Presentations by Recipients of the Certificate in Documentary Studies

CDS > Events > Presentations by Recipients of the Certificate in Documentary Studies

Photo of slide lecture "Walker Evans at 100"

Friday, December 15, 7 p.m.
Certificate in Documentary Studies Program Final Project Presentations

DIRECTIONS: http://cds.aas.duke.edu/about/here.html

A RECEPTION will follow the presentations.

Documentary Projects by:
Bria Dolnick, audio
John Michael Fisher, video
Elizabeth Sprague Holt, video
DeSheila A. Spann, photo and audio
Kathleen C. Wallace, video

On Friday, December 15, five students completing requirements for the Certificate in Documentary Studies, a program of the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University in collaboration with Duke Continuing Studies, will present their final documentary projects in photography, audio, and video (project descriptions are listed below). The presentations will begin at 7 p.m. in the CDS Auditorium, followed by a reception.

In addition to celebrating the work of the certificate students, this event is also a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the Certificate in Documentary Studies. The certificate program offers courses in photography, audio, video, oral history, documentary writing, multimedia documentary, and community documentary work. Certificate students must complete a minimum of six courses, including an introduction to documentary studies methods and ethics and a capstone seminar, which focuses on final project completion and presentation. Participants may also earn credit toward the certificate in weeklong summer intensive institutes. For more information on the certificate program, contact Dawn Dreyer, CDS Learning Outreach Director, at 919-660-3680 or April Walton, CDS Learning Outreach Coordinator, at 919-660-367.

Banana Pudding / Audio
Bria Dolnick
In two audio pieces, Bria Dolnick uses Southern-style banana pudding as a lens to explore Southern culture and American identity. In one piece, she explores her experience as Midwesterner traveling to Fulton, Kentucky, where the largest banana pudding in the world was constructed annually until 1992. The second piece is a narrative built from interviews she conducted with diverse banana pudding makers and at banana pudding-related events in North Carolina. She chose to explore banana pudding, she says, because it is a Southern food that is common among diverse groups that are otherwise often stratified by race, class, and geography. “By bringing people together to talk about how this food intersects with their personal experience, I hope to shed light on the diverse and complicated experiences of Americans within the same region, and to start a discussion about home and native place.”

The Long Road Back / Video
John Michael Fisher
The Long Road Back is the heartfelt story of one woman’s determination to regain her life following a twenty-year period of drug addiction. The film examines her courageous efforts to rebuild the trust that she had lost with her now teenage daughter as well as the new role that she has taken on as an outspoken advocate for former drug addicts. Her story is one of hope and provides a frank, candid, and personal perspective on what it takes to climb back from what she herself describe as “rock bottom.”

You Won’t Forget Me, Will You? / Video
Elizabeth Sprague Holt
The filmmaker’s mother is ninety years old and is a resident in an Alzheimer’s care wing of a local nursing home. She has seen a long life and has a lot of stories about the past. But she has no more independence to do even the simplest things on her own, and no apparent ability to make new memories. The strongest memories she has are good ones, of love and family, and the music she made as a singer in her younger days. “My mother asks my sister and me at times, ‘You won’t forget me, will you?’ It’s an ironic question because she’s the one with the memory loss, yet she worries that her memory, in the other sense of the word, will be lost; that she will cease to exist in, and for, us.”

Metamorphosis: The Evolution of Brian T. Hines / Photography and Audio
DeSheila A. Spann
A master barber prepares to open a new salon. As he deals with city planners, contractors, and landlords, he reflects on his past and the experiences that guided him to be the artist and the businessman he is today. Metamorphosis: The Evolution of Brian T. Hines is a documentary examining the life of master barber B. T. Hines, in particular his experiences as he prepares to open a second salon in Raleigh, North Carolina, named Metamorphosis Suite. Interviews with Hines and his customers give insight into his passion for creative work and what has made him successful through the years. Captured through black-and-white photography and recorded interviews, the documentary examines how one man evolved to be the true artist he is today and continues to grow as an individual, creative mind, and visionary.

Dare to Dream Big / Video
Kathleen C. Wallace
Dare to Dream Big is a film about the Durham Nativity School (DNS) and a group of young men whose dedication and optimism serve to inspire us all. DNS is an extended-day, extended-year, tuition-free program for underserved middle-school boys that is designed to educate future leaders of Durham. The filmmaker has been part of these young men’s lives for the past eight months. In making this film, she has had the opportunity to participate in their selection process, sponsor a Friday afternoon film club, accompany them to the Rescue Mission for service learning projects, attend their sporting events, meet their families, and grow to care for them as individuals, students, and future leaders. The film illustrates the philosophy of the founder, faculty, staff, parents, and many volunteers of DNS who believe the words of Willa Cather, “Where there is great love there are always miracles.”

banner image:

Professor Alex Harris during a slide lecture accompanying the fall 2003 exhibition, Walker Evans at 100. Photograph by Christopher Sims.

Center for Documentary Studies
1317 W. Pettigrew Street
Durham, NC 27705

telephone: (919) 660-3663
fax: (919) 681-7600
email: docstudies@duke.edu

See: directions to the Center for Documentary Studies

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