Overview

On a regular basis, the Center for Documentary Studies and the Southern Documentary Fund invite documentary artists to share their work in progress 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. All Fresh Docs presentations begin at 7:30 p.m.; most last about thirty minutes and are followed by a moderated conversation about the work.

Most Fresh Docs are held on the last Friday of the month, though monthly Fresh Docs session do not always occur during the summer. Please see below for the latest information on upcoming Fresh Docs.






Upcoming Fresh Docs


Friday, March 28, 7:30 p.m.

The Mantra Trailer
by Sherri Lynn Wood
(Your mantra moment awaits—The Mantra Trailer will be at CDS, receiving mantras 6:30–7:30 p.m.)

The Soccer Project
by Rebekah Fergusson, Ryan White, Gwendolyn Oxenham, and Luke Boughen

This month's Fresh Docs: Work in Progress screening will be hosted by the Southern Documentary Fund (SDF). The guest facilitator will be SDF Board member Tom Whiteside (see bio below).

Two SDF projects will be featured: The Mantra Trailer by artist Sherri Wood and The Soccer Project, a documentary film by Rebekah Fergusson, Ryan White, Gwendolyn Oxenham, and Luke Boughen.

Parked at the intersection of imagination, evangelism, and propaganda, The Mantra Trailer is a traveling meditation space, recording studio, and vehicle for the mysterious broadcast of the peoples' spiritual and personal mantras. Rooted in southern American Bible-belt culture and the "new age," the Mantra Trailer provides an indigenous interface for the human voice within the context of globalization. A homeopathic remedy for the mass media slogans of the day, the Mantra Trailer focuses attention on the sayings people live by, one neighborhood and voice at a time. Please visit www.mantratrailer.com.

Sherri Lynn Wood is an improvisational quilt maker with a n M . F . A . in s culpture from Bard College and a m aster 's in t heological s tudies from Emory University. Most of her creative projects spring from her daily life experiences and quest for personal growth. She often invites others into the art - making process as a way of sharing interior realities and exploring civic relationships that can lead to personal and social change. She has a private practice working in her studio with people who are grieving or in transition to make functional improvisational quilts from the clothing of the deceased and the intimate materials of life. She is based in Durham, North Carolina.

Around the globe the only thing humans attend more than soccer games is church. The Soccer Project follows two players, Luke and Gwendolyn, as they abandon their jobs and travel the world in search of pick-up soccer games: impromptu scenes that arise anywhere, between anyone. The first leg of production for The Soccer Project took place last fall over three months of filming in South America. The film features soccer stories from across the continent: old men who play every Sunday morning in Santos, Brazil; gauchos who play in the countryside of Uruguay; prisoners in La Paz who play to pass the time. The stories are linked by Luke and Gwendolyn's reflections on their own soccer careers and relationship with the game as they travel from place to place. 

Rebekah Fergusson is a 2007 graduate of Duke University with a degree in English and a Certificate in Documentary Studies. Also a captain for Duke women's soccer, she received the Coaches Award in 2006. She has interned with the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham and the Empowerment Project in Chapel Hill, and worked as an instructor for the Center for Documentary Studies Video Institute. 

Ryan White is the owner of Tripod Media LLC. Most recently, he worked as associate producer for eight-time Emmy-winner Sherry Jones on pieces including Capitol Crimes (Bill Moyers, PBS) and Dead Wrong: Inside an Intelligence Meltdown (CNN). White graduated cum laude from Duke University in 2004 with a degree in literature and certificates in Documentary Studies and Film & Video. 

At sixteen, Gwendolyn Oxenham was the youngest Division 1 athlete in the history of the NCAA. She captained the Duke soccer team, led the team in assists, was an All-ACC selection, and was named Most Inspirational Player. She received her M.F.A. in creative writing at Notre Dame. She was the recipient of the Nicholas Sparks Prize, a $20,000 post-graduate grant to finish a first book. Oxenham graduated cum laude from Duke in 2004 with a degree in English and a Certificate in Documentary Studies. 

Before leaving for South America, Luke Boughen was working as an account executive for Lamar Advertising. A Notre Dame graduate and soccer player, Boughen was a Big East Academic All-Star for four years and was selected for the Student Athlete Academic Honors Program. Fluent in Portuguese, Boughen was an anthropology major who studied abroad and played daily pick-up soccer in Rio de Janeiro.

Tom Whiteside has been making, curating, and exhibiting film since 1979, when he graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures. Interests include experimental film, regional film history, and the intersection of motion pictures with music and fine arts. He worked as a visiting artist in the North Carolina Community College system for four years, and was an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. He was an Arts Administration Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., in 1990. Founder and director of Durham Cinematheque, he has presented more than sixty unique film programs in downtown Durham since 1991. His short film Conjure Bearden was part of the Romare Bearden exhibition at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in 2006, and was screened at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in 2007. He works as an audiovisual technician in Technical Services at Duke University. 

For more information on the Southern Documentary Fund:
http://southerndocumentaryfund.org/

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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