Full Frame.

"It's day two of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and the cinetrix just met Walter Mosley." Bill Clinton's favorite author's had a hand in the "Why War?" series at the fest and the cinetrix notes: "Driving here yesterday, I passed a billboard on I-85 that boasted that North Carolina was the most military-friendly state in the nation, which makes the slate of war docs hit harder, sting more, somehow." Among the film's reviewed in that deceptively casual style of hers: Occupation: Dreamland (the cinetrix points to Merle Bertrand's Film Threat rave), Barbara Kopple's Bearing Witness (also screening at hotdocs) and the eight-minute short, Getting Through to the President (trailer).

More Full Frame: The Independent Weekly comes through with capsule reviews of 40 of the 78 films in competition. Also:

• Neil Morris asks, "Can the largest documentary showcase in the United States continue to expand without sacrificing its intimacy?" Mention is made of Scorsese's presentations - and more capsules follow.

• David Fellerath talks with Roger Manley, who used to live in Durham but has since been traveling around the world making Mana: Beyond Belief, "a sly film" about "power objects" and the people who believe in them.

• Fiona Morgan explains the crippling impact of current copyright law on doc-makers and points - it can't be mentioned enough - to Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi's report for the Center for Social Media, "Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary Filmmakers."

Posted by dwhudson at April 9, 2005 8:57 AM