This weekend would have marked the 23rd Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, a world-renowned celebration of nonfiction filmmaking. Although this year's festival was canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the festival website continues to provide information about the selected 2020 feature-length and short films that would have been a part of this year's festival. Festival organizers have also shared a list of past Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant Award winners (a prize that brings first-time documentary filmmakers to the festival) with information about where their films can now be streamed.
Current members of the Duke University community have access to a number of resources for streaming documentary films, beyond your own consumer subscriptions to platforms like Netflix and Hulu. If you'd like to host your own documentary film festival this weekend, here are some options available with a NetID, featuring some favorite titles from the Goodson Law Library's DVD collection:
Next year's Full Frame festival has been scheduled for April 8-11, 2021, but you can enjoy many documentaries online in the meantime using the resources above. For help with accessing Duke databases, be sure to Ask a Librarian.
Current members of the Duke University community have access to a number of resources for streaming documentary films, beyond your own consumer subscriptions to platforms like Netflix and Hulu. If you'd like to host your own documentary film festival this weekend, here are some options available with a NetID, featuring some favorite titles from the Goodson Law Library's DVD collection:
- Alexander Street Video Collections: Still haven't caught critical favorite RBG, the Academy Award-nominated 2018 documentary about the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg? You can fix that with a visit to Alexander Street, a massive database of streaming films that includes more than 3,000 options on its Documentary Channel.
- DocuSeek: This database of more than 1,600 films includes Hot Coffee, an acclaimed 2013 documentary about the infamous McDonald's coffee burn lawsuit and tort reform.
- Kanopy: This database includes a mix of feature and documentary films, including Ken Burns' 2012 film The Central Park Five.
- NC Live Films on Demand Video Collection includes HBO documentaries like The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley and True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality.
Next year's Full Frame festival has been scheduled for April 8-11, 2021, but you can enjoy many documentaries online in the meantime using the resources above. For help with accessing Duke databases, be sure to Ask a Librarian.