Please read in a southern accent

I've just returned from a rainy weekend in Durham North Carolina where I attended my first ever Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. My mom grew up in Durham and my grandparents and other family lived there so I have a bunch of lovely childhood memories of the place. My cousin and his wife still live there and they seem to think it's a crime ridden haunt, but that's another opinion. Anyway it was very interesting to come back to a place like this (childhood memories) for a film festival (adult occupation.)

Well the verdict in a nutshell was that I was absolutely delighted by the festival. Such a refreshing change of pace from the frantic corporate sponsored events I had attended in other locales. The whole place seemed to be melding high minded cinema with a southern genteel charm. (The same southern charm I normally find unsettling but oddly this time not so much.)

I saw almost 20 films over the weekend, a few I really liked. Probably my favorite was the doc BIGGER, FASTER STRONGER by Chris Bell. It was sort of similar to the doc HECKLER in how it starts with a narrow premise and evolves to a larger thesis. While HECKLER began with hecklers and then expanded to discuss criticism in general, BFS starts off talking about steroid use and grows to become an examination of America's desire to succeed at any cost and even the general hypocritical nature of our society overall. Bell's film also does this while both maintaining sweetly personal tone and a cheeky sense of humor. Bravo.

That's just one highlight of the weekend. Well done Full Frame you've given me the vapors, please invite me back next year for another mint julep.