NYWIFT Blog

By Terry Greenberg

There I was, in Durham, North Carolina, visiting my husband’s relatives for the weekend. While strolling through town Friday afternoon, we stopped into the Durham Hotel for a moment to check out the lobby. Lo and behold, I saw a camera crew, a small crowd, and a sign that said, “Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.” Although I was familiar with the festival, I had no idea it was taking place that weekend. I was very excited! I thought to myself, “Surely, I must know someone in this NYC-looking group,” and a moment later, I spotted the documentary filmmaker Doug Block. I went up to him and introduced myself and we had a lovely chat about the festival.

(Photos by Terry Greenberg)

As we were only there for the weekend and our flight home was at 2:47PM Sunday afternoon, my husband and I quickly perused the film schedule to see what we could possibly squeeze in between relative visits and the beautiful Duke Gardens, which were in full spring splendor. There was a great sounding film from the 1960’s on Sunday morning at 10:00AM (SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE), which we managed to snag tickets for, and off we went!

Left: Terry Greenberg in the Duke Gardens; Right: The “last minute line” was key to getting into last minutes screenings!

Before the screening started, there was a mention onscreen of a tribute honoring the late documentary filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning photo editor of The New York Times, Nancy Buirski, who had founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 26 years ago. Nancy was also a NYWIFT member, and I was very lucky to have met her during the New York Film Festival several years ago. This was especially moving to me as we had just included her in the “In Memoriam” presentation at the Muse Awards in March.

To sum up my serendipitous film weekend experience, Durham is a lovely town, and Full Frame was a lot of fun. Next year, I plan to get my tickets in advance!