Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson will be feted at the 2016 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
Johnson will receive this year’s Tribute Award and have her 27-year career behind the camera showcased in a retrospective at the festival. Among the scheduled films is “Cameraperson,” her widely acclaimed documentary feature that premiered at Sundance last month.
Johnson’s previous directorial credits include the 2004 documentary “Deadline” (co-helmed with Katy Chevigny) and the HBO doc “Innocent Until Proven Guilty.” She has served as principal cinematographer on more than 40 feature-length nonfiction films, including Laura Poitras’ “Citizenfour,” “Asylum” and “The Oath.” She is also a frequent collaborator with Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, having shot the films “Outrage,” “This Film is Not Yet Rated,” “Derrida” and “The Invisible War.”
“I am enormously proud to celebrate Kirsten Johnson this year. Her undeniable talent is evident in so many exceptional films of the past few decades, and this Tribute allows us to highlight her incredible body of work,” commented Sadie Tillery, Full Frame’s Director of Programming. “Recognizing Kirsten’s impact as a cinematographer also allows us to acknowledge and discuss documentary as a collaborative art form and celebrate the essential role of the artist behind the lens.”
“What a magnificent and juicy thrill to be seen by Full Frame in this way!” added Johnson. “’Cameraperson’ is about trying to find ways to acknowledge how much is going on beyond the edges of the frame in documentary camerawork. Just the name Full Frame says it! It is a very full frame, indeed. Full Frame has always been a part of this collective tradition of searching to understand what happens to us when we are filmed, when we hold cameras, and when we share the pleasure of seeing anew. I can’t wait to share this experience of watching these films again with such an extraordinary group of people in a place where everyone cares so deeply about the past, present, and future of documentary work.”
The 19th Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held on April 7–10, 2016, in Durham, N.C.
