The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has unveiled the Official Selections for its 25th edition, to be held online April 7-10. Of the 37 films featured in the NEW DOCS and Invited Program sections, 19 are directed or co-directed by women or nonbinary filmmakers — a ratio of about 51 percent.
Thirty titles are included in the NEW DOCS lineup, and therefore eligible for juried cash awards. Nineteen are from women or nonbinary directors, amounting to roughly 53 percent. Among the docs screening are “BABYBANGZ,” Juliana Kasumu’s portrait of a New Orleans hair salon owner, and “Freedom Hill,” Resita Cox’x look at Princeville, North Carolina, the first town incorporated by freed, formerly enslaved African Americans, which is now being threatened by climate change. Joannie Lafrenière’s “Gabor,” following photography master Gabor Szilasi, is also included in the program.
Of the Invited section’s seven offerings — which are screening out of competition — three are directed or co-directed by women or nonbinary filmmakers, or about 43 percent. They are Violet Columbus and Ben Klein’s “The Exiles,” Jessica Edwards’ “Skate Dreams,” and Yaara Bou Melhem’s “Unseen Skies.” “The Exiles” sees documentarian Christine Choy looking for three exiled Tiananmen Square dissidents in the hopes of moving on from a film she started 30 years ago but never finished. “Skate Dreams” traces the rise of women’s skateboarding, while “Unseen Skies” examines the current state of surveillance and showcases an artist’s resistance to it.
“I am humbled by the range of experiences revealed on screen — the palpable tenderness, violence, pain, strength, vulnerability, and resolve witnessed in these works,” Full Frame interim festival director and artistic director Sadie Tillery said of the 2022 lineup. “And I am equally moved by the commitment and artistry displayed by the filmmakers, who have realized these stories in truly remarkable ways.”
The Official Selections from women and nonbinary directors are below. Head over to Full Frame’s website for the complete lineup.
NEW DOCS
Aftershock / United States (Directors: Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee; Producers: Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee)
Following the preventable deaths of their partners due to childbirth complications, two bereaved fathers galvanize activists, birth-workers and physicians to reckon with one of the most pressing American crises of our time—the U.S. maternal health crisis.
BABYBANGZ / United States (Director: Juliana Kasumu; Producer: Juliana Kasumu)
Anastasia Ebel, owner of the BABYBANGZ hair salon in Mid-City, New Orleans, reflects on her continuing desire to cultivate spaces of intentional reflection for both herself and her New Orleans community.
Eat Your Catfish / United States, Spain, Turkey (Directors: Adam Isenberg, Noah Amir Arjomand, Senem Tüzen; Producers: Adam Isenberg, Noah Amir Arjomand, Senem Tüzen)
Kathryn’s ALS has left her paralyzed and her family’s relationships in tatters, but she holds on to see her daughter’s wedding. With dark humor and extraordinary intimacy, this film probes the breakdown of a family’s bonds and of a woman’s will to live.
Freedom Hill / United States (Director: Resita Cox; Producer: Resita Cox)
Princeville, North Carolina, is the first town incorporated by freed, formerly enslaved Africans in America. This historical site sits on a precipice: It is gradually being washed away. World Premiere
Gabor / Canada (Director: Joannie Lafrenière; Producer: Line Sander Egede)
Gabor is a quirky, feel-good portrait of Gabor Szilasi, the 94-year-old giant of Canadian contemporary photography. This uplifting immigrant story is an inspiring lesson on how to grow old with elegance and dignity. U.S. Premiere
Kameelah Janan Rasheed: The Edge of Legibility / United States (Director: Carrie Hawks; Producer: Art21; Series Producer: Nick Ravich)
Immersed in books since childhood, acclaimed text-based artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed is fascinated by the written word and its power to both define and destabilize how we understand the world. With a close-up style mirroring Kameelah’s own preoccupation with the fragmentary and barely legible, this film explores the artist’s expansive ideas and miniaturist process in her Brooklyn home studio.
Mama Bears / United States (Director: Daresha Kyi; Producers: Laura Tatham, Daresha Kyi)
This film is an intimate, thought-provoking exploration of the journeys taken by Sara Cunningham and Kimberly Shappley, two “mama bears”—conservative, Christian mothers whose profound love for their LGBTQ+ children has turned them into fierce advocates for the entire queer community—and Tammi Terrell Morris, a young African American lesbian whose struggle for self-acceptance exemplifies why the mama bears are so vitally important.
The Martha Mitchell Effect / United States (Directors: Anne Alvergue, Debra McClutchy; Producers: Beth Levison, Judith Mizrachy)
She was once as famous as Jackie O, and then she tried to take down a president. Martha Mitchell was the unlikeliest of whistleblowers: a Republican wife who was discredited by Nixon to keep her quiet. Until now.
Mija / United States (Director: Isabel Castro; Producers: Isabel Castro, Tabs Breese)
Doris Muñoz is an ambitious young music manager whose undocumented family depends on her ability to launch pop stars. When she loses her biggest client, Doris hustles to discover new talent and finds Jacks—another daughter of immigrants for whom “making it” isn’t just a dream, it’s a necessity.
Move Me / United States (Directors: Kelsey Peterson, Daniel Klein; Producers: Kelsey Peterson, Daniel Klein)
At 27, Kelsey Peterson, the film’s co-director, dove into Lake Superior and emerged paralyzed. Now, the former dancer has an opportunity to dance again but is grappling with a decision to participate in a cutting-edge clinical trial, which forces her to confront hope and acceptance, body and spirit. World Premiere
The Panola Project / United States (Directors: Rachael DeCruz, Jeremy S. Levine; Producers: Rachael DeCruz, Jeremy S. Levine, Yara Bishara, Melissa Fajardo)
The Panola Project chronicles the journey of Dorothy Oliver to get the people of her small town of Panola, Alabama, vaccinated. Nearly 99 percent of Panola’s adults have now received the shot in a state with one of the lowest vaccination rates in the U.S. The film illuminates how an often-overlooked rural Black community comes together in creative ways to survive.
The Silent Shore / France (Directors: Nathalie Giraud, Timothée Corteggiani; Producers: Anne Bruneau, Nathalie Giraud, Timothée Corteggiani)
Famous fantasy author Pierre Dubois and his wife, Aline, talk about the loss of their teenage daughter, Melanie, who committed suicide after a heartbreak.
To Know Her / United States, Hong Kong (Director: Natalie A. Chao; Producer: Natalie A. Chao)
Filmed decades apart on the same miniDV camcorder, To Know Her is a poetic exploration of a family’s relationship with the filmmaker’s mother.
Video Visit / United States (Director: Malika Zouhali-Worrall; Producer: Malika Zouhali-Worrall)
Each week, scores of people visit the Brooklyn Public Library to see their incarcerated loved ones via free video calls. Video Visit tells the story of two mothers and their sons, as well as the librarians who negotiate daily to keep the families connected.
What We Leave Behind / United States, Mexico (Director: Iliana Sosa; Producers: Emma D. Miller, Iliana Sosa)
After a lifetime of bus rides to the U.S. to visit his children, Julián quietly starts building a house in rural Mexico. In filming his work, his granddaughter crafts a personal and poetic love letter to him and his homeland.
ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught) / United States (Director: Brit Hensel; Producers: Taylor Hensel, Adam Mazo, Kavita Pillay, Tracy Rector)
Filmed on the Qualla Boundary and Cherokee Nation, ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught) explores expressions of reciprocity in the Cherokee world, which are brought to life through an elder and first language speaker’s story. Circling an intersection of tradition, language, and land, with a commitment to maintaining balance, this film was created in collaboration with independent artists from both the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
INVITED PROGRAM
The Exiles / United States, Taiwan, France, China (Directors: Violet Columbus, Ben Klein; Producers: Maria Chiu, Violet Columbus, Ben Klein)
Documentarian Christine Choy tracks down three exiled dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre in order to find closure on a film she began shooting in 1989 but then abandoned.
Skate Dreams / United States, Japan, Cambodia (Director: Jessica Edwards; Producers: Erin Owens, Jessica Edwards)
Skate Dreams, the first feature documentary about the rise of women’s skateboarding, profiles a group of women whose pursuit of self-expression, equality, and freedom have created an international movement of independence and empowerment.
Unseen Skies / United States (Director: Yaara Bou Melhem; Producer: Yaara Bou Melhem)
Director Yaara Bou Melhem’s Unseen Skies explores the evolution of state and corporate surveillance. Her docu-journey follows celebrated visionary artist Trevor Paglen on one of his most audacious projects to date—the launching of an artwork into space to show that our skies are more than the exclusive playground of the military-industrial complex.
