Soderbergh, Gondry bringing new films to Full Frame

BY SEAN O’CONNELL

For documentary lovers, it’s paradise. The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival turns Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina into “Realitywood” each Spring, spotlighting the best up-and-coming works from new and veteran filmmakers. This year’s fest will be held April 8-11 in downtown Durham, and HollywoodNews.com will be on the scene covering the best and brightest docs to be screened.

This year, some high-profile directors will be bringing new films to Full Frame, a festival that takes pride in launching such eventual Oscar winners as James Marsh’s brilliant “Man On Wire” and Alex Gibney’s harrowing “Taxi to the Dark Side.”

Gibney returns to Full Frame next month with “Casino Jack and the United States of Money,” a probing investigation of Washington, D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his cronies.

“Casino Jack” will screen alongside new films by Steven Soderbergh and Michel Gondry, who will bring “And Everything Is Going Fine” and “The Thorn in the Heart, respectively. The former paints a portrait of monologist Spalding Gray, while the latter spotlights Gondry’s aunt Suzette as he analyzes his quirky family members. Both have played at film festivals earlier this year.

Also screening as part of the festival’s “Center Frame” program is “Do It Again,” Robert Patton-Spruill’s video diary of his attempt to reunite the members of the Kinks, collecting spontaneous performances of British Invasion classics by some of rock’s royalty along the way.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. For a full schedule, ticket information and hotel details, visit www.fullframefest.org. And once the festival gets underway, keep checking HollywoodNews.com for updates from the ground.