Full Frame Dispatch. 2.

Overcast weather was no deterrent to Full Frame attendees on Day Two. After all, what better to do on a rainy Friday than hole up and binge on a bunch of movies? Also, with the exception of new site Weaver Auditorium at the Durham School of the Arts a couple blocks away, Full Frame takes place in a cinematic habitrail of venues, anchored by the majestic Carolina Theatre.

The cinetrix started her five-feature day with Neither Memory Nor Magic [site], a moving portrait of Hungarian poet Miklos Radnoti, whose poems survived the Holocaust that took his life. Beautifully shot in locations ranging from Budapest to the Serbian countryside, the film assembles an astonishing array of archival materials, survivors, and scholars and a wrenching, controversial ending.

During the post-screening Q&A, filmmaker Hugo Perez commented that his film was "conceived" at Full Frame four years ago. Then-PR director Sally Ann Curtin pulled him aside and insisted he talk with Greg Carr, who later became Magic's producer. (In the spirit of full disclosure, Perez also was one of the first people the cinetrix met when she started coming to the festival four years ago.)

Restrooms, coffee kiosks, and ticket lines serve as a sort of Arab street at Full Frame. Eavesdropping and striking up conversations with cinema-inclined strangers are musts. The cinetrix came across women wiping away tears after the double bill My Daughter the Terrorist [site] and To See If I'm Smiling. Later on she overheard a group of college students plotting to approach director Christopher Bell after his Bigger, Stronger, Faster screened [site].

During Trouble the Water [site], a crowd favorite, spontaneous applause broke out after Kim Rivers's song "Amazing." Along with The Axe in the Attic [site], the Sundance fave also stands as a continuation of Full Frame's long-time committment to documenting the post-Katrina stories of the Gulf Coast, which began with a Southern Sidebar program assembled an astonishing eight months after the storm hit.

Among the evening programs, Alex Gibney's portrait of Hunter S Thompson, Gonzo. and a film about a kindred anarchic spirit, Lucio [site], drew the biggest crowds. The latter, which sold out, was introduced as one of the advisory board's favorites, and the cinetrix was in a prime position to observe member Ariel Dorfman chuckling all over again at the story of Lucio Urtubia, a simple bricklayer whose sophisticated forgeries of IDs and currency fueled insurgencies and brought Citibank to its knees. Full Frame is not about wheeling and dealing, but the cinetrix hopes some clever distributor picks up Lucio for stateside distribution.

It's time to duck in to another screening - the cinetrix will save you a seat.

Posted by dwhudson at April 5, 2008 1:22 PM