Nourma Khouri, author of a bestselling book about the honor killing of a friend, is accused of taking significant artistic liberties.

“A Man Vanishes” / Shôhei Imamura
A film crew sets out to discover what became of a Japanese salesman who disappeared in the 1960s.

“My Kid Could Paint That” / Amir Bar-Lev
Everything changes when there’s a suggestion that the celebrated paintings of a prodigy toddler may not be entirely hers.

“Operation Filmmaker” / Nina Davenport

Good intentions go terribly awry when the filmmakers of a Hollywood movie bring an aspiring filmmaker from Iraq to intern on set.

“Stories We Tell” / Sarah Polley
This extremely personal film tenderly exposes a deep family secret, revealing the various, and varied, recollections of everyone involved.

“Theater of War” / John Walter
A behind-the-scenes look at a modern production of Mother Courage and Her Children gives way to a nuanced examination of storytelling.

FULL FRAME ADVOCATE AWARD
Full Frame will honor A&E IndieFilm’s Vice President Molly Thompson with the Advocate Award. Thompson is devoted to the proliferation of the documentary medium and Full Frame is pleased to spotlight Thompson’s career and personal vision.

“I’m honored to be chosen for the Advocate’s Award,” said Thompson. “I’ve had so many rewarding experiences being part of Full Frame over the years. This festival offers the cream of the nonfiction crop, which is why I and all of us at A&E feel very lucky to be a part of it.”

Under Thompson’s guidance, A&E IndieFilms’ productions include the Oscar®-nominated, Sundance Award-winner “Murderball,” the Oscar®-nominated “Jesus Camp” and the Emmy Award-winners “The Tillman Story” and “Under African Skies.”  Thompson executive produced the division’s original productions including: “My Kid Could Paint That,” “American Teen,” “The September Issue,” “The Tillman Story” and “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.”  Thompson’s latest film for A&E IndieFilms, “The Imposter” was shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature in the 2012 Academy Awards®. It was also nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2012 Critic’s Choice Movie Awards and received two nominations for the 2013 EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) – Best Documentary and Outstanding Debut.  Thompson is a current member of the Full Frame Advisory Board.

The 16th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 4-7, 2013, in Durham, NC, with Duke University as the presenting sponsor.