Every April, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival transforms downtown Durham, North Carolina, into a gathering place for the world's most compelling nonfiction storytellers. A program of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Full Frame has earned the nickname "the filmmaker's festival," and is a fun and approachable event for anyone with an interest in documentary film.
From April 16–19, 2026, the Academy Award®-qualifying festival screens dozens of films, hosts panels and parties, and fosters community among filmmakers, industry professionals and audience members, drawing an international mix of thousands of attendees each spring.
PBS North Carolina is a proud sponsor of the acclaimed Full Frame Documentary Film Festival this year. The connection to Full Frame is a natural one. Both organizations share a deep commitment to authentic storytelling, North Carolina communities and the belief that documentary film has the power to change how we see the world.
When three American doctors who are Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian, enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth. One of the featured doctors, Dr. Mark Perlmutter, is a Jewish orthopedic surgeon based in North Carolina.
It’s Girl Scout Cookie season, and four tenacious girls strive to be a top-selling “Cookie Queen,” navigating an $800 million business in which innocence and ambition collide. One of the Girl Scouts featured is Olive, a 12-year old from Charlotte, NC, who held the single-season sales record for her regional Girl Scouts Council and set a new state record during filming by selling 12,801 boxes of cookies.
Director Dawn Porter's debut documentary follows three young public defenders in the South dedicated to representing those society would rather forget — working long hours for low pay with staggering caseloads.
A collision between the macro-collapse of ecosystems and the minutiae of cellular colonies, in a story about entropy, unrestrained growth, waltzing mice, earlier-onset cancers, programmed death and the bacteria that made Earth rich in oxygen. Directed by Erin Espelie, a graduate of Duke University's MFA program.
In Kenya's tea highlands, co-director Andrew H. Brown—based in Durham, NC—and journalist Bea Wangondu follow a man's fight to reclaim land stolen from his family, uncovering buried histories, family secrets and the unfinished business of colonial power.
Six midwestern men—all survivors of childhood sexual assault at the hands of Catholic priests and clergy—come together to direct a drama therapy-inspired experiment designed to collectively work through their trauma. Directed by Robert Greene, a Charlotte native and NC State graduate.
For forty years, Ross McElwee, who grew up in Charlotte, NC, has made documentaries which blend autobiography and cultural observation, especially in the American South. When his son Adrian died suddenly, the footage he had filmed of his son became something else entirely: a reckoning with what the camera captured, and what it could not. Remake traces the fragile bond the camera created between a father and son, and what remains of it now.
Where the Rio Grande meets the sea, the rockets of SpaceX are launched; astronomers gaze skyward, hawkers shill their wares and environmentalists survey the damage. Welcome to Boca Chica, Texas.
From deep behind enemy lines, a hidden chapter of American military history is uncovered, as the Vietnam War's first Black special operations team reunites to tell their story. One of the film's participants lives in North Carolina.
Co-produced by UNC-Chapel Hill graduate Ora DeKornfeld, The Grandfather Puzzle is about when a puzzle-obsessed grandfather refuses to discuss his past. His granddaughter travels to photograph the Hungarian castle where he grew up and turn it into a puzzle. What starts as a simple mission becomes a deeper exploration of displacement and home.
Facing the death of his country's glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time and water. Produced by Durham-based producer Jameka Autry.
Director Dawn Porter's 2016 film examines abortion clinic regulations across the South, following clinic workers in Texas and Alabama fighting to keep their doors open in the face of laws threatening to shut them down.
Each year, the Full Frame Tribute celebrates a filmmaker whose body of work exemplifies exceptional documentary storytelling and lasting cultural impact, with a curated selection of their films screening throughout the festival. This year's honoree, Dawn Porter, is an American documentary director, producer and founder of production company Trilogy Films, whose work has appeared on HBO, CNN, Netflix, Hulu and PBS. A former lawyer turned filmmaker, Porter's documentaries frequently center trailblazers, leaders and activists. Her acclaimed films include Gideon's Army, Trapped, and John Lewis: Good Trouble—all deeply rooted in Southern history, civil rights and justice.
Dawn Porter documentaries that have been distributed by PBS include Vernon Jordan: Make It Plain and two Independent Lens films, “Trapped” and “Spies of Mississippi.”
PBS North Carolina is looking for compelling, relevant and thought-provoking content that resonates with our diverse North Carolina audience. Whether you're pitching a finished piece or developing a new one, there are multiple ways to collaborate with PBS North Carolina.
The pipeline from Full Frame to PBS has a rich history. Films like “Best of Enemies,” “Faya Dayi,” “King Coal,” “I Didn’t See You There” and more have made their debut at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival before going on to be distributed by PBS through series like POV, Independent Lens and Reel South. Film festivals like Full Frame are often where these stories get their start—it's where filmmakers find their audience and where distributors discover the next great documentary. Explore what's available now on the PBS app and discover the kind of storytelling that Full Frame has showcased for decades.
Since 1988, POV has been the home for the world’s boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action.
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Independent Lens is a PBS documentary series dedicated to showcasing independent films that tell authentic stories about extraordinary people.
Reel South is a PBS documentary series that explores layers of Southern life across themes of social justice, cultural experience, environmental challenges and more.
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