At a graduation event at the Full Frame Theater, eleven Continuing Education students at the Center for Documentary Studies will present their final projects to the public and receive their Certificate in Documentary Arts, having completed a structured sequence of courses culminating with a Final Seminar taught by filmmaker Randolph Benson. During the course, students finish a substantial documentary work—projects that often move out into the world in the form of exhibits, installations, screenings, websites, audio features, and more.
Friday, December 12, 6:30 p.m.
Full Frame Theater, American Tobacco Campus
320 Blackwell St., Durham, North Carolina
Directions
Note that while this event is free and open to the public, all attendees must reserve a ticket via Eventbrite, available beginning at 9 a.m. on the day of the event. Ticketing details are available here.
Congratulations to Lomax Boyd, Nancy Crute, Leslie Cunningham, Patricia Daggett, Valeria Elliott, Ernest Bryant Hernandez, Luke Hirst, Shelia Huggins, Marc Menish, Fay Mitchell, and Trace Ramsey. Here, the Certificate in Documentary Arts graduates and their projects:
Lomax Boyd | Becoming Dr. Towers | Video
Scientific training grooms students to adopt a hypercritical point of view. While the fruits of that process are all around us, they carry unexpected and darker consequences for the researchers themselves. Becoming Dr. Towers chronicles the inner conflict of a young Mormon at the beginning of his scientific studies in graduate school.
Lomax Boyd, trained as a research scientist, is fascinated by the complexity of biological systems. Enthralled by the power of documentary film to transport audiences into the lives of others, he adopted CDS as his home away from the laboratory. After completing his Ph.D. in developmental neurobiology, he hopes to use documentary to help build stronger bridges between science and society.
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Nancy Crute | Making Room for What Matters | Audio and Photography
What started out as a photographic inquiry of Bridget the cow became the story of the relationship between Cheryl and the cows that found her, an account of one woman’s conscious choice to love and the bravery to live her truth. Cheryl took a leap of faith and followed her heart from working a job in the computer industry to maintaining a forty-acre farm and living close to the land. As Cheryl began this spiritual journey, influenced by the teachings of the Lakota people, a life of value began to unfold before her. Little did Cheryl know, by making room for what matters, she was making room for the cows to come home. Cheryl’s story is one of grace, love, hope, and respect for the cows, because they matter.
Nancy Crute works as an art-based psychotherapist and emergency room social worker. She has a deep love of photography and of hearing people’s stories. Her career has taught her the gift of truly listening, and so she does.
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Leslie Cunningham | JIG SHOW: Leon Claxton’s Harlem in Havana | Video
Step Right Up, Folks! America’s most successful traveling show is back! In the untold story of an American jig show, filmmaker Leslie Cunningham takes viewers on a magical journey under the biggest tent on the world’s largest carnival midway to uncover the legend of Leon Claxton’s Harlem in Havana, the epic black and Cuban musical revue that had a profound impact on North American entertainment in ways that still resonate today.
Leslie Cunningham is an independent filmmaker, artist, writer, and owner of TRIBES Entertainment, a digital media and film production company based in Durham. Her films include M.I.: A Different Kind of Girl, Triangle Black Pride, and Domestic Violence: Healing Through Spoken Word. JIG SHOW: Leon Claxton’s Harlem in Havana is her second feature-length documentary. Visit jigshow.com.
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Patricia Daggett | The Sand Hill Incident | Writing
The Sand Hill Incident is based on the brief memoir of a young teacher in rural Georgia who found herself at the center of a short-lived political crisis in the mid-1940s because she dared to teach contemporary scientific research in support of racial equality.
Pat Daggett recently retired after nearly forty-five years in the computer industry. In 2002, she decided to make better use of the other side of her brain and pursued a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree at Duke University, where she discovered a talent for historical research and rediscovered a love of writing. Upon completing her master’s, she enrolled in the Certificate in Documentary Arts program at CDS with the goal of using personal stories as a lens through which to view larger events in the history of the American South.
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Valeria Elliott | The Mokovi Project | Multimedia
One of the easiest and quickest ways to learn a second language is to connect to stories. Mokovi is an online platform for practicing Spanish through video stories featuring Spanish speakers living in the United States. My goal is to create an online community that can immerse language learners in the Spanish language and culture regardless of whether they plan to travel abroad or regularly have personal interactions with native speakers. I believe that learning a second language is a transformational experience that helps us embrace other cultures and better understand the human experience. Filmmaking is the perfect vehicle to make language learning accessible to a wide range of people, regardless of their formal education or ability to travel.
Valeria Elliott is a documentarian and educator who uses video and multimedia in innovative and engaging programs to teach Spanish. A former international lawyer turned social entrepreneur, she earned a Master of Arts in International Affairs degree from Ohio University, an LL.M. in American and Comparative Law from the University of Denver, and a J.D. from the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Argentina. She has been a visiting scholar at University of California–Berkeley and the University of Colorado College of Law. She has spoken on issues of foreign language acquisition and cross-cultural skills at conferences in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Her teaching and academic work have been featured on TV and radio, including Univisión and Colorado Public Radio, as well as in print media such as U.S. News & World Report and the Associated Press.
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Ernest Bryant Hernandez | The Reel Journey | Video
The Reel Journey, about my struggle to become a filmmaker/producer and an actor, is a behind-the-scenes look at the multiple skills and activities that go into making an indie film. It’s also meant to give future documentarians, filmmakers, and others a bird’s-eye view of what it’s like to produce a film in terms of equipment, set locations, permit requirements, safety, actors, crewmembers, and the inevitable personal disagreements that arise during production. The Reel Journey brings to light several complicated factors I faced in film production, like stunt coordination, how complaints were handled, the leadership of the director, and my determination to keep going despite all the struggles and frustrations. In the end, realizing your vision and that of your actor friends and crewmembers is what makes it all worthwhile.
Ernest Bryant Hernandez was born and raised in Miami. While pursuing his Certificate in Documentary Arts at CDS he wrote, acted in, and produced a TV pilot (Miami Vida) and a movie (Miamiopolis), both of which are currently undergoing a final edit. His goal is to use both documentary and fiction to bring awareness to current environmental issues and to depict diversity and multiculturalism in society. In Miamiopolis, he uses the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan to create a story about misinformation and deception on the part of world governments. In Miami Vida, he brings the diversity and culture of South Florida to life. At present, he studies the Uta Hagen acting method with Marc Durso, director of Act True. He has a Master Certificate in Business Management from Tulane University.
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Luke Hirst | If There Is Such a Thing | Audio and Photography
If There Is Such a Thing is a series of portraits and oral histories of Triangle residents who identify as lesbian, gay, queer, or transgender that focuses on the words the participants use to describe themselves. Their reflections offer a glimpse into the myriad ways people take on (and reject) identities. These stories of (often obligatory) self-categorization complicate the common perception of a singular, “born this way” LGBTQ community consisting of lives that can be summed up in a letter of the acronym. As one participant said: “We use this word ‘community’ as if there is such a thing.”
Luke Hirst has been taking classes at CDS off and on for the past fourteen years and has explored the genres of film, photography, writing, and oral history. Luke strives to create collaborative projects that foster connection and hope. Luke has recently used documentary skills as the oral history coordinator for the Heirs to a Fighting Tradition project and as cofounder of an initiative with the mission to collect and share Durham’s vibrant LGBTQ history.
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Shelia Huggins | Remnants and Revival: A Conversation in Images | Audio and Photography
I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t remember my parents mentioning anything about it. I only knew that the neighborhood I grew up in was changing, and I knew I had to capture it.
Shelia Huggins has been photographing places for almost thirty years, starting in the 1980s with pictures of the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Since then, her portfolio has grown to include cities like Chicago, New York, and Boston. Now she has returned home to capture the transformation taking place in Greenville, North Carolina, as the development of a transportation corridor changes the landscape of the community. Interested in what she calls the “genealogy of place,” with Remnants and Revival she shares pieces of the past and hope for the future.
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Marc Menish | Dance of the People: Spirit of the Green Grass Cloggers | Video
Prior to 1971, most precision clogging teams in North Carolina performed in a similar traditional style. The Green Grass Cloggers, founded by East Carolina University students, sidestepped many staid conventions and sparked a shift within the greater clogging community. Forty-four years on, with some of its members facing physical decline, it is clear that younger dancers are needed to maintain the Green Grass legacy—dancers with their own sense of what it means to be a clogger. This documentary explores this pivotal point in the team’s rich history.
Marc Menish, an associate professor of interdisciplinary cultural studies in Japan, came to CDS motivated by a strong desire to incorporate nonfiction film techniques in his university classes. Duke’s proximity to the southern Appalachian region, with its robust musical and dance traditions, inspired him to seek out a story that demonstrates the powerful hold these traditions have on their followers. (Bonus: He can now play “Cripple Creek” on a five-string banjo with his daughter, Clara, on the fiddle.)
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Fay Mitchell | Artistry and Athletics | Video
Athletes are much admired and celebrated in our sports-steeped American culture, but one group of athletes is much less widely adored. This film explores the question of whether dancers are indeed athletes and examines the reasons for the larger public’s disconnect with these performers. Long years of training, discipline, and focused effort are required of both dancers and sports competitors, but the rewards, and renown, are very different. A collection of participants and observers from the worlds of dance and sports discuss the similarities and differences between the two realms and raise the question of whether athletes should be considered artists. See what conclusion you reach.
Fay Mitchell grew up in rural eastern North Carolina and attended UNC–Chapel Hill, where her interest in sports was fueled by the Carolina/Duke/N.C. State rivalries. Her subsequent experience of the arts in an academic setting, and later the arrival of the American Dance Festival in Durham, made her keenly aware of the differences, in terms of composition and intensity, between sports and dance audiences. In her work as a radio reporter, she discovered that seemingly disparate groups are often quite similar, though they cling to ideas of the “other.” This project’s exploration of the commonalities between notionally distinct individuals and groups reflects her role as a “synthesizer.” She came to CDS in 2010 to expand her reporting to the world of film.
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Trace Ramsey | Carrying Capacity | Writing
Carrying Capacity is a book of essays about ancestral mythology, recovery from depression and substance abuse, and the disintegration of generational memory in the absence of physical evidence. Each of the chapters is both standalone and cumulative, built of memoir-style vignettes and named after streets the author has lived on during the past forty years. Carrying Capacity is strongly personal and reflective with the author, his partner, and their young child as its core.
Trace Ramsey is a writer and photographer. He lives in East Durham with his partner, Kristin, and their child, Tennessee. He writes the nonfiction essay zine Quitter, which has been compiled into the compendium Quitter: Good Luck Not Dying and published by Pioneers Press. Trace is not a talker.