Overview

On a regular basis, the Center for Documentary Studies and the Southern Documentary Fund invite documentary artists to share their work in progress or recently finished projects with an enthusiastic and supportive audience. Please join us for this ongoing conversation about documentary work in its many forms. A happy-hour gathering, Docudropby4fun, will start at 6:30 p.m. before Fresh Docs. Presentations are followed by a moderated conversation about the work.






Upcoming Fresh Docs

The Spring 2009 Fresh Docs season will include:

Friday, April 24, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Childless by Choice Project
by Laura S. Scott

This documentary video is a journey of discovery to find out how and why, in the midst of a Hollywood baby boom, millions of couples in North America are choosing to remain childless. Filmmaker Laura Scott finds couples who are on the fence or are opting out – navigating in a society that presumes parenthood for all, and tackling issues as prickly and diverse as gender identity, voluntary sterilization, social isolation, self-determination, and the specter of regret. http://www.childlessbychoiceproject.com/Home_Page.html

Laura S. Scott is a writer and producer of nonfiction media and film narrative. Her career began in fashion as an entrepreneur – she founded two fashion agencies – and then she worked in publishing, as an editor and publisher of an entertainment magazine. She later turned her attention to writing, first as a freelance writer, editor, and journalist and then as a screenwriter, winning the Virginia Film Office Governor’s Screenwriting Competition with her first feature screenplay. Scott is the founder and facilitator of BRADS (the Blue Ridge Association of Dramatists and Screenwriters) and one of the founding members of Spectrum: Women United for Diversity.

In 2004 Scott embarked on the Childless by Choice Project, which explores the emerging demographic of the intentionally childless in North America and answers the question: What happens when parenthood moves from an assumption to a decision? For the project, Scott conducted an independent survey over two years and completed more than thirty in-depth interviews with childless-by-choice couples and social scientists, demographers, historians, and authors. The resulting film is currently in production and the book, titled Childless by Choice: Moving Beyond the Assumption of Parenthood, is contracted to be published by Seal Press, a member of the Perseus Books group, in the fall of 2009.



Friday, May 1, 2009
7:30 p.m.
A Life of Coal
Photographs by Ken Hassell

A Life of Coal is a documentary project researched and created in collaboration with the people of central Appalachia. The sole purpose of this work is to engage audiences in deeper and more appreciative understanding of the people and issues of the region, to begin to view Appalachia less as an atypical and “primitive” aberration and more as an intensely post-colonialist microcosm of human and political issues in low-income communities throughout the United States. The people from this region have been and continue to be the butt of fierce stereotypes of incest, ignorance, bestiality, substance abuse and, generally, wanton behavior. This project is intended to help assuage those demeaning concepts through exhibitions, presentations, lectures, and writing on the complexity and diversity of mountain cultures.

Ken Hassell, chair of the Art Department at Elon University, has received numerous grants and fellowships from the Southern Arts Federation, North Carolina Arts Council, and Elon University, among other organization. His active exhibition and visiting artist schedule includes a wide range of venues, from the traditional white cube (gallery) to small-town community centers. These include The Light Factory, Virginia Intermont College, Fairmont State College, and the towns of Dante and Wise, Virginia. He has also presented his research at conferences, including the Society for Photographic Education and the Appalachian Studies Association. The Nantahala Review, an online journal, features his images, text, and oral commentary in an interactive, podcast site.



Friday, May 15, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Certificate in Documentary Studies Final Presentations

Students in the Final Seminar in Documentary Studies, taught by Nancy Kalow, will present their photography, audio, and video projects to a public audience. These students are completing the Certificate in Documentary Studies program, a series of continuing education courses offered by CDS.



Thursday, May 28, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Doxita II
Curated by Karen Cirillo

Doxita is a traveling festival of documentary films curated by Karen Cirillo. The program, approximately two hours of short films, represents a wide variety of documentaries – domestic and foreign, super-short and longer format, serious and funny.  It is designed to profile the great content and artistic vision that nonfiction short films provide, but that people don’t often get a chance to see. 

This season’s theme is All in a Day’s Work. Four films are included:

Wood (USA, David Fenster, 21 min.) – Beautifully shot images of a Northwest logging company and stories from its employees form this elegy to a rapidly disappearing type of labor that includes pride in work, generational history, and physical labor.

Shika Shika (USA, Stephen Hyde, 10 min.) – Filmed in the Peruvian Andes, this spirited film follows one family that for three generations has scaled the mountains to “harvest” ice for shika shika, a colorful shaved ice treat they sell in the market.

Breadmakers (UK, Yasmin Fedda, 11 min.) – A tender portrait of a unique community of workers with disabilities who produce organic breads for delivery in Edinburgh.
Watching the bread-making is mesmerizing and observing the intricate social relationships is touching.

The Tailor (Spain, Oscar Perez, 31 min.) – In a small shop in Barcelona, Pakistani tailor Mohamed holds court over mounds of plastic bags containing customers’ clothing. His unique customer service and relationship with his Indian assistant make for fascinating, and comical, observation.

How To Submit

We are currently seeking work for future Fresh Docs: Works in Progress sessions. Please contact April Walton at the Center for Documentary Studies (awalton@duke.edu or telephone 919-660-3670) to propose your project.






banner image:

Illustration by Keith Norval


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