Editor

Launch of the the first nationally syndicated film festival

Emerging Pictures and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival have recently announced at the Sundance Film Festival that they are jointly developing a nationally syndicated festival utilizing Emerging Pictures’ digital cinema network. The syndicated festival will be contemporaneous with the flagship festival in Durham, North Carolina and exhibit in as many as 20 cities. The deal will allow audiences throughout the country—for the first time—to simultaneously participate in a world class film festival.

For seven years, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (which began life as the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival) has celebrated the power and artistry of documentary film. An international home for documentary filmmakers, Full Frame received over 600 entries last year alone, and screened over 100, making it the largest documentary festival in the country. The festival takes place every April at the historic Carolina Theater in Durham and surrounding locations.

Expanding the Full Frame Festival beyond its physical borders has long been a goal of Festival founder and director Nancy Buirski, “Emerging Pictures is enabling Full Frame to be at the forefront of the use of new technologies to bring cutting edge documentary work to audiences in places where such films rarely play…and to show them the way the are meant to be seen—on the big screen.”

Emerging Pictures is a New York-based company that has been putting together a network of theatrical venues inside existing cultural institutions, using state-of-the-art digital technology to exhibit specialized films to a broader audience.

Emerging Pictures President Ira Deutchman said of the deal, “Full Frame is the poster child for the type of organization we want to working with—the most prestigious and most successful festival in any given niche—in this case, the documentary world. When we approached Nancy about working together, it was clear from the start that they were the right partners to bring quality documentary work to the rest of the country. We are currently in negotiations with several other equally prestigious organizations to bring other thematic festivals to the widest possible theatrical audience.”